Prof. Taban Lo Liyong attacks prof. Ali Mazrui

On November 28, 2004, in an issue of a South African Sunday newspaper, Prof Ali Mazrui asked the question: "Who killed intellectualism in East Africa?" If one did not know Prof Mazrui's sense of intellectualism, one would think it was such a big thing whose death should be mourned.
But Prof Mazrui has always held that the intellectual is someone who is fascinated by ideas which, of course, includes him. Unfortunately, he is only fascinated by ideas, loves to express them in English, of which he is also a master, and loves to balance ideas or sees relationships in doubles or triple relationships.
On the other hand, when one includes Jomo Kenyatta amongst intellectuals, where he firmly belongs, one gets another sense of an intellectual altogether. Here was a man who, when the Kikuyu Central Association spotted him and sent him to London to present their case, had little formal education. But he had intellect. So, degrees do not make one an intellectual.
Sharpen his natural intellect
Prof Bronislaw Malinowski of London University helped to sharpen his natural intellect leading to the award of a Master's degree, and the writing of Facing Mount Kenya, which was an ideological document with definite political, cultural, and educational agenda. Most certainly, Kenyatta was not merely fascinated by ideas. He used scholarship as an additional weapon to advance a cause. His book prepared the way for and justified the coming into existence of the Mau Mau movement which, as its leaders would point out, paved the way for Kenya's independence.
Similarly, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, a committed African socialist and a transformer of his people's lives, was an intellectual. His socialist books were outward manifestations of what his intellect had mapped out. When he translated Julius Caesar and The Merchant of Venice into Kiswahili - Ali Mazrui's language - he was manifesting the other aspects of his intellect. But it is his socialist thoughts on Ujamaa, like the Rev Desmond Tutu's Ubantu, which mark him out as an original thinker who combined Marxist thoughts with traditional African philosophy.
Of course, Ali Mazrui strove to paint himself into the picture. He used to engage in some small debates with Apolo Milton Obote and Akena Adoko, whose intellectual credentials were not visible to many people. Only to Ali Mazrui were they visible.
When Idi Amin took over the reigns of power from Dr Obote, it was Mazrui - who signed himself in his full name as Ali Al Amin Mazrui - and Rajat Neogy who welcomed him through a piece in Transition Magazine. Surely, any intellectual who went out of his way to welcome Amin, even if he was a fellow Muslim and shared a name with him, needed his mind tested.
So Ali Al Amin Mazrui, a Kenyan Muslim living and working in Uganda, was in no danger from either Apolo Milton Obote or Idi Amin Dada. Or even Jomo Kenyatta's Kenyan regime. For, in Uganda, he threatened nobody. And he never raised a voice against the Kenyan regime.
Voice against the regime
Prof Taban Lo Liyong
He was well known for comparing the then African presidents with luminaries elsewhere. Kwame Nkrumah would be compared to a Leninist Tsar, a yoked title that nobody bore. Julius Nyerere was compared to a philosopher king. A combination which never existed. This despite the fact that Nyerere was as rough with his opponents as any king or president.
Ali Mazrui wrote very little against the misdeeds of his native Kenya. Perhaps there were no fascinating ideas emanating therefrom?
Should the definition of an intellect also include getting embroiled in discussing the issues of the day in one's own country so that one helps in charting the forward course for one's society? If there were definite things going wrong then in Kenya, by keeping silent about them, as far as the Kenyan regime was then concerned, was there any worry about a Mombasa boy juggling English words in Makerere University?
Ali Mazrui was the darling of the various American (particularly) foundations like Ford and Rockefeller. On the eve of Eastern African independence and the beginning of Africanisation at Makerere, the white academic establishments that funded the tertiary institutions were scouting for likely successors who would promote or protect their interests.
One of the beneficiaries was our own Ali Mazrui. His scholarly progress towards his PhD at Oxford and his rise to Professor of Political Science at Makerere were extremely accelerated. We cannot begrudge him, however, the title of an academic and a scholar. It is intellectualism which is questionable.
Questionable intellectualism
That there were debates of all sorts in East Africa then cannot be denied. That the then departing colonial masters - the British - and the new neo-colonial incoming masters - the Americans - wanted to know what Africans were thinking, was well-known. They provided funds for creating fora for such like magazines, unions, conferences, and scholarships.
In a way, as they say, the patron called the tune. So, in a way we did not have any independent intellectual movement. It was known that independence was coming, the West feared the intrusion of the East - Russia, China, East Germany, non-aligned states. What better way was there for the West to use than capture the academic princes?
In our research topics and projects, did we not present to the West all the hidden information about our countries? When we were informants to researchers, were we not also unpaid and unacknowledged informers to the West?
Were we, so-called intellectuals, also not partial in our selection of regimes and rulers to criticise? In most cases, did we not raise a louder cry against African presidents the West already hated?
Thus the Mazrui who welcomed Idi Amin would turn against him when the West has also done the same. Thus my age-mate, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, would castigate Daniel arap Moi for corruption whose seeds were planted in Kenyatta's time.
Thus Julius Nyerere continued enjoying the patronage of the West when Tanzanians hated his socialist moves. And it was international socialistic scholars and Kenyan and Ugandan student leaders in Dar es Salaam who supported his regime.
As far as the one-party state is concerned after the "philosopher king" had pronounced it, did not our professor of political science in Makerere come out in its support? That it was indeed the African thing? Should a professor of political science jump on a political bandwagon to ride in the company of a practising politician? Should a political scientist not reflect? Why did Ali Mazrui throw away his earlier intellectual mode of reflecting on reflections?
It was when "fascination with ideas" rather than "reflection on events and ideas" took over or became Mazrui's central preoccupation that he lost the way. And since he had given to Makerereans and others the impression that he was an intellectual, most of his students then emulated him. And fascination with ideas, rather than grappling with issues, makes one steer clear of possible confrontations with unpopular regimes. So, perhaps the mode of intellectualism that Ali Mazrui chose was a sterile one. And its sterility is now manifested in its non-productivity.
When one looks at the career of an intellectual like Wangari Maathai, one sees the vast difference between her brand of intellectualism and Ali Mazrui's. Here is a scholar and an academic who loved her country's flora and fauna. And who takes a stand, takes issues against all and sundry who go out of their way to destroy the natural forests of Kenya. Who also starts to plant new plants to replace the destroyed ones. She is also articulate and is at home. Fighting at home for what she believes in. She suffers for her beliefs and is transforming the national landscape.
Deserved elevation
When her efforts are recognised by those at home and others abroad, one cannot begrudge her deserved elevation.
Compare that to the intellectual career of one Mombasa boy who taught the art of government in Makerere, then moved to the United States and writes a Swahili column in a South African Sunday newspaper about the death of intellectualism in East Africa, then you know who is a real intellectual and who is not.


If intellectualism is mere "fascination with ideas" and it is dead, then perhaps one should celebrate the death of such a luxury. And welcome the sprouting of the intellectualism of involvement in social transformations of one's country whilst living in the country and if suffering for one's ideals come to one, then so be it.
Let the intellectualism of Ali Mazrui die. Let the intellectualism of Wangari Maathai have a long life.

February 21, 2006 Taban Lo Liyong