V. Y. Mudimbe, Congolese-born American philosopher, is probably most well known for this book “The Invention of Africa – Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge” (1988). The book is a discourse analysis of sorts on the conceptualization of Africa and of African philosophy. With decades having passed since its writing, the novelty of this contribution is harder to see as the ideas have become common in critical, post colonial, and African Studies generally. Some of the early commentators and reviewers of the work suggested it was the equivalent of Said’s work for African Studies in terms of critique, but went beyond Orientalism as Mudimbe covers how “the Other” spoke and wrote to and back (rather than focus on narratives of others alone). This is a classic work of African Studies, and continues to have importance in the genealogy of ideas in African philosophy. Despite this status, approaching four decades after its writing, I am not sure I would put this in a required reading list today (unless in specialized courses).