Writing the World from an African Metropolis

Achille Mbembe is a research professor in history and politics at the University of the Witwatersrand and a senior researcher at WISER (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand)in Johannesburg. He is the author of On the Postcolony (2001) andThe Political Life of Sovereignty (forthcoming). Sarah Nuttallis a senior researcher at WISER (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand) in Johannesburg. She is coeditor ofText, Theory, Space: Land, Literature, and History in South Africa and Australia (1996), Negotiating the Past: The Making of Memory in South Africa (1998), and Senses of Culture: South African Culture Studies (2000); editor of Beautiful-Ugly: African and Diaspora Aesthetics (2004); and is finalizing a book of essays on South African literature and culture.