Manthia Diawara

December 19, 1953 — Bamako, Mali

Manthia Diawara is a Malian writer, filmmaker, cultural theorist, scholar, and art historian. His essays on art, cinema, and politics have appeared in The New Times Magazine, LA Times, Libération, Mediapart, and Artforum. He is the author of two acclaimed memoirs: In Search of Africa (Harvard University Press, 2000) and We Won’t Budge: An African in the World (Basic Books, 2008). He has published several books on African and African American cinema. Diawara’s notable films include An Opera of the World (2017), Negritude: A Dialogue between Soyinka and Senghor (2016), Édouard Glissant: One World in Relation (2010), Maison Tropicale (2008), Rouch In Reverse (1995), AI: African Intelligence (2023), and Angela Davis: A World of Wider Freedom (2024).