| Kabengele Munanga | |
| Birth Date: | 22 June 1940 |
| Birth Place: | Bakwa-Kalonji, Kasaï Province, Belgian Congo (modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo) |
| Education: | University of Lubumbashi Université catholique de Louvain University of São Paulo (PhD) |
| Workplaces: | University of São Paulo Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia |
| Doctoral Students: | Nilma Lino Gomes |
Kabengele Munanga (born 22 June 1942) is a Brazilian-Congolese anthropologist and professor who is currently a visiting senior professor at the Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia.[1] He is a specialist on the anthropology of Afro-Brazilians, researching the issue of racism in Brazilian society. He is a graduate of the University of Lubumbashi (1969) and graduated with a doctorate in anthropology from University of São Paulo (1977).
Munanga was born in 1940, in the small city of Bakwa-Kalonji, in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is of Luba background. At ten years old, he left his hometown to study in other cities, primarily in colonial Catholic schools. He began to attend the University of Lubumbashi for a degree in Social Sciences, but after two years, switched to the recently created Anthropology faculty. After graduating in 1969, he was invited to earn his master's degree at the Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium. Munanga returned to the Congo to finish his dissertation but could not due so due to the policies of the newly independent Republic of Zaire. He went to Brazil at the invite of professor Fernando Mourão, of the University of São Paulo, where he earned his doctorate and returned to the Congo.
In 1980, he established himself in Brazil to assume the position of head of the Anthropology department at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. The following year, he moved to São Paulo. He was a professor of anthropology Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Human Sciences, vice-director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, director of the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology and the Center of African Studies at USP. Since 2014, he has been a visiting senior professor at the Federal University of Recôncavo da Bahia.[2]
Munanga was awarded the Ordem do Mérito Cultural in 2002.[3]