{UAH} Mazrui's culture of intellectual tolerance - former student eulogises

Folks;

Eulogizing President Obote, Prof. Mazrui noted that "Obote was a great leader who made great mistakes." 

Now that he has passed on, it's tempting to paraphrase him and eulogize him thus; "Prof. Mazrui was a great thinker who caused great discomfort to many a great leader."

He was a political theorist par excellence, but one who never formed any particular identity around his political belief that would outlast him. I think that's why there is no major body of work that we can reference back to him. 

Given that he came to prominence during the heyday of African Liberation struggle, Prof. Mazrui touched many future leaders, including some in governments and corporate world today. So, to judge Prof. Mazrui's impact in the academic world, I think it's imperative that we recognize the era during which his influence was at its peak. And that was over 40 years ago.

Personally, I think Mazrui was a mediocre intellectual who came around when he had few contemporaries. He leveraged his Arab/Swahili background to get to high class parties and make acquaintances of the high and mighty of the day.

Mazrui's star started to fade as more black Africans graduated into university lecturers. With increasing competition and rising doubts about his own theory, Mazrui found refuge in the West, and remained there to his last day.

Pojim

Mazrui's culture of intellectual tolerance

				Mazrui's culture of intellectual tolerance Prof Ali A. Mazrui was the first African to teach my group of Third Year Political Science students at Makerere when it was a college of the University of East Afri...
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