The least Kenya can do is to set up Ali Mazrui University in Mombasa

People across the globe are mourning. Prof Ali Mazrui has departed. But many Kenyans are not happy with the post-colonial regimes who deprived them of an opportunity to be taught by the globally acclaimed professor in institutions of higher learning.

There is no doubt Mazrui had wished to serve his country, but was denied the chance by the kleptocratic regimes of the day.

None of the scholar’s progressive ideas were appreciated at home. His services was enlisted only twice, first as junior clerk in the mid 20th Century at the Mombasa Institute of Muslim Education, and much later in 2004 as chancellor of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.

PUBLIC LECTURES

The scholar laments: “During the Kenyatta years, I could not be hired, but I was free to give public lectures from time to time. But during most of the years of Moi, even the public lectures dried up. Kenya’s universities were increasingly reluctant to risk government disapproval by inviting me to lecture.”

His globally acclaimed BBC and PBS television series of 1986, The Africans: A Triple Heritage was shunned in Kenya, but televised in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Libya, Cameroon and even Uganda.

Mazrui wondered: “Can you imagine? My own country was showing it after it had been seen by dozens of other countries and translated into several languages.”

It was almost two decades later that Kenyans had the taste of the series, thanks to the Kibaki regime that also awarded him Chief of the Order of the Burning Spear (CBS).

The professor had several times suggested to the authorities to establish a university at the Coast, arguing: “Mombasa is second city in size, but it is Kenya’s first city in age. Nairobi is a product of the 20th Century, but Mombasa is older by a thousand years. Should it still lack a university long after six public universities have been established elsewhere in the country?”

In 2009, when he was handing over the position of chancellor, none of the bigwigs turned up to at least thank the old man for his service, and he left dejected.

Earlier, in 2004, his comments about our own Wangari Maathai to the Oslo-based Nobel Committee greatly contributed to her winning of the Nobel prize.

He wrote: “In eastern Africa Wangari Maathai is unique in her readiness to risk her freedom and even her life in defence of forests and the heritage of nature… I believe Africa has won about half a dozen Nobel Prizes for Peace.

Four of them went to South Africans and focused on race relations. It is about time the judges looked elsewhere in Africa and went beyond race-relations.”

In 2005, he was ranked by American journal Foreign Policy and the British journal Prospect among the top 100 public intellectuals.

The best Kenya can do is to cherish what he stood for, honour his request and establish a university in Mombasa — Mazrui University. This will serve as an inspiration to up-coming Kenyan scholars.

ABDI ADEN ISMAIL
AND HUSSEIN ODOWA AROG, Garissa