Ali A. Mazrui

Ali A. Mazrui "was born in Mombasa, Kenya, on February 24, 1933. He is now Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities and Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University, State University of New York. He is also Albert Luthuli Professor-at-Large at the University of Jos in Nigeria. He is Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large Emeritus and Senior Scholar in Africana Studies at Cornell University. Dr. Mazrui has also been appointed Chancellor of the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya – an appointment made by Kenya's Head of State. Mazrui was Ibn Khaldun Professor-at-Large, Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences, Leesburg, Virginia (1997-2000). He was also Walter Rodney Professor at the University of Guyana, Georgetown, Guyana (1997-1998). Mazrui obtained his B.A. with Distinction from Manchester University in England, his M.A. from Columbia University in New York, and his doctorate from Oxford University in England. For ten years he was at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, where he served as head of the Department of Political Science, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences as well as Dean of the Faculty of Law. He once served as Vice-President of the International Political Science Association and has lectured in five continents. Professor Mazrui also served as professor of political science (1974-1991) and as Director of the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies (1978-1981) at The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. He has also been Visiting Scholar at Stanford, Chicago, Colgate, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Oxford, Harvard, Bridgewater, Cairo, Leeds, Nairobi, Teheran, Denver, London, Ohio State, Baghdad, McGill, Sussex, Pennsylvania, etc. Dr. Mazrui has also served as Special Advisor to the World Bank. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the American Muslim Council Washington, D.C., and served as chair of the Board of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, Washington, D.C. He is also on the Board of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., and is a Fellow of the Institute of Governance and Social Research, Jos, Nigeria.
"In 2005 the American journal, Foreign Policy (Washington, DC), and the British Journal, Prospect (London), nominated Ali Mazrui among the top 100 public intellectuals alive in the world as a whole. Foreign Policy is published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, New York. Mazrui was earlier elected an Icon of the Twentieth Century by Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, U.S.A. In 2007 he was nominated for the Living Legends Award by the Economic Community of West African States [ECOWAS] and the African Communications Association.
"His more than thirty books include Towards a Pax Africana (1967), and The Political Sociology of the English Language (1975). He has also published a novel entitled The Trial of Christopher Okigbo (1971). His research interests include African politics, international political culture, political Islam, and North-South relations. His most comprehensive books include A World Federation of Cultures: An African Perspective (published by the Free Press in New York in 1976) and Cultural Forces in World Politics (James Currey and Heinemann, 1990). Among his books on language in society is The Power of Babel: Language and Governance in Africa's Experience (co-author Alamin M. Mazrui) (James Currey and University of Chicago Press, 1998), which was launched in the House of Lords, London, at a historic ceremony saluting Mazrui's works. He and Alamin M. Mazrui have also been working on a project on Black Reparations in the Era of Globalization. His most recent books include Islam Between Globalization and Counterterrorism (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press and Oxford: James Currey Publishers, 2006), A Tale of Two Africas: Nigeria and South Africa as Contrasting Visions (London: Adonis-Abbey, 2006) and The Politics of War and the Culture of Violence (Trenton, NJ, Africa World Press, 2008)...
"Dr. Mazrui has been awarded honorary doctorates by several universities in disciplines which have ranged from Divinity to Sciences of Human Development, from Humane Letters to Political Economy. He is also a former research fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Palo Alto, and the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford, California. The President of Kenya has awarded him the National Honour of Commander of the Order of the Burning Spear [C.B.S.], First Class, and the President of South Africa has made him Grand Companion of Oliver Tambo (2007)...
"Dr. Mazrui was President of the African Studies Association of the United States (1978 to 1979) and Vice-President of the International Congress of African Studies (1979-1991). He is also Vice-President of the Royal Africa Society in London. Dr. Mazrui has been elected an Honorary Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, and member of the College of Fellows of the International Association of Middle Eastern Studies. In 1979 Dr. Mazrui delivered the prestigious annual Reith Lectures of the British Broadcasting Corporation (named about the founder Director-General of the BBC, Lord Reith). The lectures (entitled "The African Condition") have since been repeatedly reprinted by Cambridge University Press. Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland, has extended to him the DuBois-Garvey Award for Pan-African Unity. In 1999 he gave the Eric Williams Memorial lecture sponsored by the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago. In 2007 Mazrui was elected President of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists, Washington, D.C.. Dr. Mazrui has been received by Heads of State in Africa and elsewhere.
"In 1998 Professor Mazrui was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, England, and to the Board of Directors of the National Summit on Africa, Washington, D.C.. The year 1998 also marked the publication of the first comprehensive annotated bibliography of all Mazrui’s works (printed and electronic) from 1962 to 1997 [The Mazruiana Collection, compiled by Abdul S. Bemath, and published by Sterling in New Delhi and Africa World Press in New Jersey]. An enlarged edition of Bemath’s book has been published under the title of The Mazruiana Collection Revisited (New Dawn Press and Africa Institute of South Africa, 2005). Another book entitled The Global African: A Portrait of Ali A. Mazrui, edited by Omari H. Kokole, had also been published by Africa World Press in 1998...
"He was also among the Eminent Personalities who advised on the transition from the OAU to the African Union (2002)." Ali A. Mazrui, Binhampton University, accessed April 7, 2008.
*Editorial Advisor, Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice Editorial Board, Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice, accessed April 7, 2008.
*Editorial Board, Third World Quarterly Editorial Board, Third World Quarterly, accessed September 3, 2009.
*Director, Africa Society Directors, Africa Society, accessed March 18, 2009.
==References==
*This article uses content from on SourceWatch.
Category:Muslims
Category:Living people
Category:Religion and Politics