Criticism and bibliography. Reviews

An annotated and select thematic bibliography 1962 - 2003. Comp. by Abdul Samed Bemath. Slough-Elgin-New Delhi: Africa Institute of South Africa and New Dawn Press. 2005. XXXII + 427 p.*

South African bibliographer Abdul Samed Bemat, an Indian-born Muslim, has published a second, much expanded edition of his Mazruiana, a bibliography of the prominent African scholar Ali Mazrui.

Ali Mazroui's name is well known to every African. He comes from a family of immigrants from Arab Oman, who moved to Mombasa (present-day Kenya) back in the 17th century. His father, an imam and supreme qadi (Muslim judge), intended to send his son to Al - Azhar in Cairo, but Mazroui chose to study at universities in the United States and Great Britain.

This background of Mazrui, as well as the circumstances of his personal life (he was married to an Englishwoman, then - to a Nigerian Christian), give rise to critics to question his right to act as a "spiritual leader" of Africa. In addition, a few years ago, he accused three of his fellow African scientists, including the Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian writer Wole Shoyinka, of "publicly using an ethnic map" against him (p.354). All of this has contributed to Mazroui's supporters, including the author of the book, calling him a " global African."

Ali Mazrui has long taught at Makerere University (Uganda), but for three decades now he has preferred (like many other African intellectuals) to live in the United States, where he heads the Institute for Global Cultural Studies, is also a professor at the State University of New York, professor emeritus at several other universities in the United States and Nigeria, and even a chancellor (ceremonial Head of a university in Kenya.

He is an exceptionally prolific author. When A. S. Bemat first expressed a desire to compile a bibliography of the scientist's works, the latter replied:: "Try it, just keep in mind that the East African librarian has already tried to do this, but did not keep up with my publications" (p.XXXI). At the same time, the idea clearly appealed to Mazroui, who was not without ambition, and a couple of weeks later Bemat received his resume on 54 (!) pages.

In the end, Bemat, with the help of numerous assistants and colleagues, managed to collect 650 titles of Mazrui's works and give a brief abstract to each of them. The book consists of several sections. The first section contains 29 books of the scientist and two of his dissertations, the second - 11 pamphlets, mostly representing Mazrui's lectures, the third - 386 chapters in books belonging to him, scientific articles and selected reports read at conferences, the fourth - 198 articles in magazines and newspapers, the fifth - 24 video and video recordings. a movie. The author also included "Main works on Ali A. Mazrui" and "Selected thematic bibliography"in the book.

The author's merits are not limited to the painstaking selection and classification of Mazrui's works. The final part of the book contains one more section, the contents of which are published in Russian.

* A new look at Mazruiana. Ali A. Mazroui discusses the state of Africa. Annotated and selected thematic bibliography from 1962 to 2003. Comp. Abdul Samad Bemat. Slough-Elgin-New Delhi: Institute of Africa South Africa and New UNV Press, 2005. XXXII + 427 p.

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beyond the usual bibliography. It includes three essays on Mazrui, and the selection of both their authors and topics is quite remarkable.

The first essay was written by Zine Magubane of the University of Illinois. It focuses on discussions between Mazroui and other prominent African scientists, sometimes very heated, even with a "transition to personalities". This was especially true in the controversy between Ali Mazroui and Wole Shoyinka, who accused his opponent of" superficially and rhetorically " praising traditional African societies, but at the same time humiliating them, and even compared him to "an African rodent that blows on the wounds on the body of a person-its victim-after each attack." a bite." Mazroui did not remain in debt, saying that the Nobel Prize received by Shoyinka is "blood money" (p. 339).

More significant was the topic of discussion between Ali Mazroui and Archibald Mafeje, a South African researcher known for his radical views. Quite reasonably, Mafeje criticized Mazroui's suggestion that " stronger African States, together with the UN and sympathetic countries in Europe and Asia," undertake "the recolonization of their weaker and less stable brethren" (p.345). Mazrui believes that "in this case, the' white man's burden 'would in a certain sense become a burden shared by all of humanity" (p. 346). In addition, Mafeje accused Mazroui of being "in the service of the Americans and the British." It is worth noting, however, that Mafeje himself was a professor at the American University at the time, albeit in Cairo.

The third discussion was more narrowly focused on the fate of universities in Africa. Ali Mazrui's compatriot William Ochieng, in particular, asked: "What are rich Kenyan scientists in the US, such as [Mazrui], doing to help universities at home?" (p. 349). At the same time, the author of this essay, Zine Magubane, perhaps taking into account his own position, defends Mazroui from the accusation that he is too "Westernized": "The difficult history of Africa, for which no individual can be blamed, means that even the most dedicated Africanist can spend his entire life teaching or teaching. conducting research in the West" (p. 350).

Samuel Makinda, also an African, at the University of Perth, Australia, titled his essay " The Triple Legacy and Global Governance." The term" triple legacy "was used by Mazroui himself as the subtitle of his successful BBC television series Africans and the book that followed it. According to the author of the essay, local (indigenous), Islamic and Western values were involved in the formation of African identity. Thus, he departs from the widespread (primarily in the West) view of the history of Africa mainly through the prism of colonial heritage.

The third essay was written by an employee of the State Institute of Islamic Studies in Bandung, Indonesia Etin Anwar, who, however, worked on it at Temple University in Philadelphia. It is dedicated to Ali Mazroui's position on tender issues. And there are references to criticism of Mazroui's opponents for only "visiting Africa from time to time for speeches or family matters" (p.369).

The book also includes an essay by Ali Mazroui himself, "Petro-Militarism and Globalization", which is an addition to his previously published pamphlet "The Barrel of the Gun and the Barrel of Oil in the North-South Equation" (in English, here is a pun: "The Barrel of the Gun and the Barrel of Oil"). This is how the author defines the term he coined: "This is a dialectic between the forces of destruction (mass weapons) and petro-forces (oil policy) in the context of a potential clash of civilizations." Mazrui advocates specifically for Muslim countries. In his opinion, the biggest victims of economic globalization were African countries, and in the military field, the disproportionately biggest victims of the "new caste system of possession of weapons of mass destruction" were Muslims. He believes that in this " caste system "there are" Brahmin WMDs like Israel and NATO, and untouchable WMDs like Iran, Iraq, and North Korea " (p.379). And Pakistan, which is an exception, was allowed to develop nuclear weapons precisely because it has no "leverage" in the form of oil (p. 380). In this regard, it is worth recalling that back in 1973, Ali Mazroui advocated the creation of a nuclear oru-

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the" African triumvirate "that was to include Nigeria, Zaire, and" South Africa ruled by Blacks " (p.35).

And one more remark. If earlier Mazrui was characterized by a critical approach to the politics of both the West and the USSR, now he opposes the interests of Russia, in defense of the Chechen separatists, calling them "Muslim warriors for self-determination" along with Kashmiris and Palestinians (p. 360).

The book under review not only allows the reader to navigate the" sea " of Mazrui's publications, but also helps, despite the obvious sympathy of the compiler for his "hero", to more deeply assess this controversial figure.

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