Madiba Saidy,

I must commend you for the useful postings you've been forwarding to the L,
for the past few weeks.

I don't know about others, but I, personally, have found most of these
postings very useful, even though I do not subscribe to some of the
views/ideas being propagated by some of these authors.

Brother Saidy, keep the mails coming. You are doing a good job.

It is my policy to read every literature, whether written by the enemy or
the friend!!!

Ebrima Ceesay,
Birmingham, UK.

>From: Madiba Saidy <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: ALI MAZRUI AND SKIP GATES' AFRICA SERIES
>Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1999 14:43:41 -0800
>
>ALI MAZRUI AND SKIP GATES'  AFRICA SERIES
>
>Ali Mazrui's "preliminary" critique of Henry-Louis' Gates Africa series
>has been pounding cyber-space with an energy that I have not
>experienced since I became its reluctant and fitful tennant. I am not
>on the iasa-list - to which this is addressed -  nor on any other
>circulation list, yet I have had  this critique copied to me from over
>two dozen directions, sometimes culled from other lists of whose
>existence I was not even aware - not surprisingly, since, as already
>admitted, I am not really into Internet. I find it odd, very odd. There
>appears to be a driving mechanism behind this, quite outside the normal
>exchange of opinions on a work that is admittedly, by its very nature,
>bound to raise controversy. I find it odd also that, even more than
>Charles Johnson's fair summary of various critiques, Ali Mazrui's
>text appears to have surfaced with the greatest frequency. Of course,
>we must assume that this have to do with his stature as the undisputed
>African specialist of our time.
>
>I see also that Ali Mazrui is pressing his assiduous pursuit of a rival
>by accepting to engage in a further discussion on these series on WLIB
>radio on the night of Sunday 7th November. I have been invited to
>participate but I cannot, as I have not watched the entire series and
>unfortunately cannot do so before the live broadcast which is tomorrow.
>Moreover, I prefer to watch (or read) any kind of creative or
>intellectual product at my own pace, and to avoid succumbing to a pace
>dictated by a demand for critical interjection or the prospect of
>polemics.
>
>It is a pity that Ali Mazrui failed to be guided by his own commencing
>caveat which concedes: "Since I have myself done a television series
>about Africa, perhaps I should keep quiet about Skip Gates'  WONDERS OF
>AFRICA" This of course is understating Ali Mazrui's own place in the
>Africa project.  His happens to be the only other television series  of
>this dimension by a black scholar on the subject of Africa's past and
>present. In short, Ali Mazrui has a fifty per cent stake - at least -
>in the reception that may be accorded to a work that, in effect,
>constitutes a challenge to a long-held monopoly. Every
>knowledgable critique of Skip Gates' work evokes,  unquestionably, an
>implicit referential from the only preceding series of its kind. Yes
>indeed, Ali Mazrui should have kept quiet. As Charles Johnson's summary
>has shown, there are other equally competent - both scholarly and
>creative - minds that can pass valuable commentaries on this new
>contribution to perspectives on Africa.
>
>However Ali Mazrui may present himself, he is being a covert plaintiff
>in his own cause, and it is my deeply held conviction that the delights
>of objective criticism and intellectual enlargement have been sullied
>by his energetic, propulsive voice in this exercise. It crosses the
>ethical bounds of intellectualism and deserves the condemnation of all
>who believe that the virtues of criticism transcend self-interest.
>Ali Mazrui and I, let me frankly acknowledge, are ancient adversaries.
>With this level of indecorous conduct, I am reconciled to the fact that
>we are likely to remain so for a long time to come.
>
>Wole Soyinka
>Woodruff Professor of the Arts
>Emory University, Atlanta
>
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