Ernest Wamba dia Wamba

Ernest Wamba dia Wamba (; 1942 – July 15, 2020) was a prominent Congolese academic and political theorist who became a commander of the Kisangani faction of the rebel Rally for Congolese Democracy during the Second Congo War.

Early life

Wamba dia Wamba was born in Sundi-Lutete, Bas-Congo Province. He was raised in Swedish mission schools and grew into adulthood in the period when the prophetism of Simon Kimbangu and the political agitation for independence by the Association des Bakongo (ABAKO) was reaching its peak. When ABAKO split, he favoured the faction of Daniel Kanza.

Upon graduation from secondary school, he was one of three students awarded scholarships by the African-American Institute to study in the United States. He went to Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, where Wamba wrote his honors dissertation on the philosophers Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Jean-Paul Sartre. He later went on to graduate studies at Claremont before teaching at Brandeis University, where he was associated with Peter F. Drucker. He went on to teach at Harvard University.

During his period in the U.S., Wamba dia Wamba married an African-American woman and was involved in the Civil Rights Movement through the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee . Once the period of decolonization began in Africa, he joined the supporting committees of various US-based pan-Africanist movements. and Raj Patel have taken up Wamba's use of Badiou's work.

A May 2008 article authored by Jacques Depelchin warned that there were new threats to assassinate Wamba.

In the last years of his life, Wamba remained politically active, running reading groups with young activists in Kinshasa and engaging popular organisations across the continent,

Death Wamba dia Wamba died on July 15, 2020, in a hospital in Kinshasa where he had been hospitalized for multiple days. The cause of death has been reported as an asthma attack.

Books

Wamba Dia Wamba, Ernest (2005), "DRC: Globalisation, War and the Struggle for Freedom" in Manji, F., and Burnett, P (eds), African Voices on Development and Social Justice Editorials from Pambazuka News, Oxford: Pambazuka News Fahamu Books Wamba Dia Wamba, E., and M. Mamdani, eds (1995), African Studies in Social Movements and Democracy, CODESRIA. Wamba Dia Wamba, Ernest (1994), "In Search of a New Mode of Politics in Africa" in Development in an African Perspective, London: James Currey.

Articles

"Balkanisation and crisis in eastern Congo Ernest Wamba dia Wamba speaks to Pambazuka News" (2008). Published in Pambazuka News Balkanisation and crisis in eastern Congo | Pambazuka News "Congo" (2004). Published in Zmag "Democracy Today: The case of the Democratic Republic of Congo" (2007). Published in Pambazuka News Democracy Today: The case of the Democratic Republic of Congo | Pambazuka News "Zaire: From the National Conference to the Federal Republic of the Congo?" (2004). Published in Development Dialogue No.2

Interviews

Interview with Ernest Wamba dia Wamba (2009). Published in Ota Benga Alliance Interview with Ernest Wamba dia Wamba | Ota Benga Alliance The Thought and Practice of an Emancipatory Politics for Africa (2022), An interview with Michael Neocosmos The Thought and Practice of an Emancipatory Politics for Africa