Substantive Democracy in the Age of Animism 

As technological escalation, the impending ecological catastrophe and wars of extermination unfold, matters concerning planetary habitability and life’s future take centre stage. Drawing on African and diasporic cosmologies, the Cameroonian philosopher, political theorist and university professor Achille Mbembe addresses how substantive democracy in our time may ultimately depend on our ability to grant any and all forms of living a universal right to breathe. 

Achille Mbembe is a Professor of History and Politics at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He is also the Director of the Innovation Foundation for Democracy. A winner of the Ernst Bloch Award (2018), his work has been translated in 15 languages. Most of its major texts, including Necropolitics (2018, n-1 Editions), Critique of Black Reason (2018, n-1 Editions), Politics of Enmity (2017, Antigone) and Brutalism (2022, n-1 Editions), are available in Brazil.

Master of ceremony Roberta Estrela D’alva