V.Y. Mudimbe > Quotes

“Suddenly it becomes possible that there are just others, that we ourselves are an “other” among others.”
― V.Y. Mudimbe, The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge

“I was struck by a shallow figure of speech. . . . that Christianity is the handmaiden of capitalism.”
― V.Y. Mudimbe

“Isn't simplification sometimes impoverishment? How to convey the richness of the message with a poverty of symbols. If we oversimplify the form, don't we kill the content?”
― V.Y. Mudimbe

“Form betrays. Form can betray. What matter, if the eternal meaning retains its true value.”
― V.Y. Mudimbe

“Forget language. After all, it bores me. The senses. And this much is true: any communication must transcend the immediacy of solidarity, must be mediated by ideological and economic connections. And there the senses reappear. No use giving in to words.”
― V.Y. Mudimbe

“A liberation movement is doomed once it stops to haggle over nuances of good and evil.”
― V.Y. Mudimbe

“Even symbols decayed.”
― V.Y. Mudimbe

“I teased Fabrizio: "We're studying theology here."
"How? Are you making fun of me?"
"Not at all. Livy read historical chronicles. He interprets them by his own passionate views and freezes them for all time. . . . He wanted theoretical support for a conclusion he accepted beforehand. Isn't that theology?”
― V.Y. Mudimbe

“When an idea is preserved, isn't its form unimportant.”
― V.Y. Mudimbe

“Isn't it more important to live reality and not symbols?”
― V.Y. Mudimbe