Kinshasa, April 30th, 2025 (CPA)-The petition calling for a national funeral for Professor Valentin-Yves Mudimbe, a writer and philosopher from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who died on April 22nd, in the United States, was presented on Tuesday to the Minister in charge of Culture, Arts and Heritage, Yolande Elebe, according to a press release received by the CPA on Tuesday.
‘A delegation of writers was received by the Minister in charge of Culture, Arts and Heritage, Yolande Elebe Ma Ndembo, to present her with a petition aimed at organizing a national funeral in tribute to Valentin-Yves Mudimbe, an eminent writer and philosopher who died on April 22nd, this year’, it read. According to the same source, this initiative underlines the importance of celebrating the life and work of those who have shaped literary culture in the DRC. ‘The minister in charge has promised to take this request to the Council of Ministers, offering the hope of official recognition and dignified tributes for this great thinker’, it reads.
A delegation of writers with Minister in charge Yolande Elebe
‘While the literary community eagerly awaits the results of this process, the hope remains that the patriarch Mudimbe will finally be celebrated as he should be, thus testifying to a paradigm shift in the recognition of writers within our society’, the press release concluded. Born on December 8th, 1941 in Jadotville (Likasi), Valentin-Yves Mudimbe is one of the leading African thinkers of his generation. He has received several honors, including honorary doctorates from Paris 7, Louvain and Lubumbashi, in recognition of his exceptional intellectual contribution to the academic world.