The Maputo Fast Forward (MFF) Biennale will take place end of October to beginning of November 2024 in the Mozambican capital’s leading cultural venues. One of the main guests at the international conference is Cameroonian intellectual Achille Mbembe.
Mbembe is a professor and researcher in history and politics at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and the author of works regarded as a reference in African history, post-colonial studies, humanities and social sciences, such as “Exit the Big Night: An Essay on Decolonised Africa” (2010), “Necropolitics” (2019), “Critique of Black Reason” (2013) and “Brutalism” (2020).
With a theme soon to be unveiled, the MFF biennial is looking for ways to “listen to the planet” at a time when fiction seems closer to reality and the dystopian future seems closer to the truth, more than we can imagine. Conspiracy theories and the different speculations that take shape in the alternative public space seem to be gaining more strength and action in the face of formal and traditional channels.
Technological innovations and the nature of things, including development models and globalised democracies, seem to be putting pressure on the African continent, which, as you can see, has its own speed, and has shown itself to be at odds with Western dictates.
“Africa’s 1.4 billion people (and growing) depend on the continent’s natural resources, including fresh water and abundant forests, as well as employment through conservation and tourism. However, we continue to face an uncertain future that is fast approaching. The continent is home to some of the world’s largest and most pristine natural landscapes and wildlife areas, which are increasingly being lost to agriculture, deforestation, cattle ranching, mining, logging and other forms of capitalist development. Anthropogenic pressures are only set to intensify as our population is estimated to reach 4 billion by 2100, growing at three times the global average. While the solutions to the continent’s social and environmental woes are generated elsewhere (following capital and political power), those responsible for defining social, environmental and cultural preservation agendas generally lack a genuine understanding of the local context, which draws our attention to Africa’s role in defining the continent’s future. In these conditions of uncertainty, we are faced with a challenge and an opportunity,” says the MFF 2024 curator’s note, whose international conference is led by sociologist and anthropologist Tassiana Tomé.
By Eduardo Quive
