Makerere to build statue to honor Prof Mazrui

Muslims led by Imam Ahamandi Ssentongo in the Janazah prayer for late Professor Ali Mazrui at Makerere University mosque on Friday Oct 17, 2014. 

Photo/Ramadhan Abbey

By Innocent Anguyo & Vivian Agaba

Makerere University will build a statue to honor renowned academic, historian and Islamic scholar Prof Ali Mazrui who passed away on Monday in New York at the age of 81.

A leading pan-Africanist, whose academic research focused on African politics, north-south relations and political Islam, the late Mazrui began his teaching career at Makerere University in 1963.
He later rose to the level of Dean of Social Sciences before he fled the country in 1973 following his outspokenness against the disappearance and eventual murder of the university’s vice chancellor, Frank Kalimuzo.

Speaking to NeW Vision after Dua prayers in commemoration of the life of Mazrui at the Makerere Mosque on Friday, Prof Edward Kirumira, the Principal of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences said they would soon initiate the process of building the statue.

Kirumira said they would sell the idea to Ceremonies and Honours committee of Makerere University, the body in charge of conferring such honors.

Prof. Abasi Kiyimba chatting with Prof. Edward Kirumira (M), Principal, College of Humanities and social Science as  Imam Ahamandi Ssentongo (L) looks on. This was after the Janazah prayer for late Professor Ali Mazrui at Makerere University mosque on Friday Oct 17, 2014. Photo/Ramadhan Abbey   

    

Describing Mazrui as a powerful and endearing personality who stood for justice, Kirumira said Makerere needed more Mazruis to maintain her stature as one of the premier universities in the world.
Former Executive Director of the National Council of Higher Education, Prof Abdu Kasozi had asked Makerere to build the statue to honor Mazrui who authored 30 books.
Kirumira said Makerere would sustain all the projects established in honor of Mazrui such as the Ali Mazrui Chair and Endowment Fund. 
A memorial lecture will soon be held in the Makerere University Main Hall to eulogize Mazrui.
Makerere has sent a four-man delegation led by Vice Chancellor Prof John Ddumba Ssentamu to represent the institution at Mazrui’s burial today in Mombasa, Kenya, his birthplace.
Mazrui left behind a will in which he stated his wish to be buried at his family’s graveyard in Mombasa’s Old Town, next to the graves of his parents and his grandfather. The Mazrui graveyard is classified as a heritage site by
the National Museums of Kenya.
Makerere University Imam Sheik Ahamadi Ssentongo asked God to “forgive Mazrui for the sins he committed and bless him for his good deeds.”
Prof Paul Mugambi, the former Vice Chancellor of Nkumba University, who taught at Makerere at the same time as Mazrui said his departed colleague founded an intellectual magazine, Transition which is impacting global debate to date.
In 2005, the US journal Foreign Policy and British journal Prospect  listed him as among the world's top 100 public intellectuals. He is survived by his wife and six children.
The Head of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Dr. Suzie Nansozi Muwanga, said Prof. Mazrui was an Afrocentric Pan-Africanist who promoted African scholarship internationally.
Mazrui was until his death was the Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at the State University of New York at Binghamton.
JEEMA Party President Asuman Basalirwa said “Mazrui was not intellectually dishonest and that distinguished him from many other scholars”, adding that “he was not an academic entrepreneur.”
Mazrui was born on February 24, 1933 in Mombasa, Kenya Mazrui studied in Columbia University, University of Oxford, University of Manchester, Nuffield College, Oxford.