Knowledge is created then disseminated through various methods, and bookstores play a vital role in the knowledge economy. Time and space inevitably play a big part in the mobility of knowledge as well, and in the case of the Swahili coast, these elements have shaped Swahili poetry to an extent it became a ritualized form of knowledge production. This ritualization of poetry gave the shairi form a certain ability to morph into different shapes and forms to suit different audiences and needs.
This lecture, “THE LATE PROF. ALI A. MAZRUI’S IMPACT ON OUR GENERATION OF SCHOLARS”, was delivered by Professor Mohamed Bakari, Vice-Chancellor RAF International University, in Mombasa, 7th November 2019 at the launch of “Sauti Ya Haki: Maisha Na Mawazo Ya Sheikh Muhammad Kasim Mazrui”.
On the eve of Kenya’s Independence in 1963, the country was blessed with a crop of very talented and relatively educated leadership, in politics, public administration and to a certain extent in academia. Just before independence, there had been a rush to educate young Kenyans to assume positions of leadership in key areas of national life.
To read Latifa Chiragdhin’s ‘Shihabuddin Chiraghdin: Life Journey of a Swahili Scholar’, (available on Amazon) a biography of her father, is to be intrigued, entertained and educated on matters history and culture, all at the same time. Latifa employs the use of simple, yet captivating language to take us through Maalim Shihab’s short but fulfilling life, right from childhood to adulthood in around two hundred pages.
