Ali A Mazrui on the invention of Africa and postcolonial predicaments: ‘My life is one long debate’

Abstract

Ali A Mazrui’s academic and intellectual fame provoked both deep admiration and severe criticism, causing his intellectual legacy to be caught up between what the South Sudanese scholar Dustan M Wai depicted as ‘Mazruiphilia’ (hagiographical celebration) and ‘Mazruiphobia’ (critical bashing). Mazrui died on 12 October 2014, leaving behind a ‘supermarket of ideas’ and a rich archive that easily immortalises him. This article aims to transcend both Mazruiphilia and Mazruiphobia through the adoption of an approach which avoids a sententious orientation while critically engaging with Mazrui’s contributions to the topical questions of the invention of Africa, Africanity and the African condition. From Mazrui’s ‘supermarket of ideas’ the article takes one of the debates in his expansive work – that of Africanity – as its departure point to engage with his contribution to African Studies and pay tribute to this African intellectual giant.