Joseph-Achille Mbembe, known as Achille Mbembe (born 1957), is a philosopher, political scientist, and public intellectual. He was born near Otélé in French Cameroons in 1957. He obtained his Ph.D. in History at the University of Sorbonne in Paris, France, in 1989. He subsequently obtained a D.E.A. in Political Science at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in the same city.