Introduction: Revisiting the Grotesque in Francophone African Literature

Abstract

The introduction provides an overview of the intellectual context for the thematic issue and outlines the complexities around the genesis of Achille Mbembe's 'Provisional Notes on the Postcolony' (1992). It examines how Mbembe's work ushered in a new era of discursive practices that sought to understand the role of the imagination in the operation of power in contemporary Africa and sketches how the articles of the thematic issue engage with the aesthetics of the grotesque that is a key element in the African political imagination. As a new group of populist leaders in the West exhibit traits that are reminiscent of Mbembe's articulation of the grotesque, the editors emphasise the need for an expanded vision of the grotesque as it circulates between Africa and the West as part of a far broader and deeply entrenched colonial matrix of power.