Renowned scholar revelled in controversy

The death on Sunday of Prof Ali Alamin Mazrui in US has robbed Africa of a veteran scholar who was irrefutably one of the continent’s leading literary and intellectual giants.

Not averse to controversy, the late Prof Mazrui, who died in Binghamton, New York, aged 81, was a man given to stirring perennial intellectual exchanges on matters that drew his attention.

The scion of a prominent coastal family, the late professor was born on February 24, 1933 in Mombasa, Kenya. Over the decades he built up an enviable scholarly career that saw him lecturing in five continents and authoring at least 30 books in addition to numerous papers published in leading scholarly journals.

Additionally, the eminent political scientist and the brain behind the 1986 BBC series, The Africans: A Triple Heritage, was also an indefatigable and outspoken analyst and commentator on national, regional, African and global issues.

Adept at engaging fellow scholars and thinkers in Africa and elsewhere in epic intellectual slugging matches, the late Prof Mazrui did not shy away from proffering his views on controversial matters. The result of the ensuing intellectual bouts were long drawn-out and scintillating debates that more often than not captivated the attention of scholars .

FAMOUS OUTPOURINGS

Always extremely captivating, the debates themselves were energetic and sometimes personalised, and over the years dominated news headlines across borders for months on end.

Often played out in the media, these epic battles usually overflowed into other theatres, pitting some of the continent’s top thinkers against each other as they expressed their views about different subjects.

In his native Kenya, Prof Mazrui received much flak from his detractors, who included the late historian Prof William Ochieng.’ The latter, who died at the end of last year, at one time dismissed Mazrui as simply overrated in one of his famous outpourings of controversial opinions.

Characteristically, Prof Mazrui was not one to shy off from a tantalising intellectual exchange, and had once challenged Ochieng’ to a duel at Makerere University’s Chancellor’s Hall if only Ugandan president Museveni “would allow two Kenyans to duel on Ugandan soil.”

In his own right an intellectual pugilist of no mean renown, the late Prof Ochieng’ had few kind words for the celebrated political scientist. Not surprisingly just weeks before his own death, Ochieng’ declared that Prof Mazrui was irrelevant and he did not hate, love, fear or admire him.

“For me, Prof Mazrui is irrelevant to us,” Prof Ochieng’ said not long before he died. “He is extremely gifted with the English language, and runs a highly funded global centre, but he has deliberately avoided discussing any Kenyan issues.”

Prof Ochieng’ said the political scientist did not write as an African, and it was unclear what he stood for. That unflattering comment was not surprising, given that over the years there had been rumours of perceived rivalry between the two. Unrelenting, the feud had reached fever pitch after Prof Mazrui accused Ochieng’ of “speaking flattery to power”.

True to character, Prof Mazrui was extremely daring during his career as a political scientist who also dabbled in literary matters. Among his controversial literary works was The Trial of Christopher Okigbo, a book in which he questioned intellectuals’ right to literally take up arms and fight for their beliefs.

Not surprisingly, Prof Mazrui also often took on top African political leaders such as the late presidents Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Milton Obote of Uganda. Tellingly, many of Mazrui’s broadsides against them were published in the renowned Transition magazine, to which the political scientist was a regular contributor during his heyday at the Makerere University in Uganda.

CREATIVE LUMINARIES

Apart from Prof Mazrui, among the top names proud to be published in it included presidents, African and world literary and intellectual giants such as the now deceased Nadine Gordimer, James Baldwin and the late Chinua Achebe. During his Makerere days Prof Mazrui also rubbed shoulders with intellectual and creative luminaries such as Nobel literature laureate V.S. Naipaul and the late South African writer E’skia Mphahlele.

In the meantime, born scholar Mazrui dedicated his academic career to examining Africa’s myriad problems with a fine toothcomb and seeking solutions to them through such major projects as the controversial BBC triple heritage series in which he sought to interrogate the background to these problems, and how their essence had impacted on the continent’s evolution politically, socially and even economically.

A man of small physical stature, Prof Mazrui packed intellectual energy that allowed him to maintain his amazing scholarly production even during his sunset years, when he was already seriously ailing. His works today comprise an enviable personal canon that was meticulously documented right up to the time of his death.

As for his many controversies, when the cudgels were out, the scholar’s renowned intellectual battles often degenerated into personal attacks that could be shocking when the vitriol flowed at its maximum. A case in point was the long-drawn confrontation that took place between Prof Mazrui and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka.

The no-holds-barred intellectual feud between the two intellectual giants ultimately became a spat of gigantic proportions, with the exchanges between the two eminent African thinkers drawing the attention of increasingly wider audiences. The momentous intellectual feud between Soyinka and Mazrui was to rage during the last decades of the past century and continue into the current millennium.

As the debate between the two raged, the two equally outspoken interlocutors filled pages upon pages of a wide variety of media with their arguments and counter-arguments. Soyinka went as far as declaring Mazrui non-African, and further referred to him as “a born-again Islamic fundamentalist” comparable to former Libyan ruler Colonel Muammar Gadaffi.

A clearly bruised Prof Mazrui, said that Soyinka was galled because he won the Nobel literature prize in 1986, the same year when the BBC aired his documentary, reputedly the first global TV series by an African.

The coincidence was seen in some quarters as “bound to disturb a mind as proud as Soyinka’s.” It was further argued that the appearance of the Triple Heritage series “was intolerable to Soyinka’s monopolistic pride, especially since Ali Mazrui was a Muslim.”

Mazrui claimed that Soyinka had turned against him in 1986 “because I had dared to share the limelight very briefly with you” during that year.
“Each time you have attacked me, it has been totally unprovoked,” Mazrui moaned. “You slapped me last evening; I am slapping you this afternoon. Even if you and I cannot be friends, can we at least end this public brawl?”

Apparently, inconsolable at the time, and amid claims by some that the feud was a clear case of a barely veiled quest for intellectual supremacy between the two, Mazrui plaintively begged for a truce.

“If it will keep the peace between us,” he pleaded in an open letter to Soyinka, “I will even settle for the aphorism of Thomas Szasz (The Second Sin, 1973): The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget. Let’s settle for the silent wisdom of forgiving...”

Clearly, the prolonged intellectual brawl was becoming tiring for the aging Mazrui, and in December 1992 he was again writing to Soyinka pleading for an end to the monumental confrontation.

“I would like to return to the normality which once characterised our relationship,” Mazrui wrote.