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Post by Luol Deng on Oct 13, 2014 9:50:16 GMT 3
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Post by Onyango Oloo on Oct 24, 2014 16:33:59 GMT 3
One of the last interviews with Prof. Ali Mazrui by the Kenyan independent film maker Ramadhan Khamis:
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Post by Onyango Oloo on Oct 24, 2014 16:37:06 GMT 3
Pambazuka Special on Prof. Ali Mazrui:/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\/\/\//\ 1 Features FAMILY OBITUARY OF ALI MAZRUI Renowned pan-Africanist, scholar and teacher dies at 81 A renowned scholar, teacher and public intellectual with expertise in African politics, international political culture, political Islam and North-South relations, Mazrui’s prolific writing over the past half century has shaped ideas about Africa and Islam among scholars and the general public, earning him both international acclaim and controversy. www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/93205****** THE HUMANISM OF ALI MAZRUI: HIS JOURNEY TO THE VISION OF OPENNESS Mazrui’s humanism was based on the dignity of all human beings regardless of race, religion, region or gender. It was a humanism linked to the quest for reparative justice, peace, self-determination, the rights of women, secularism and prosperity for all. www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/93204****** ALI MAZRUI (1933-2014): AN INTELLECTUAL GIANT WHOM I MET IN KERICHO Kamran Mofid Prof Mazrui was widely published and here we reproduce his keynote speech in 2005 at the Fourth Annual Conference organised by the Globalization for the Common Good Initiative. GCGI Founder Prof. Kamran Mofid shared this speech with Pambazuka News in memory of his friend. www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/93203****** ALI A. MAZRUI, THE FUTUROLOGIST Seifudein Adem Ali Mazrui in his ability to comprehend present complexities, anticipated some major scientific theories and predicted a number of dynamics and events in international affairs. www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/93213****** APPRECIATING ALI MAZRUI Peter Anyang' Nyong'o What was unique about Ali was that he was always bubbling with new ideas, which he tested on the students, his colleagues and the public in general whether in the lecture halls, academic journals or the columns of newspapers www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/93208****** PROF ALI MAZRUI WAS A TRUE KENYAN HERO Yash Pal Ghai He was a scholar in the finest traditions of great scholars: devoted completely to his vocation; searching analysis of broad relationships between religions, ideologies, and state systems. www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/93202****** ALI MAZRUI, THE CONTROVERSIAL TITAN OF ACADEMIA John Otim Ali Mazrui had many followers around the globe but he also had many detractors. His BBC series “The Africans”, watched by millions around the world, won him many admirers in Nigeria, but they also won him enemies who accused him of being nothing more than a propagandist for a religious cause. www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/93206******
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Post by seretse on Oct 25, 2014 23:36:50 GMT 3
Professor Ali A. Mazrui was a great man, nay, a legend. For someone who didnt have formal education i his formative stages to rise up the rungs of academia and reach the highest level is indeed inspirational. To then be recognised as one of the leading philosophers in the modern world is testament to the great intellect of the departed scholar.
Like most Kenyans of my generation, I first heard of Prof. Mazrui during a previous regime where he had been labelled a dissident, but then most people with an alternative worldview from that of the regime were labelled such. The next time I came across the good Prof was in university when I chanced upon his seminal piece, 'Cultural Forces in World Politics'. In this literary work, he examined the new world post the bipolar order as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. He attempted to discuss the changes in the world throughout history within the prisms of what he called the 3G's i.e. God (religion), Gold (material resources)and Glory. He postulated that the new age of a unipolar world with the United States of America as the single superpower had led to what he termed 'Coca-colanisation' of the world. Western values spread, or were imposed onto the rest of the world, leading to friction. The only power that remained to counter this influence was religion. He prophesied a clash between Islam and western influences long before the rise of Al Qaeda and other (extremist) groups battling the Western forces. This book was published in 1990 and the prophetic predictions of conflicts between Islam (rightly or wrongly)and the West soon came to pass. This prediction bears an uncanny resemblance to the prediction of a civil war in Nigeria (the Biafran War) by the late Chinua Achebe in 'Man of the People'. Had Bush and Blair read Prof. Mazrui's book before embarking on the adventures in Iraq, maybe history would have turned out differently.
Professor Mazrui displayed critical thinking that is sorely missed in our society today. Kenya has become a superficial society where mediocrity is celebrated. We are now a 'bling' society without understading the origin of the bling culture and the subcultures therein of gangsterism, quickfixes and short-termism. Much like a moth in a dance of death with a lamp, we have a society that mortgages the future for the thrills of the present. I despair at the generation that grew up in the late 90's if the comments in Disqus and other online forums is anything to go by. With no sense of history, the prevailing attitude seems to be to get rich by any means possible totally oblivious to the effect this may have on the wider society. This lack of an inquisitive mind is why we have certified land grabbers being feted while people who have dedicated their lives to fighting impunity and corruption are railed at as traitors. It would have been funny, were it not so tragic to witness our elected representatives decked in bling and flush with ill-gotten riches railing against the West for apparent neo-colonialism.
The legacy of Prof Mazrui will live on long after his mortal body has succumbed to the ravages of the grave. As for the bling culture, it will be swept away like flotsam
If I may take literary licence with the words of Mark Anthony;
'We have buried the good Prof, so we shall praise him still,
May the good that he did, not be interred with his bones...'
Professor, you have run your race, rest in peace.
Inna Lillahi Wa Inna ilaihi Raji'un
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