Kampala, Uganda:
July 30, 2007
BETWEEN SECULAR ACTIVISM AND RELIGIOUS
OBSERVANCE: ABU MAYANJA AND AFRICA’S
TRIPLE HERITAGE
by
Ali A. Mazrui
Director, Institute of Global Cultural Studies
and
Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities
Binghamton University
State University of New York at Binghamton, New York, USA
Albert Luthuli Professor-at-Large
University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria
Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large Emeritus
and Senior Scholar in Africana Studies
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA
Chancellor
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology
Nairobi, Kenya
This is the Abu Mayanja Memorial Lecture delivered at the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala,
Uganda, on July 30, 2007, sponsored by the Abu Mayanja family. Ali Mazrui also
formally launched the Abu Mayanja Memorial Foundation, on the same occasion. This
lecture was advertised under the original title of “SECULAR LAW AND ISLAMIC
VALUES: ABU MAYANJA IN COMPARARIVE PERSPECTIVE”.
Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance: Abu Mayanja and Africa’s Triple Heritage
Abubakar Mayanja was a child of three civilizations – Africa’s own ancestral
civilization, the impact of Islam in Africa, and the arrival of Western secular and
religious traditions. Let us first set the stage of Africa as an embodiment of a triple
heritage.
Africa, especially from the nineteenth century onwards, developed into a
continent of these three civilizations – African, Islamic and the impact of Western culture
and values.
If we include North Africa, half of Africa’s population is now Muslim. Islam
and Christianity are competing for the soul of the continent.
Nigeria – Africa’s largest single country by far in population – has more Muslims
than any Arab country. That part of Nigeria which is Muslim outnumbers Egyptian
Muslims. But internally in Nigeria there is political rivalry between Muslims and
Christians.
Half the population of Ethiopia is Muslim. So is over half the population of the
Ivory Coast. Of course Sudan is two-thirds Muslim. But all these countries have
experienced both interfaith dialogue and interfaith conflict.
Islam at the Coast of Kenya and Tanzania is a thousand years old. Islam was
spreading slowly in the rest of East Africa when the Muslim expansion was rudely
interrupted – by the white man with the imperial flag and the white man with the
Christian cross. White colonization in East Africa did slow down the pace of
Islamization. Ironically, white colonization in West Africa had no such effect. Islam
continued to spread in West Africa in spite of the European imperial presence.
Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance: Abu Mayanja and Africa’s Triple Heritage
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All over Africa it became meaningful to start envisioning the continent as a
convergence of those three civilizations of Africanity, Islam and the Christian and
Secular impact of the West. This is what Nkrumah called Consciencism – and I called
Africa’s Triple Heritage.
A Confluence of Cultures
Under British colonialism countries like Kenya, Uganda, and far-away Nigeria
had a triple heritage of law – African customary law, the Islamic Sharia and Western
Derived law.
A Triple Heritage of languages was also evident– Indigenous tongues, Arabic and
European languages.
While South Africa is in the lead in devising a highly original domestic language
policy, Libya under Muammar Qaddafy is in the lead in recommending a continent-wide
language policy for Africa as a whole. In a long conversation I once had with the Libyan
leader over dinner in his famous tent in Tripoli, he emphasized the need for a clear
language policy if Africans were serious about realizing their dreams for development,
independence and unity. Schools all over Africa were to teach one international
European language (like English or French), one indigenous African language relevant to
that particular country (i.e. Zulu, Hausa, Wolof, Xhosa, or Kiswahili) and the Arabic
language (which now has more native speakers in Africa than in the rest of the Arab
world).
But in Arab Africa, what would be the indigenous African language? One strong
candidate in countries like Algeria, Morocco or Libya itself would be the most relevant
Berber language in that part of North Africa.
Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance: Abu Mayanja and Africa’s Triple Heritage
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Alternatively, an Arab country may choose to teach in its schools one of the larger
sub-Saharan languages which has been greatly influenced by Arabic. The choice would
include Kiswahili, Hausa, Somali or Wolof. Policy-makers in Africa would be well
advised to consider earnestly the Libyan leader’s linguistic vision for Africa.
In my conversations with him, the Libyan leader did not clarify how he would
promote such a continental language policy. But I was surprised when he asked me for a
copy of a book written by my father, Sheikh Al-Amin Ali Mazrui, entitled, The History of
the Mazrui Dynasty of Mombasa.1 My father had written the book in Arabic. It was
translated into English and annotated by J. McL. Ritchie. I had no idea how the Libyan
leader knew about my father’s book, nor why he did not ask for one of my own books!!!
I have since sent Muammar Qaddafy Sheikh Al-Amin’s book as requested.
The Libyan leader’s interest in my father might have been influenced by the
assumption that Sheikh Al-Amin embodied the three languages which Qaddafy was
recommending. Sheikh Al-Amin was able to speak and write Kiswahili and classical
Arabic (fus-ha) and could also speak English but not write it. [English was the weakest
of my father’s three languages]. Did the Libyan leader regard my father as Exhibit A of
the trilingual sub-Saharan African? This is yet to be confirmed in relation to the Libyan
leader’s vision of a continental language policy for Africa.
The Baganda part of Uganda became at once the most Westernized and the most
militantly traditionalist sector. If the Japanese had said, “Western technique, Japanese
spirit” the Baganda said, “Western technique, Baganda spirit.”
Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance: Abu Mayanja and Africa’s Triple Heritage
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In the early years of independence, Buganda’s monarch – the Kabaka – became
briefly both King of Buganda and President of Uganda. The Kabaka threatened the
power of the central government of Uganda.
The confrontation between President Mutesa and Prince Minister Milton Obote
resulted in the constitutional crisis of 1966, which finally resulted in the exile of Mutesa
II to Britain and the abolition of the monarchies in Uganda as a whole. The Royal
Houses of Buganda, Bunyoro, Toro, Ankole and Busoga were abolished under Obote’s
1967 Constitution. The abolition of the monarchies was a blow against traditional
culture.
Buganda’s neo-Japanese experiment of combining high traditionalism with the
pursuit of modernity was rudely interrupted – but not extinguished. Kabaka Mutesa II
died in exile. He himself embodied the Ganda paradox of high tradition and the pursuit
of Euro modernity. He received British aristocratic military training. He spoke English
with the authentic accent of a British aristocrat – totally without any foreign accent.
Although descended from ancient Buganda monarchs, Mutesa II was trained to be a
Euro-modern Kabaka, reigning in 20th century Buganda.
His leadership encouraged the pursuit of Western techniques in the Ganda spirit.
Buganda became at once the most developed and the most militantly traditionalist part of
the country.
But the uniqueness of Uganda as a whole is that it is the only African country
which abolished its monarchies – and lived to restore them. Rwanda and Burundi have
not restored their Kings; Zanzibar has not restored its Sultan; Ethiopia has not restored its
Emperor; Egypt has not restored the linage of King Farouk. Libya has not restored the
Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance: Abu Mayanja and Africa’s Triple Heritage
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lineage of King Idris. Uganda is the only African country which abolished its
monarchies, and then changed its mind. From the point of view of indigenous culture,
was this a case of two steps backward, one step forward? Or was it the reverse?
Has Uganda now nationalized the Japanese formula? Instead of “Western
technique, Buganda spirit”, is the country now on the path of “Western technique,
Ugandan spirit”? The trend may be in that direction. Social reformers all over Africa
need to ask themselves how best to strike a better equilibrium between the pursuit of
modernization and the protection of cultural authenticity.
Another major historic shift in Uganda’s orientation is from narrow Ugandan
nationalism in the 1950s and 1960s to a new Pan Africanism in the era of Yoweri
Museveni.
In the 1950s Kabaka Mustesa II was against unification with Kenya and
Tanganyika (Greater Union) partly for good reasons. Ugandans did not want to be
dominated by the Kenya of white settlers in an East African Federation. But in the post
colonial years of Milton Obote and Idi Amin, Uganda remained parochial with less
justification. By the 1990s Uganda under Yoweri Museveni was part of the vanguard of
East African integration. Uganda had been Pan-Africanized.
We started with the triple heritage into which Abu Mayanja was born. We have
also noted the changed Uganda which he left behind. Let us now look at the Mayanja
phenomenon itself.
Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance: Abu Mayanja and Africa’s Triple Heritage
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Indigenous
Family name Mayanja
Born deep in Kiganda
culture
Luganda legacy
linguistically
Islamic
Name Abubakar.
Became hafidh el Qur’an as
a child
Islam and the Arabic
language by his
Father
Major Muslim leader
among the Baganda,
nationally and Africa-wide
Protest at Budo against
Governor’s picture being
above that of the Kabaka
Protest at Makerere not
Knowledge about Fiqh and
because Matoke was not
Shari’a – theology and
provided, but because it was Islamic Law
not well prepared and there
was little to accompany it
Collapsed during Idd
prayers at Kibuli mosque
Polygamy and large family
“Go forth and multiply”. He
wanted to father 30
children, but got to 29
instead!
Names of his children –
Muhammad, Abu Bakar,
Umar, Uthman, Ali. Also
Muslim names for
daughters.
Western
King’s College,
Budo, as student
Was taught the Roman
(English) alphabet by his
mother
Budo as a Westernizing
experience. Makerere
College—Editor of Student
Magazine; Secretary of
Students’ Council
Educated at Cambridge
University Law and History
Inn of Court as Barrister in
London
Command of Western Law
He died at Mulago – amidst
Western surroundings,
medically.
Ideologically Abu Mayanja was a liberal nationalist. Culturally Abu Mayanja
was a product of three civilizations: African civilization, Islam and the West.
A Liberal Nationalist or a Royalist?
His nationalism was clear cut. He believed in civil liberties, idealized political
pluralism and effectively supported the democratic order.
The 1967 constitution proposed by Milton Obote envisaged itself as the
Constitution of Uganda’s First Republic. Obote regarded a republic as merely the
absence of monarchy; Abu Mayanja insisted that a republic had to include the presence of
democracy.
Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance: Abu Mayanja and Africa’s Triple Heritage
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Mayanja said in Parliament,
“in so far as the Proposals [for the 1967 Constitution]
do not provide for democratic government by consent,
with the people as the ultimate source of power, it is
doubtful whether the Constitution envisaged in the
proposals is a truly Republican Constitution. . . For a
republic connotes more than a mere abolition or
absence of Kings; it also positively implies a
democratic form of Government”2
Although he never used the word “liberal” to describe himself, there is little doubt
that his strong belief in the Rule of Law, his partiality for the open society, his opposition
to detention without trial, and his belief in a muti-party system, his civility towards
political opponents, and his own distinctive individualism marked him out as a liberal in
the almost classical style.
While Abu Mayanja’s liberalism was relatively straight forward, his nationalism
was more complex. There was his sub-nationalism as a Muganda. He defended the
interests of the Baganda and agitated in Britain against the British Government’s decision
to send Kabaka Mutesa II into exile.
Very briefly on the eve of Uganda’s independence Abu Mayanja regarded himself
as having “crossed the Rubicon” from being a Buganda sub-nationalist to full-blooded
Uganda patriot. But he was too much of a Muganda to resist an offer of becoming
Minister of Education of Buganda under Mutesa II.
Milton Obote had hoped to recruit this young firebrand of the Uganda National
Congress into Obote’s nucleus of the new Uganda People’s Congress [UPC]. Obote was
initially shocked when Abu Mayanja agreed to be a Minister in the Kabaka’s
government.
Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance: Abu Mayanja and Africa’s Triple Heritage
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However, Mayanja thought he would reform Mengo and modernize the Royal
culture from the inside. Whether Mayanja played any part in it or not, Obote’s new party
[UPC] formed an alliance with the Kabaka’s party (Kabaka Yekka). The coalition
governed Uganda from 1963 to 1966, and collapsed in the 1966 confrontation between
the Central government and the Kabaka’s Palace.
In addition to being a Muganda sub-nationalist, and a Ugandan patriot, Abu
Mayanja’s third level of nationalism was Pan-Africanism. Of his three levels of
nationalism, Abu’s Pan-Africanism was the weakest. Nevertheless, Abu Mayanja was
quite active in the politics of the All-Africa People’s Conference which Kwame Nkrumah
organized in Accra in 1958. Mayanja sometimes combined Pan-Africanism with PanIslamism. On one occasion in 1959 Abu was convicted in Kampala and fined £50. Julius
Nyerere paid the fine. However, like many Ugandans, Abu Mayanja had a love-hate
relationship towards Kenya. But in Abu’s case the affection for Kenya was, on balance,
greater than the resentment. His exile in Kenya in the early 1980s produced the same
ambivalence towards his host country. His Pan-Africanism was real but less strong than
either his Buganda sub-nationalism or his Uganda patriotism.
Abu Mayanja’s liberalism was the other big part of his ideology. There were of
course inconsistencies. One inconsistency was his loyalty to the Kabakship in the days
when the Kabakaship was a powerful political institution.
Related to this were his efforts to stifle the Democratic Party when it was in
competition with the Kabaka Yekka. His liberal belief in pluralism did not extend to
giving the Democratic Party a fair chance to compete for the Buganda seats on either the
Uganda Parliament or in the Lukiiko.
Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance: Abu Mayanja and Africa’s Triple Heritage
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But with regard to the abolition of the monarchies by the 1967 Constitution, Abu
Mayanja was prophetic about the consequences. He argued that those who abolished the
small kingdoms of others ended up creating a mega-kingdom for themselves. A Uganda
without traditional kings could become a Uganda with a super artificial king. [Parliament
July 6-7, 1967].
But on the whole he regarded the 1962 Constitution as a whole as a liberal
achievement worth defending. Hence his careful professional critique of the 1967
alternative Constitution which Obote passed through Parliament after the crisis of 1966.
Contrary to widespread belief, Abu Mayanja was not detained because of his
critique of the 1967 Constitution – a critique which was published in TRANSITION. He
was detained because of a letter he published in TRANSITION accusing the Obote
government of nominating new judges on the basis of tribalism. Abu Mayanja pretended
that he did not believe the rumors which alleged that the Uganda Judiciary was being
tribalized. But it was obvious to the reader of the letter that Abu Mayanja believed those
rumors and was in the process of spreading them.
He and Rajat Neogy, the Editor of Transition, were promptly detained. I issued at
Makerere a statement of public protest. My protest became international news. Obote’s
Office invited me to attend a particular session of Parliament. I regarded my attendance
as a command performance. I sat in the gallery as Milton Obote denounced me for
teaching sedition at Makerere. In a speech in the Main Hall at Makerere I had earlier
argued that the people of Ghana were less terrified of their soldiers in the streets than
were the people of Uganda. Obote in Parliament used my Uganda – Ghana comparison
as an example of sedition.
Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance: Abu Mayanja and Africa’s Triple Heritage
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Uganda radio that night was full of the President’s speech and the attack on “the
Professor of Political Science”. In those days I was Uganda’s only Professor of Political
Science. I attended some diplomatic party that night. Obote’s speech was the talk of the
evening. Chief Justice Sir Udo Udoma was astonished when I told him I had been
summoned by the President’s Office to attend the Presidential reprimand. His theory was
that Obote summoned me for a public reprimand in order to avoid having to expel me or
detain me. Obote was under pressure to be tougher with me. Sir Udo Udoma suggested
that the President probably expected me to seek a private audience with him. The next
day I asked to see the President, and the request was promptly granted.
I spent several hours at the President’s Office. My brief was not a plea for Abu
and Rajat as prisoners, but a plea for freedom of expression in Uganda. I genuinely
regarded the event as a major step backward in the story of Uganda as an open society.
Obote was surprised that I had not gone just to beg for the release of my friends, but to
argue that the whole approach of locking up writers and editors for the views they
expressed was a major deterioration of the quality of intellectual life in Uganda.
I suspect that was the origin of a decision made by the government to ask the
Mayor of Kampala to arrange a public debate in the Town Hall between Akena Adoko,
Head of Intelligence, and myself about “THE ROLE OF AFRICAN INTELLECTUALS
IN THE AFRICAN REVOLUTION”.
But at my actual meeting with Obote following the detention of Abu Mayanja and
Rajat Neogy, Obote explored another idea. Why did I not take over TRANSITION and
edit it myself? It did not occur to Obote that he was asking me to stab Rajat and Abu in
the back. I simply said that was impossible.
Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance: Abu Mayanja and Africa’s Triple Heritage
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I was subsequently allowed to visit both Neogy and Abu in detention.
Neogy was stripped of his Uganda citizenship and then tried in a court of law.
The Judiciary was sufficiently independent that Neogy was acquitted. He and his
magazine went into exile in Ghana. Abu Mayanja was eventually released.
As for the subsequent debate between Akena Adoko and me in the Kampala
Town Hall, it did become a major political and national event. Some Kampala schools
were closed so that students could attend. There were loud speakers outside the Town
Hall because of the massive crowds. It was during that debate that I defined an
intellectual as “a person who has the capacity to be fascinated by ideas, and has acquired
the skills to handle some of those ideas effectively.”
To Akena Adoko’s argument that African intellectuals had to be politically
committed, I replied, “Perhaps, but political commitment should not be confused with
political conformity.”
Akena Adoko was at the time the second most powerful civilian after Milton
Obote. But in January 1971 that power configuration ended. Idi Amin staged a coup,
and Uganda entered a whole new phase of history.
Abu Mayanja became a Minister. One evening Mayanja came to my house at
Makerere to ask if I would agree to serve as a special Political Adviser to President
Amin. Was I prepared to be the equivalent of Henry Kissinger if Idi Amin was the
equivalent of Richard Nixon? Could I play Kissinger to Amin’s Nixon? Although Idi
Amin himself did not use that analogy, Abu told me the invitation to me was from Idi
Amin himself.
Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance: Abu Mayanja and Africa’s Triple Heritage
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In those days one did not say “NO” to Idi Amin outright. I asked for time. I said
I had lecturing engagements in Britain. Could I respond to the invitation upon my return?
Abu and I agreed that if I did not want to play such a role, I would simply be
silent on the issue upon my return. Idi Amin was bound to have moved to other ideas by
that time. When I returned from England, I told Abu my real answer of “No” – but
silence was a better answer to Amin.
Idi Amin did move to something else relevant to this saga between rulers and
intellectuals. Idi Amin started a dialogue with apartheid South Africa. One of his ideas
was to send to South Africa brilliant African minds to convince white people that Black
people could think. Ali Mazrui was supposed to be Exhibit A. I was in the audience in
the Main Hall at Makerere waiting to be addressed by the President. Idi Amin summoned
me towards him and started whispering his idea of sending me to South Africa as an
intellectual exhibit. I was alarmed but we promised to discuss the concept later.
When, through Abu Mayanja, Idi Amin wanted me to play Henry Kissinger, I
could avoid the role by a clever strategy of silence. But when Idi Amin wanted me to
play the role of super intellectual envoy, my only hope was prayer. Fortunately, my
prayers were answered. The apartheid regime in South Africa declined Idi Amin’s offer.
The South Africans preferred government to government negotiations and contacts before
experimenting with people to people. They were not enthusiastic about Black
intellectuals on the loose in Pretoria.
Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance: Abu Mayanja and Africa’s Triple Heritage
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In Search of Asymmetrical Federalism
Abu Mayanja was always saddened that Buganda’s special neo-federal status
under the Independence Constitution ended under the 1967. But the issue of federalism
would not go away.
In 1962 there was indeed a case for treating Baganda differently and giving it
special autonomous status. But the Buganda might not have had the right vocabulary to
defend their status.
The Canadians have since developed the appropriate vocabulary. The debate in
Canada is whether Quebec should be treated as a distinct society. The people of Quebec
are sufficiently different from the rest of Canada that they have demanded and received
special concessions. The people of Quebec are not defending a local Kabaka; they are
defending their own language, French.
De facto, the British did regard Buganda as a distinct society – and helped to
formulate a 1962 Constitution which recognized that reality.
Another concept in the vocabulary is what may be called an asymmetrical
constitutional order. Usually federalism is based on symmetrical rights of all the
constituent provinces or states. State powers are comparable for all constituent units.
But at home the British had historically invented asymmetrical constitutional
order for themselves. Until Tony Blair’s reforms, neither Scotland, England nor Wales
had provincial legislatures, but Northern Ireland did. Scotland had a separate parallel
currency, but neither Wales, England nor Ireland had a parallel separate currency. But
even under Tony Blair’s reforms the powers of the Welsh Legislature were much weaker
Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance: Abu Mayanja and Africa’s Triple Heritage
13
than the powers of the Scottish and Irish Legislatures. And England – the biggest
constituent unit of all – had no separate provincial English Legislature of its own. It has
to rely on the central House of Commons and House of Lords.
In the case of Ethiopia thousands of lives would have been saved if Emperor
Haile Selassie I had conceded the status of a distinct society to ERITREA. Instead
Eritrea had to fight a thirty year war of independence from 1962 to 1992. In the end
Eritrea became independent with its own army. Lo and behold, war has not ended.
Ethiopia and Eritrea have even fought a terribly bloody inter-state war after they agreed
to separate. Greater autonomy to Eritrea as a distinct society might have averted all this
massive human slaughter. A neo-federal status for Eritrea in 1962 might have averted the
tragedy.
Uganda may still need an asymmetrical constitutional order with different rights
from province to province, but identical citizenship rights at the national level for all
citizens. Other parts of Uganda are acquiring new natural resources and many need both
protection and concession.
Nigeria is developing de facto an asymmetrical constitutional order of a different
kind. Twelve states in the Nigerian Federation are now governed under Islamic law
while twenty four other states have secular state constitutions. This situation has
developed spontaneously and not as a result of a constitutional convention. But it is none
the less the present reality in Nigeria. Nigeria’s federalism has gone asymmetrical.
Between Abu Mayanja and Abu Mazrui
Let us now turn from an interactive study of Abu Mayanja to a comparative
approach towards understanding him. The comparison is with none other than myself. In
Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance: Abu Mayanja and Africa’s Triple Heritage
14
some respects I compare badly with him. In other respects we help to illuminate each
other.
The first comparison is definitely at my expense. Abu Mayanja is credited with
attaining probably the best school certificate results when he graduated from King’s
College, Budo, in the 1940s. On the other hand, I graduated with poor Cambridge School
Certificate results (Third Grade) when I graduated from the Arab School in Mombasa,
Kenya, in 1947.
With his brilliant school certificate results, Abu Mayanja was easily admitted to
Makerere College, Kampala. However, he lived to see himself dismissed from the
College for helping to lead a food strike.
On the other hand, I was rejected as a student by Makerere College because of my
third grade results in Cambridge School Certificate. However, I lived to become the
fastest promoted Professor in the history of Makerere, and to serve as the first African
Dean of Social Sciences in East Africa.
Abu Mayanja was offered a scholarship to India after being expelled from
Makerere. The Indian scholarship was part of a gracious offer to East Africans initiated
by India’s Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. On the other hand, when I failed to enter
Makerere because of my poor school certificate results, I did apply for an Indian
scholarship. Quite understandably because of my third grade in my Cambridge results,
the Indians rejected me.
Abu Mayanja’s career was rescued by a British Governor of Uganda, Sir Andrew
Cohen. Sir Andrew negotiated Mayanja’s admission into Cambridge University in
England. Mayanja turned down India, and proceeded to Cambridge.
Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance: Abu Mayanja and Africa’s Triple Heritage
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On the other hand, I was rescued by a British Governor of colonial Kenya, Sir
Philip Mitchell, who heard me give a speech at the Mombasa Institute of Muslim
Education. He was so impressed that he sent for me the next day, and encouraged me to
discuss my dreams and aspirations with him. It is almost certain that Sir Philip Mitchell
laid the foundations of my obtaining eventually a Kenya Government scholarship to
finish my secondary education in Britain and then proceed to university. My British
degrees were from the University of Manchester (B.A.), and the University of Oxford,
(D. Phil.).
Sir Andrew Cohen – although a colonial governor – seemed comfortable with
Mayanja’s decision to seek a law degree in Cambridge, and then proceed to an Inn of
Court in London to qualify as a barrister. On the other hand, Sir Philip Mitchell as a
Colonial Governor in Kenya totally disapproved of my youthful dream to find a way of
studying law and becoming a barrister. Sir Philip cited India at that time as a
“disgraceful example” where “every politician was a lawyer and every lawyer was a
politician.” Mitchell forgot to mention that although Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi did
start as both a lawyer and a politician, Gandhi became one of the towering figures of the
twentieth century.
Both Mayanja and myself eventually evolved into “triple heritage personalities” –
forged by three civilizations. We were Westernized African Muslims – shaped by all
three legacies. Both Abu Mayanja and Mazrui became leading Muslim public
intellectuals. Mayanja was politically much more important in his own country
(Uganda), than Ali Mazrui was in his own (Kenya). On the other hand, Ali Mazrui was
intellectually more influential both at home and abroad than Mayanja managed to be.
Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance: Abu Mayanja and Africa’s Triple Heritage
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Abu Mayanja was highly visible in secular circles at home and greatly admired in
religious circles in East Africa as a whole. Ali Mazrui lived to be accused of religious
fundamentalism by Wole Soyinka, on the one hand, and on the other hand, to be
nominated as one of the top public intellectuals in the world by FOREIGN POLICY
magazine in Washington, D.C. in 2005.
According to African traditional religion, there are two ways of gaining eternal
immortality. One way is to do things for which one is forever remembered – like a very
brave warrior, or an unforgettable sage, or a heroic chief. Abu Mayanja tried to achieve
that immortality through his secular service to Uganda and sacred service to Islam.
The other way of becoming immortal is when your blood continues to flow in the
veins of the living – from children and grandchildren to your future generations. While
Abu Mayanja had tried to achieve the second kind of immortality by fathering nearly
thirty children, I have tried to achieve the first kind of immortality by writing some thirty
books! Clearly Mayanja’s genetic credentials were much stronger than my literary ones!
However, I do have five sons – one of whom was named Abubakar partly as a
tribute to Abu Mayanja in the year in which Mayanja was imprisoned for defending an
independent judiciary. Born at Mulago Hospital in Uganda in 1968, my third son was
also called Kim after my friend Kimwinyi of Mombasa and after my friend Abubakar of
Buganda.
To top it all, my son Kim Abubakar chose to study law in the tradition of Abu
Mayanja. Kim is now the Thurgood Marshall Professor of Law at the University in
Virginia, which was established by the author of the 1776 American Declaration of
Independence, Thomas Jefferson – the third President of the United States. I have a gut
Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance: Abu Mayanja and Africa’s Triple Heritage
17
feeling that Abubakar Mayanja would have been proud of Abubakar Mazrui in
Charlottesville, Virginia. Immortality has come through both the blood in our veins and
the products of our minds.
The blood of experience meanders on,
In the vast expanse of the valley of time,
The new is come and the old is gone,
And life abides a changing clime.
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ENDNOTES
1
Sheikh Al-Amin Ali Mazrui, The History of the Mazrui Dynasty of Mombasa, (Oxford and New York:
Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1995). Translated and annotated by J. McL. Ritchie.
Abu Mayanja, “The Government’s Proposals for a New Constitution of Uganda”, Transition, No. 32,
1967.
2
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