FUDAN UNIVERSITY – CHEN SHUREN CENTER FOR COMPARATIVE POLITICS AND DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
2026 Thematic Lecture Series – Session 3 (Overall No. 398)
I am honored to share that I have been invited to deliver a lecture at Fudan University, Shanghai, on a theme of major philosophical and global significance.
Lecture Title:
The Question of Universal Truth Beyond Mainstream Narratives: The Case of African Thought
Speaker:
Prof. Jimmy Yab
Visiting Professor university of Southampton,
Institute of International Relations of Cameroon (IRIC), University of Yaoundé II
About the Speaker:
Prof. Jimmy Yab is a Cameroonian political economist, scholar, and public policy researcher whose work focuses on development strategy, China–Africa relations, and comparative political economy. He currently conducts academic research at IRIC, University of Yaoundé II. He also serves as President of the Francophone China–Africa Observatory (OCAF) and Chairman of the Movement for the Liberation and Development of Cameroon (MLDC). In 2024, he participated in the International Friendship Conference in China and the 70th anniversary celebrations of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries.
Lecture Abstract:
African thought has never been absent from the history of reason. Rather, it has often been structurally excluded from a Western epistemological order that mistakenly presents itself as universal. Elements of this exclusion can already be traced in Enlightenment racial thought.
This lecture calls for a renewed engagement with Ancient Egypt as one of the earliest sites of reflection on truth and justice, while tracing continuities of African rationality through figures such as Plato, Pythagoras, and later modern intellectual lineages. It then turns to twentieth-century thinkers such as Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Cheikh Anta Diop, and others who challenged false universality, colonial domination, and the architecture of world order.
At a time when Africa is projected to reach 2.5 billion people by 2050, including over 400 million youth, and within the broader strategic horizon of China–Africa cooperation, the marginalization of African thought can no longer be ignored.
Chair:
Dr. Haochen Deng
Lecturer, School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University
Date: Monday, April 20, 2026
Time: 13:30 – 15:30
Venue: Building of Humanities and Social Sciences, Room 615 (Handan Campus)
Language: English
Shanghai – Fudan University
Prof. Jimmy Yab