For Mbembe, contemporary Africa is neither a story of collapse nor uncomplicated renewal, but a continent moving "in multiple directions at the same time", where "chaotic situations, almost cataclysmic" coexist with "attempts at reinventing democracy from below."
Driven increasingly by young people, women, intellectuals and civil society actors, these struggles, he argues, may determine whether Africa's new sovereignty becomes merely another scramble for resources, or the foundation of more open, durable societies.
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Ultimately, Mbembe insists that Africa's future will not be built on deficit narratives, but on civilisational confidence: "Africa must build not on the basis of what it lacks, but on the basis of what it already has."