EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The African public intellectual Achille Mbembe was invited to be keynote speaker at this summer’s Ruhr Triennale music Festival in Germany (canceled due to coronavirus). His invitation was questioned due to his history of making extreme antisemitic statements. Mbembe claims, falsely, that his opponents were members of the extreme right who didn’t want a black speaker. A debate has ensued in which his supporters are demanding the firing of Germany’s antisemitism commissioner, Felix Klein. The Mbembe affair is one of the most aggressive campaigns to whitewash antisemitism seen in recent years.
Achille Mbembe is a public intellectual from Cameroon who has taught at a variety of prestigious universities. He currently holds a position at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg.
Mbembe is an extreme anti-Israel inciter. Nevertheless, he was invited to be keynote speaker at this year’s Ruhr Triennale, a musical and cultural festival in Germany. The event was scheduled
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