Mazrui: Icon who never feared speaking his mind

In mid-July, Kenyan and global intellectuals gathered in Nairobi to commemorate the scholarly legacy of the late Prof Ali A Mazrui, a pioneer, an intellectual pugilist like no other, and one of the proudest Africans to ever walk the face of the earth. The intellectual soiree was organised by Prof Kimani Njogu with the support of Maurice Makoloo of the Ford Foundation. For me, growing up as an African kid with intellectual ambitions of my own, Prof Mazrui was a towering figure, a mugumo tree that awed and wowed me. I first heard him in 1982 give a public lecture when I was an exiled Kenyan student at the University of Dar es Salaam. I will never forget the impression he left with all of us in a packed Nkrumah Hall.

Prof Mazrui was a role for all of us who yearned to toil in the vineyards of the academy. The Mazrui commemoration was addressed by leading thinkers including former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, Prof Mahmood Mamdani of Makerere, Prof Horace Campbell of Syracuse University, Senator Anyang' Nyong'o, USIU President Paul Zeleza, Dr Adekeye Adebajo of South Africa’s Centre for Conflict Resolution, Prof Sam Makinda, and Prof Chris Wanjala of Kenya. Each agreed that Prof Mazrui bestrode the earth like an intellectual colossus. In my talk, I focused on four themes which touch on Prof Mazrui’s legacy as a thinker, thought-leader, African extraordinaire, and a critiquer of society.