Professor Ali Al-Amin is Dead

Obituary: Professor Ali Al-Amin Mazrui (February 24, 1933--October 12, 2014). After the death Professor Chinua Achebe on 21 March, 2013, Africa and the world has once again lost another great scholar and writer. This time death has robbed us of Professor Ali Mazrui, the famous author of "Africans: A Triple Heritage" (1986), a documentary series, which brings African analyses and interpretations to African issues in contrast to prejudiced European analyses of those issues. No doubt, the late Ali Mazrui was an intellectual and literary leviathan of his time. Selected as the 73rd topmost intellectual person in the world,
he had more than 30 books under his belt and 16, 892 likes on Facebook. Although he was occasionally controversial, even his worst critics had to acknowledge the profundity of his knowledge and his intimidating erudition. Wikipedia describes the late Mazrui as "an academic Professor and political writer on African and Islamic Studies and on North-South relations. He was born in Mombasa, Kenya. He was an Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities, and Director of the Institute of Cultural Studies at Binghamton University, New York." I am not sure there are adjectives that can adequately do justice to the scholarly contributions of the late Professor Ali Mazrui. Though the cause of his death was not revealed, he was reported to be unwell before his demise. He made a death wish to be buried in Mombasa, and arrangements have been concluded to fly his remains to Kenya in accordance with his wish. May his gentle soul rest in peace! May God forgive his shortcomings and reward his good deeds with paradise!