Madiba,
Welcome back from your hibernation which is necessary at times. As always
you've made my night with this article.
I wish I can read Ali Mazrui's response to this article, if any.
Personal regards.
OB.
----- Original Message -----
From: Madiba K. Saidy <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 21 July 2000 2:14 AM
Subject: ALI MAZRUI IN CONTRADICTION
> Quite interesting. Enjoy.
>
> Madiba.
> -------
>
> POST EXPRESS
>
> Category: Editorial
> Date of Article: 07/02/2000
> Topic: Ali Mazrui in Contradiction
>
> Author: Aja Agwu
> Full Text of Article:
> Kenyan-born Ali Al'Amin Mazrui is a grand intellectual. He is a Ph.D. in
> political science, and an academic with works of great erudition and
> originality to his credit. But above all these, he is a professor. It is a
> testimony to his sparkling learning that he was made an Albert Schweitzer
> professor of humanities; and now, the Director of the Institute of Global
> Cultural Studies, Binghamton University, New York, the United States. As a
> professor, Ali Mazrui has a unique calling. This is because, a
professorial
> calling is a philosophical calling. And it is in the nature of philosophy
to
> transcend the emotional. For the philosopher, as Douglas Lackey would say,
> emotionalism in whatever guise possible (whether in patriotism,
> partisanship, or religious sentiments), "has its place, but like
everything
> else, it must be subjected to philosophical criticism." The implication of
> this is that an intellectual of a professorial standing, like the
> philosopher that he implicitly is, must be above board as far as
> emotionalism is concerned. And to the credit of Lackey once more, he must
be
> a citizen of the world, an international statesman. His approach to issues
> must be statesmanlike, for the rules of statesmanship abhor partisanship.
> Over the years, professor Ali Mazrui has been known to be a distinguished
> personage in this philosophical calling, but I doubt that his outing in
> Nigeria last Monday has not heralded his descent from this hallowed
> standard. Professor Mazrui was in Lagos for the public lectures organised
by
> the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC) which took
> place at the National Theatre, Iganmu. In his post-lecture chat with the
> press, professor Mazrui was reported to have said that he supports the
> introduction of sharia law in the northern states of Nigeria, for "it is a
> promise of great developments for Nigeria." After reading that newspaper
> report, I puckered up my brow, wiped my face and starred unbelievably at
the
> name - Ali Mazrui - to reassure myself that it was actually this revered
> professor that was being quoted and credited with a statement so obnoxious
> and subversive as that making a case for sharia law in Nigeria (northern
> Nigeria).
> What has come upon professor Ali Mazrui?, I asked myself in disbelieve. I
> have read many of Mazrui's works, but have particularly found his BBC
Reith
> Lectures - The African Condition - intriguing because of its bold and
> unambiguous flagellation of the lack of aboriginal identity for Africans,
> which has caused enormous ambivalence and confusion for the continent. How
> come that at a time Africans should be talking about generating this
> autochthonous identity that would give them some uniqueness and reduce the
> ambivalence and confusion that have impeded them for so long, professor
> Mazrui of all people, is advocating sharia for a strategic African country
> like Nigeria, an Islamization and Arabization project that would only
> intensify the ambivalence and confusion for Nigeria - Africa? Professor
> Mazrui was said to have argued that the introduction of the sharia would
be
> promising because "westernization has gone too far," thus, compelling the
> need "to brake on it," for the introduction of the sharia would be a
> "commendable form of indigenization." I find Mazrui's argument here wholly
> disagreeable because the paradox of substituting westernization with
> Arabization is an explicit contradiction. His reported verdict that the
> introduction of the sharia would have the imprimatur of an indigenization
> because the Hausa Islam is a combination of Hausa indigenous values is not
> convincing enough. No Hausa value prescribes the amputation of limbs as a
> form of Justice.
> I shudder with disbelief that an emiretus professor like Mazrui could,
> because of religious sentiments (he is a moslem) permit a chink in his
> intellectual armour by allowing himself to descend into the contradiction
of
> disavowing all that is foreign, especially westernism, and at the same
time,
> approving of islamization. Is Islam not foreign, an Arab culture and,
thus,
> an Arabization? I remember that the late Kwame Nkurumah proclaimed being
> both Christian and Marxist, and that Mazuri is one of those that frown at
> that contradiction.
> The late Nkurumah was more of a politician than an intellectual comparable
> to Mazuri's standing. That was why he could be permitted for permitting
> himself many more contradictions, as in his "Consciencism ", for which Dr.
> Chuba Okadigbo has since posted him a scathing rejoinder . But for
whatever
> it is worth, Professor Ali Mazuri should not have allowed himself this
> costly contradiction in his advocate of the sharia for Nigeria.
> In advocating the sharia for northern Nigeria, I marvel at the fact that
> professor Mazuri did not realise that the Nigeria of today is not
> reminiscent of his Africa of the past that hadn't a " high religious
> culture", but only "folk or tribal religions" without zealots, and which
> could be challenged with impunity without backlash from zealots. On the
> contrary, Africa, Nigeria, has a glut of Mazrui's "high religious
culture,"
> which has incubated and hatched varied militants on both sides (Islam and
> Christianity). The Kaduna Mayhem is illustrative. What then is professor
> Mazuri prescribing for Nigeria in his Sharia in the north if not total
> anarchy? What with the fact that Mazuri himself is also cognisant that the
> Christianity of today has undergone a "re-masculation . a readiness to
> invoke the macho values of militant combat in defence of justice". This
> "re-masculated" Christianity is opposed to "the submissive version, the
> version of obedience and turning the other Cheek" of Mazuri's ancient
past.
> What does professor Ali Mazuri wish Nigeria in championing the
introduction
> of the Sharia when it is obvious to him that Christianity has come to don
> the toga of combat (like Islam has been over the ages) and can violently
> resist it? Mazuri's prescription of Sharia for Nigeria even nullifies the
> logic of his paper in those lectures, reportedly entitled "The African
> Renaissance ." for there is no how Nigeria, with a crisis-prone policy of
> Sharia, can partake in the renaissance. Also of great curiosity is that
> professor Mazuri was reported to have said in his paper that African women
> must be allowed to have a shot at leadership. The northern Nigerian woman
> need not be told here that she is not within Mazuri's calculation because
> the Sharia we know cages her in pudah. Why for goodness sake should our
> venerable professor Mazuri be this so unkind to the northern Nigerian
woman?
> I'm yet to come to term with this reality that despite professor Mazuri's
> dizzy intellectual height, he is yet to appreciate the fact that religion
is
> not worth dying for. Think of it, despite the pretensions of religion to
> being of spiritual relevance, it is still colluding with temporal powers
it
> even sometimes appears to be denouncing. Islam and Christianity condemn
the
> state for its "oppressive" ways; yet, when an individual rebels against
the
> state by breaking some of its "oppressive" laws, these religions
stigmatise
> him or her as a sinner and connive with the same state they denounce to
seek
> for a pound of flesh. Islam will amputate limbs and sometimes behead,
while
> ecclesiastical authorities will administer the last sacrament to the
"rebel"
> at the stake before the agents of the state snuff life out of him with
their
> volley. What would the Almighty these two religions subscribe to, and who
> ostensibly does not endorse the oppressive laws of the state, say about
all
> of this? Has professor Mazuri ever given thought to this irony before
laying
> down his credibility for religion? Why is the mighty falling? Tell it not
in
> Gath!!
>
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