ABSTRACT The political thought of Thabo Mbeki, South African President from 1999 to 2008, has attracted much scholarly and popular attention in South Africa and beyond. In this article I argue that Mbeki's socialisation in apartheid South Africa, his education, training, and travel of the world radicalised him into a philosopher of liberation, a kind of philosopher that does not only love wisdom but has the wisdom and courage to love under social and political conditions that do not permit love. Even as he personally insists that he is a simple product of the teaching and example of African liberation leaders from Gamal Nasser to Nelson Mandela, this article notes that Mbeki was conditioned and shaped by his geographic and intellectual travels into a post-continental and a planetary liberation philosopher. In that way, the intersection of geographic travel, radicalisation by oppression, and epistemic journeying combined to produce a philosophical sensibility in search for liberation and rehumanisation. To critically establish Mbeki's philosophy of liberation that has a post-continental and planetary political sensibility, this article navigates a multiplicity of other scholarly, journalistic and popular understandings of Mbeki as a philosopher king, an enigma and a revolutionary prophet on the positive side. On the negative side, Mbeki has been understood and described as a scheming and calculating Machiavellian, an imperial president, race essentialist, HIV and AIDS denialist, and a sympathiser with tyrannical leaders of Africa such as Robert Mugabe. I argue that these prevalent understandings and descriptions of Mbeki not only simplify his complicated political thought but they also uncritically conceal the reality of a philosophy of liberation that is born of the conditions of domination, dehumanisation and exploitation of the peoples of South Africa, Africa and the entire Global South.

中文翻译：

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Thabo Mbeki：了解解放哲学家

摘要 1999年至2008年南非总统塔博·姆贝基的政治思想在南非及其他地区引起了学术界和民众的广泛关注。在这篇文章中，我认为姆贝基在种族隔离的南非的社会化、他的教育、培训和世界旅行使他激进地成为了一个解放哲学家，一种不仅热爱智慧，而且有智慧和勇气去爱的哲学家。不允许爱的社会和政治条件。尽管他个人坚持认为他是从加迈勒·纳赛尔到纳尔逊·曼德拉的非洲解放领导人的教学和榜样的简单产物，但本文指出，姆贝基受到了他的地理和知识旅行的制约和塑造，他进入了后大陆和行星解放哲学家。以这种方式，地理旅行、压迫导致的激进化和认知旅行的交叉结合产生了一种寻求解放和重新人性化的哲学敏感性。为了批判性地确立 Mbeki 具有后大陆和行星政治敏感性的解放哲学，本文对 Mbeki 作为哲学家之王、谜团和革命先知的多种其他学术、新闻和流行理解进行了引导。在消极方面，姆贝基被理解和描述为一个诡计多端的马基雅维利主义者、帝国总统、种族本质主义者、艾滋病毒和艾滋病否认者，以及对罗伯特穆加贝等非洲专制领导人的同情者。