Doctor in History from the Sorbonne, he specialized in Political Science at the Institute of Political Science in Paris and currently teaches History and Politics at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER) at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

Throughout his career he has been a visiting professor at some of the world's most prestigious universities such as Yale, Berkeley, Columbia and Harvard, which has made him an international name of reference.

Translated into more than a dozen languages, he is the author of foundational works of postcolonial thought and contemporary political theory such as Necropolitics (Melusina, 2011; originally published in 2006), a renewed and complex look at Foucauldian biopolitics, Crítica de la razón negra (Ned Ediciones, 2016/2013) andSalir de la gran noche. Ensayo sobre África descolonizada (Bellaterra, 2021/2010), in which he reflects on contemporary racism by reviewing some of the most important historical processes in the shaping of the category of race. More recently, he has published Brutalismo (Paidós, 2022), a markedly philosophical analysis and, at the same time, a political proposal that invites us to rethink how we inhabit the world.

In addition to his contributions in the theoretical field, he also promotes spaces for intellectual and civic debate on the African continent, such as the Ateliers de la Pensée in Dakar.