Intellectual who loved controversy

Prof Ali Mazrui at a past function. He passed away on October 13, 2014 in Binghamton, New York in the United States. Mazrui was like a father to me. He was three years older than my father. He was one of the first Kenyans to congratulate me on my appointment as deputy vice-chancellor.

FILE |PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • But Mazrui gave us an impromptu address in the car park for almost 10 minutes but he was asked to leave by security. Speaking in parables and political metaphors, he told us how even guns could not kill an idea whose time had come.
  • He said intermarriage between races and ethnic groups brought about beautiful, bright and resilient people. He talked about why Ethiopia should colonise Eastern Africa, Nigeria should colonise West Africa and independent South Africa should colonise Southern Africa to bring about stability.

I had A cordial, intellectual relationship with the late Prof Ali A Mazrui.

Many people, including vice chancellor of Kisii University, Prof John Akama, asked me why I had not eulogised my great friend and mentor.

I cited my Luhya culture, where eulogies for great elders come after burial, during “amachienga” (last embers of funeral fire), after the crowds are gone and only close friends and relatives remain.

Mazrui was like a father to me. He was three years older than my father. He was one of the first Kenyans to congratulate me on my appointment as deputy vice-chancellor.

He attended many of my scholarly presentations in USA from the 1990s. I have more than a dozen personal letters written to me by Mazrui, which I cherish.

I first met Mazrui in 1986 in rather unusual circumstances. I was then a student at the University of Nairobi when his planned public lecture at Taifa Hall was cancelled at the eleventh hour, during those murky Kanu days.

BUYING BOOKS

Despite the ban, Mazrui came to the university bookshop to ‘buy’ some books, and word immediately went round that he was on campus.

There was a stampede to the library and a handful of us caught up with him at the parking lot between Gandhi Wing and the Geography building, just after the Fountain of Knowledge. We appealed to the vice chancellor, Prof Philip Mbithi, to allow him to address us, an appeal that was flatly rejected.

But Mazrui gave us an impromptu address in the car park for almost 10 minutes but he was asked to leave by security. Speaking in parables and political metaphors, he told us how even guns could not kill an idea whose time had come.

Mazrui was a ferocious and prolific writer who did not shy away from controversy, and this earned him many academic enemies such as Wole Soyinka, Henry Louis Gates Jr and William Ochieng.

He earned thousands of admirers. He has left many academic legacies in the world, including phrases such as compassionate dictatorship (of Gen Murtalla Mohammed of Nigeria) and brutal authoritarianism (of Idi Amin).

He coined words such as Pax-Africana. His famous TV series, The Africans: A Triple Heritage will be remembered for presenting Africa from the point of view of Africans. He was one among few professors to simultaneously hold two full time appointments at two universities in the US — Cornell University and the State University of New York, Binghamton.

Mazrui was the father and embodiment of intercultural and interdisciplinary studies in Africa, transcending disciplines such as history, sociology, literature and political science with great ease. He wrote about anything. He loved debates and was at his sharpest wit during question-and-answer sessions.

I regarded myself as Mazrui’s protégé. He wrote to me each time I took on academic heavyweights such as William Ochieng, Chris Wanjala, Peter Amuka or Atieno-Odhiambo in the national media.

When Ochieng’ replied to me through the Daily Nation in an article that was headlined “Amutabi talks tough, but show us his books,” Mazrui wrote to me.

He told me to be strong, saying that Ochieng never attacks an idea he does not fear and that taking me on  meant that he regarded me as a great rival and threat.

GRACIOUS HOST

In 1994, many years after our encounter at the University of Nairobi, I met Mazrui again at the University of Florida, Gainesville, US where he was giving a public lecture on “The Wind of Change in Africa.” It was a full house. I felt proud to be a Kenyan. When he took to the podium, Mazrui was at his best, explaining why Africa needed democracy more than foreign aid.

In 2001, Mazrui paid my air ticket from Chicago in Illinois to Binghamton, New York, to attend a conference.

He paid for my accommodation as well. It was four days of listening to the guru of African studies move from one idea to another.

He talked about a wide range of issues such as why Africa may have a female president before the US and why Africa may get a Pope before Asia.

He said intermarriage between races and ethnic groups brought about beautiful, bright and resilient people. He talked about why Ethiopia should colonise Eastern Africa, Nigeria should colonise West Africa and independent South Africa should colonise Southern Africa to bring about stability.

In 2002 in the US, Mazrui and I met again at a conference organised by the Association of Third World Studies  in Savannah, Georgia. We shared the same hotel with Prof Moses Oketch (now at University of London) and Prof Shadrack Nasong’o (now at Rhodes College, Memphis).

In 2003, at Erie State University in Ohio, Mazrui asked Dr Godwin Murunga (currently of the University of Nairobi) and I to ride with him in an official limousine from the conference venue to his hotel room in downtown Erie.

He entertained us in his hotel room for over two hours on intellectual stories and paid for our dinner.

As we made our presentations, we did not know that the good professor had noted some shortcomings and spared us the embarrassment and humiliation in public. He took each one of us through our papers, pointing out gaps and areas requiring further probing.

Many scholars looked for a day when Mazrui would debate William Ochieng, but this shall never be, both having left us.