G-l,
Below is Soyinka's response.
ALI MAZRUI AND SKIP GATES' AFRICA SERIES
Wole Soyinka
Ali Mazrui's "preliminary" critique of Henry Louis Gates' Africa series has been pounding cyber-space with an energy that I have not experienced since I became its reluctant and fitful tenant. I am not on the iasa-list - to which this is addressed - nor on any other circulation list, yet I have had this critique copied to me from over two dozen directions, sometimes culled from other lists of whose existence I was not even aware - not surprisingly, since, as already admitted, I am not really into Internet. I find it odd, very odd. There appears to be a driving mechanism behind this, quite outside the normal exchange of opinions on a work that is admittedly, by its very nature, bound to raise controversy. I find it odd also that, even more than Charles Johnson's fair summary of various critiques, Ali Mazrui's text appears to have surfaced with the greatest frequency. Of course, we must assume that this have to do with his stature as the undisputed African specialist of our time.
I see also that Ali Mazrui is pressing his assiduous pursuit of a rival by accepting to engage in a further discussion on these series on WLIB radio on the night of Sunday 7th November. I have been invited to participate but I cannot, as I have not watched the entire series and unfortunately cannot do so before the live broadcast which is tomorrow. Moreover, I prefer to watch (or read) any kind of creative or intellectual product at my own pace, and to avoid succumbing to a pace dictated by a demand for critical interjection or the prospect of polemics.
It is a pity that Ali Mazrui failed to be guided by his own commencing caveat which concedes: "Since I have myself done a television series about Africa, perhaps I should keep quiet about Skip Gates' WONDERS OF AFRICA" This of course is understating Ali Mazrui's own place in the Africa project. His happens to be the only other television series of this dimension by a black scholar on the subject of Africa's past and present. In short, Ali Mazrui has a fifty per cent stake - at least - in the reception that may be accorded to a work that, in effect, constitutes a challenge to a long-held monopoly. Every knowledgable critique of Skip Gates' work evokes, unquestionably, an implicit referential from the only preceding series of its kind. Yes indeed, Ali Mazrui should have kept quiet. As Charles Johnson's summary has shown, there are other equally competent - both scholarly and creative - minds that can pass valuable commentaries on this new contribution to perspectives on Africa.
However Ali Mazrui may present himself, he is being a covert plaintiff in his own cause, and it is my deeply held conviction that the delights of objective criticism and intellectual enlargement have been sullied by his energetic, propulsive voice in this exercise. It crosses the ethical bounds of intellectualism and deserves the condemnation of all who believe that the virtues of criticism transcend self-interest. Ali Mazrui and I, let me frankly acknowledge, are ancient adversaries.
With this level of indecorous conduct, I am reconciled to the fact that we are likely to remain so for a long time to come.
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