Makerere shaped my career â€" Mazrui
Aug 09, 2009
PROF. Ali A. Mazrui, 76, was a lecturer at the Faculty of Social Science and professor at Makerere University in the mid-1960s and 1970s. Mazrui is in the country to be honoured by Makerere with the distinguished endowment chair of professorship and the i
PROF. Ali A. Mazrui, 76, was a lecturer at the Faculty of Social Science and professor at Makerere University in the mid-1960s and 1970s. Currently, he is the director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University, State University of New York in the United States of America.
Mazrui is in the country to be honoured by Makerere with the distinguished endowment chair of professorship and the inauguration of the Mazrui Centre of Excellence. The New Vision Group chief executive officer, Robert Kabushenga, interviewed him and below are excerpts:
How do feel about lending your name to a cause like reviving Makerere University’s fortunes and glory? Aren’t you worried?
I would like to believe it will bring an impact. Secondly, I do not feel threatened because Makerere had a lot to do with launching my career. Lending my name to the institution is the least that I can do. In 1965, Makerere made me a full professor, less than two years after making me a lecturer. That was a meteoric rise that helped shape my career afterwards.
Do you think you deserved it, looking back?
Well, the vote that was against it was representative of (then executive Prime Minister) Milton Obote. He did not think that I deserved it. In those days, the head of state had a vote through the head of state representative on the (awards) committee but not a veto. The committee was chaired by newly-appointed head of Makerere (Prof.) Y.K Lule and the rest were academics. The non academic voice of the government rightly said, ‘this is too first a promotion, there is no precedent’ but he was overruled by the academics. They said, ‘let’s go for it.’
What is an endowment and how does it contribute to the betterment of an institution like Makerere?
It is not just the ordinary person who is puzzled in Africa. Endowtures are still rare in the Africa academic life and so it causes a lot of confusion. I will mention one amusing example: There is a newspaper in Nigeria called The Guardian. When President (Olusegun) Obasanjo wanted to change the Constitution to stand for a third time, the Guardian wrote to me and said, ‘can you write for us an article trying to persuade Obasanjo not to take that route but respect term limits.’ I have more that one endowtures; the Albert Schweitzer (Professor in the Humanities, State University of New York, USA), Andrew D. White (Professor-at-Large Emeritus, Cornell University, USA) and Albert Luthuli (Professor-at-Large, University of Jos, Nigeria) endowtures. I had put these names under my signature for the article to The Guardian. The Guardian assumed these were fellow professors, who had co-authored the article. They said, ‘this is wonderful. It will convince Obasanjo.’ They published it like that!
So it is relatively new. Endowtures with a name are supposed to be extra distinguished chairs and usually given to rare individuals. So it might take a while for Africa to fully accommodate itself with it; ‘what’s it with a professor occupying a chair?’ Makerere might be blazing the trail so that this becomes a little common in the future.
Is it just an honour to the distinguished individual or is it actually something the department, in this case, the Faculty of Social Science, or the university can benefit from?
Somebody occupies the endowment chair and there are people who honour them. One advantage for the institution is for people to apply who wouldn’t have applied if it was only just the ordinary professorship.
They apply because there is a professorship endowed by someone who they regard as distinguished. Then for me it is an honour although I will not be directly benefiting except by having my name treated at the same level with people like Albert Schweitzer.
Would I be right to say Makerere, as a trail blazer of this innovation, would attract some of the finest minds to come and work at the institution?
That is one aspect. A lot of factors though are needed to re-invigorate a university. More resources have to come from either private or the government because resources buy talent.
What advice would you give Makerere to engage people outside to energise that revival?
Tapping resources and alumni of Makerere: Those who went through Makerere as students or in faculties. If it is managed well, it will be a major source of income.
The Americans have perfected the idea of raising funds from people they have educated. Many are now endowed in a different sense, they have money. The British are catching up: I never get appeals from Oxford University, which is one of my alma-matter, like I have received from Columbia University in New York. I have never found out how they catch up with their alumni. They find out where you are and write, ‘time to pay up.’ Makerere has borrowed that from the American experience.
What went wrong with the African academia? There seems now to be much emphasis to the university’s social than academic life?
Part of it is the fault of the academics themselves and part of it is the malaise of the wider society and sometimes the catastrophe of the wider society and Uganda has had its share at the end of the colonial order.
At Independence, there was a lot of motivation to achieve academically, not just in terms of promotion but in other forms of recognition. Libraries were better protected and more books were not stolen by desperate students who need a few pages out of it. Some of those aspects which damage the scale of motivation to achieve, excel, accomplish were consequences of disasters of the wider society.
Restoring that atmosphere of excelling and inducements requires work by university authorities (to re-establish) methods of promotion and methods of salary increase. If that is not done, people say, ‘I am broke anyhow, why waste time.’
At your age (76), what inspires you to get on a plane and travel 1,000 miles to Uganda?
If you are an African patriot, you cannot allow despair to take over. Things might look terrible and then you say maybe my effort will help the continent to do better. If you are an academic, you try and do it in your special field and try to see better times ahead. I have never lost the motivation to get Africa better.
One of the proposals of Makerere is to create a centre of excellence named after you; Mazrui Centre of Excellence. You are obviously lending your name and credibility to that innovation. How do you insure that standards will be kept?
I regard it as a huge recognition for me rather than a method of exploiting my name. I do not think of it as terms of Makerere exploiting my name, this is a place where I began my career; First African professor of Arts and Social Sciences, I would want also want to initiate another first, endowture. I see it as a complement to me rather than me as an asset to Makerere. How can I ensure that it is to my standards? Well you have to trust institutions you love and hope for the best that they will make progress.
How do rate the current leadership on the continent in terms of focus and direction it is taking the African continent?
The leaders of Independence were in a unique historic period. If they had also led the liberation struggle from colonialism, they had acquired a special standing in the imagination of their people. They demonstrated that they were good leaders in the struggle for liberation but we found out that they were not good leaders in the struggle for development.
Their contribution ultimately was to help end colonial rule but not to improve standards of living of their fellow citizens. Most of those are larger than life and stand out as major figures.
It is going to be a centenary since the birth of (post-independence Ghana leader) Kwame Nkrumah. He stands out a major figure. Obote also was larger than life in some respects although on the negative side, Idi Amin almost over-shadowed him.
Do you see change, do the present leaders carry hope for Africa, especially this region you come from?
Not so much a ray of hope in relation to specific leaders but changes that have occurred. Maybe it has much to do with the wider civil society than leaders: We have out-grown the one-party infatuation, there are not many champions of one party governance; there has been a significant decline of military coups on the continent, that is a major plus, and we have had incumbent leaders allowing themselves to be voted out of office or incumbent political parties to be voted out of office.
US President Barack Obama’s decision to give his lecture to sub-Saharan Africa in Ghana is partly because Ghana has twice voted out of office an incumbent president. Not once. When that happens, you know the election has not been rigged.
In Kenya, we were almost there in 2007 because in 2002 we had voted out a political party that had been in power since Independence. In 2007 we almost did something similar because over 15 ministers had been voted out of their parliamentary chairs. The parliamentary elections in Kenya were remarkable with casualties. Things went wrong when we came to the president. Things deteriorated very fast and the rest is history.
Mazrui is in the country to be honoured by Makerere with the distinguished endowment chair of professorship and the inauguration of the Mazrui Centre of Excellence. The New Vision Group chief executive officer, Robert Kabushenga, interviewed him and below are excerpts:
How do feel about lending your name to a cause like reviving Makerere University’s fortunes and glory? Aren’t you worried?
I would like to believe it will bring an impact. Secondly, I do not feel threatened because Makerere had a lot to do with launching my career. Lending my name to the institution is the least that I can do. In 1965, Makerere made me a full professor, less than two years after making me a lecturer. That was a meteoric rise that helped shape my career afterwards.
Do you think you deserved it, looking back?
Well, the vote that was against it was representative of (then executive Prime Minister) Milton Obote. He did not think that I deserved it. In those days, the head of state had a vote through the head of state representative on the (awards) committee but not a veto. The committee was chaired by newly-appointed head of Makerere (Prof.) Y.K Lule and the rest were academics. The non academic voice of the government rightly said, ‘this is too first a promotion, there is no precedent’ but he was overruled by the academics. They said, ‘let’s go for it.’
What is an endowment and how does it contribute to the betterment of an institution like Makerere?
It is not just the ordinary person who is puzzled in Africa. Endowtures are still rare in the Africa academic life and so it causes a lot of confusion. I will mention one amusing example: There is a newspaper in Nigeria called The Guardian. When President (Olusegun) Obasanjo wanted to change the Constitution to stand for a third time, the Guardian wrote to me and said, ‘can you write for us an article trying to persuade Obasanjo not to take that route but respect term limits.’ I have more that one endowtures; the Albert Schweitzer (Professor in the Humanities, State University of New York, USA), Andrew D. White (Professor-at-Large Emeritus, Cornell University, USA) and Albert Luthuli (Professor-at-Large, University of Jos, Nigeria) endowtures. I had put these names under my signature for the article to The Guardian. The Guardian assumed these were fellow professors, who had co-authored the article. They said, ‘this is wonderful. It will convince Obasanjo.’ They published it like that!
So it is relatively new. Endowtures with a name are supposed to be extra distinguished chairs and usually given to rare individuals. So it might take a while for Africa to fully accommodate itself with it; ‘what’s it with a professor occupying a chair?’ Makerere might be blazing the trail so that this becomes a little common in the future.
Is it just an honour to the distinguished individual or is it actually something the department, in this case, the Faculty of Social Science, or the university can benefit from?
Somebody occupies the endowment chair and there are people who honour them. One advantage for the institution is for people to apply who wouldn’t have applied if it was only just the ordinary professorship.
They apply because there is a professorship endowed by someone who they regard as distinguished. Then for me it is an honour although I will not be directly benefiting except by having my name treated at the same level with people like Albert Schweitzer.
Would I be right to say Makerere, as a trail blazer of this innovation, would attract some of the finest minds to come and work at the institution?
That is one aspect. A lot of factors though are needed to re-invigorate a university. More resources have to come from either private or the government because resources buy talent.
What advice would you give Makerere to engage people outside to energise that revival?
Tapping resources and alumni of Makerere: Those who went through Makerere as students or in faculties. If it is managed well, it will be a major source of income.
The Americans have perfected the idea of raising funds from people they have educated. Many are now endowed in a different sense, they have money. The British are catching up: I never get appeals from Oxford University, which is one of my alma-matter, like I have received from Columbia University in New York. I have never found out how they catch up with their alumni. They find out where you are and write, ‘time to pay up.’ Makerere has borrowed that from the American experience.
What went wrong with the African academia? There seems now to be much emphasis to the university’s social than academic life?
Part of it is the fault of the academics themselves and part of it is the malaise of the wider society and sometimes the catastrophe of the wider society and Uganda has had its share at the end of the colonial order.
At Independence, there was a lot of motivation to achieve academically, not just in terms of promotion but in other forms of recognition. Libraries were better protected and more books were not stolen by desperate students who need a few pages out of it. Some of those aspects which damage the scale of motivation to achieve, excel, accomplish were consequences of disasters of the wider society.
Restoring that atmosphere of excelling and inducements requires work by university authorities (to re-establish) methods of promotion and methods of salary increase. If that is not done, people say, ‘I am broke anyhow, why waste time.’
At your age (76), what inspires you to get on a plane and travel 1,000 miles to Uganda?
If you are an African patriot, you cannot allow despair to take over. Things might look terrible and then you say maybe my effort will help the continent to do better. If you are an academic, you try and do it in your special field and try to see better times ahead. I have never lost the motivation to get Africa better.
One of the proposals of Makerere is to create a centre of excellence named after you; Mazrui Centre of Excellence. You are obviously lending your name and credibility to that innovation. How do you insure that standards will be kept?
I regard it as a huge recognition for me rather than a method of exploiting my name. I do not think of it as terms of Makerere exploiting my name, this is a place where I began my career; First African professor of Arts and Social Sciences, I would want also want to initiate another first, endowture. I see it as a complement to me rather than me as an asset to Makerere. How can I ensure that it is to my standards? Well you have to trust institutions you love and hope for the best that they will make progress.
How do rate the current leadership on the continent in terms of focus and direction it is taking the African continent?
The leaders of Independence were in a unique historic period. If they had also led the liberation struggle from colonialism, they had acquired a special standing in the imagination of their people. They demonstrated that they were good leaders in the struggle for liberation but we found out that they were not good leaders in the struggle for development.
Their contribution ultimately was to help end colonial rule but not to improve standards of living of their fellow citizens. Most of those are larger than life and stand out as major figures.
It is going to be a centenary since the birth of (post-independence Ghana leader) Kwame Nkrumah. He stands out a major figure. Obote also was larger than life in some respects although on the negative side, Idi Amin almost over-shadowed him.
Do you see change, do the present leaders carry hope for Africa, especially this region you come from?
Not so much a ray of hope in relation to specific leaders but changes that have occurred. Maybe it has much to do with the wider civil society than leaders: We have out-grown the one-party infatuation, there are not many champions of one party governance; there has been a significant decline of military coups on the continent, that is a major plus, and we have had incumbent leaders allowing themselves to be voted out of office or incumbent political parties to be voted out of office.
US President Barack Obama’s decision to give his lecture to sub-Saharan Africa in Ghana is partly because Ghana has twice voted out of office an incumbent president. Not once. When that happens, you know the election has not been rigged.
In Kenya, we were almost there in 2007 because in 2002 we had voted out a political party that had been in power since Independence. In 2007 we almost did something similar because over 15 ministers had been voted out of their parliamentary chairs. The parliamentary elections in Kenya were remarkable with casualties. Things went wrong when we came to the president. Things deteriorated very fast and the rest is history.