On the Postcolony: a brief response to critics

In this article, Achille Mbembe responds to critics of his well‐known book On the Postcolony. He specifically picks up on two objections of fundamental concern for his critics. The first has to do with his argument about the sensory life of power in the postcolony. The second is about the conditions under which an interpretation of the sexual politics of the postcolony might be possible. He situates the book within the intellectual context of its production and provides supplementary reflections that better clarify and extend the problématique at the heart of the initial project.