Spanning four decades of active scholarship by Professor Bethwell Allan Ogot, this volume reflects the range of his concerns as an academic and a public intellectual. Among these concerns are the methodology of African historiography, the myth of the outsider as the genius behind African achievements, radical African sloganeering in the production of history, and “postmodernism” as a trend.

Other essays reveal Ogot’s concern with the interdisciplinary scholarship in the reconstruction of the African past, and his engagement with the present as his own people, the Kenyans, seek to construct a meaningful legacy out of the Mau Mau War. He also reflects on the buffeting forces of globalization and the challenges posed by the international financial institutions such as the World Bank in the formulation of Africa’s future policies. The role of the university looms large in this volume as well, both as a site of innovation and as the repository of Africa’s genius and autonomy. Ultimately, Ogot calls for the need to build from indigenous traditions as Africa faces the challenges of the twenty-first century.

“A rich menu indeed of ideas and reflections from a student, teacher, and architect of African history over the past half century.”

-Professor Paul Tiyambe Zeleza
Director, African Studies Center, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne

“Read together, the essays reveal for the first time the dimensions of the humanism that is an essential aspect of the man, and helps to understand his towering height as an intellectual, a man of ideas, and an involved historian.”

-Ade Ajayi
Emeritus Professor and former President, University of Lagos, Nigeria.

“As a scholar in the humanities, Bethwell Alan Ogot has few equals in the academic history of Kenya. Some people make history, some write history, and some create historians. Alan Ogot did all three.”

-Professor Ali Mazrui
Director, Institute of Global Cultural Studies, Binghamton University

ABOUT THE EDITORS
TOYIN FALOLA teaches history at the University of Texas at Austin. He has published many books and received several distinguished teaching and research awards. His recent books include Africanizing Knowledge: African Studies Across the Discipline and Nationalism and African Intellectuals.

ATIENO ODHIAMBO is a professor of history at Rice University. He has taught in various universities and has published many important books and essays.

CATEGORY
History, Politics/AFRICA