BOOK REVIEW by: Ghalib Yusuf Tamim

BOOK REVIEW by: Ghalib Yusuf Tamim DATE: 3rd July 2020 BOOK: ISBN: 978-0-6398375-0-5 Number of Pages: 186 pages Price: R150.00 South African Rand. Publisher: Otterley Press Publisher’s website: https://www.otterley.com This is a very well written and compendious bibliography on the works of Prof Ali A. Mazrui (1933 – 2014). The book has a Foreword by Professor Hasu H. Patel. Professor Hasu was on Professor Mazrui’s staff at Makerere University. The Parliament of Uganda has a special Ali A. Mazrui section holding his books. The Library of Congress in Washington has a collection of Mazrui’s works. The Bibliographer, Abdul S. Bemath, has done a phenomenal work in putting together this annotated bibliography which covers only a small period of Prof Mazrui’s sorely successful academic and professional life. 1 It is almost impossible to capture Mazrui’s work of half a century. A few weeks before his death, he wrote a comprehensive curriculum vitae. It was 71 pages long! It is simply mind boggling for someone to have a resume which is that long! Abdul Bemath states that it took him ten years to compile this book. Bemath had visited the Jan Smuts House at the University of the Witwatersrand in the early seventies. He came across three books of Mazrui at the library. The books titles are: (1) VIOLENCE and thought: essays on social tensions in Africa. London and Harlow: Longmans and New York: Humanities Press, 1969. (2) TOWARDS a Pax Africa: a study of ideology and ambition. London: Weidenfield and Nicholson and Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967. (3) On Heroes and Uhuru –Worship: essays on independent Africa. London:Longmans, 1967 and one essay in a book titled: ISLAM, political leadership and economic radicalism in Africa. Comparative Studies in Society and History (The Hague) vol. 9, no. 3, April 1967, pp. 274-291 Bemath further states that he was fascinated by the titles of these books and a photo of a Muslim scholar on the cover of one of the books, and that he was a Professor at Makerere University - considered by the late Sir Robert Birley at a lecture at the University of the Witwatersrand as “the university in Africa”! Outclassing White South African universities. This influenced Bemath in purchasing the books. Dr. Jackie Kalley was the librarian at this library and publisher of this book. The late Kalushie Kalushie, former librarian at Witwatersrand universities Wartenweiler used to borrow books for Bemath from the library. Bemath met Professor Mazrui at a conference in 1985 and asked him whether he could compile a bibliography of his works. He agreed to this. Bemath was at that time working at the London based Financial Times (FT) newspaper. Mazrui posted to Bemath his 54 page CV. The CV listed 514 articles written by him. Bemath then did a worldwide search for Mazrui’s articles and had collected over 700 articles written by him and close to 40 of his books in his collection. Bemath spent close to two years working every Saturday and Sunday compiling short abstracts of Mazrui’s books, essays and articles. The book lists 180 of Mazrui’s works and is divided into ten sections. Section ten of this book lists an essay on Bemath’s interest in Ali A. Mazrui. 2 The book lists five essays by academics familiar with his works. These essays are by: 1) Mazrui as debater: passion, power and polemic by Zine Magubane. 2) Essay by the late Burjor Avari. 3) Essay by Sefudein Adem: In pursuit of excellence: when Ali A. Mazrui led the way. 4) Essay by Samuel M. Makinda: Eclecticism as one of the pillars of Ali A. Mazrui’s intellectual legacy 5). Essay by Etin Anwar: Mazrui and gender: On the question of methodology. There are many reviews of Ali A. Mazrui’s works listed on pages, 5-8 of this book. This book is the third volume by Bemath on Mazrui’s works. The first two volumes are titled: The Mazruiana Collection. A comprehensive annotated bibliography of the works published works of Ali A. Mazrui, 1962-1997: Johannesburg: South Africa: Foundation for Global Dialogue, 1998.The book has a foreword by Genral Yakubu Gowon. The Mazruiana Collection Revisited. Ali A. Mazrui debating the African condition: An annotated and select thematic bibliography, 1962-2003. New Delhi, India and Johannesburg, South Africa: Africa Institute of South Africa, 2005. The book has a foreword by Chief Emeka Anyyaoku. Bemath’s bibliographies cover Ali A. Mazrui’s works from 1962-2018. The current book is dedicated to the late Professor’s sole surviving sister - Ms Alya Al-Amin Mazrui. This Bibliography which covers Mazrui’s interesting and remarkable academic and professional life (2003 – 2018), and very well put together by Abdul S. Bemath, is a must have book! 3