BOOKS
Collection of tributes lets Mazrui live again
Colleagues and fellow Africans appraise the prolific work of the late public intellectual from Kenya
A Giant Tree Has Fallen Edited by Seifudein Adem, Jideofor Adibe, Abdul Karim Bangura, Abdul Samed Bemath African Perspectives Publishing When one of Africa’s most prolific public intellectuals died in 2014, there was an avalanche of appreciation. Globally, renowned professor Ali Mazrui was indeed a gigantic tree. Glowing tributes came from people who had known him; those who had not met the top academic but had been profoundly touched by his work; those he had helped financially; former colleagues from secretaries to top academics; adversaries and admirers. His body of work comprised more than 35 books that he authored or co-wrote and more than 100 academic papers. This repository of knowledge was produced in the 50 years that Mazrui worked as an academic at institutions in Africa, the US, Europe and Asia. He was a true public intellectual who connected easily with the ordinary and the elite — including presidents and royalty — and yet he remained humble and grounded as an African ...
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