I copied this stuff from Mwakikagile's old website at
tripod.com. Early last year, I asked him if could be available to make a presentation on African Politics at the climax of our International Week, but he politely declined by not responding to my e-mail. However, after about two months, he sent me an e-mail informing me of his forthcoming book, which was an indication that he had indeed received my email. I have read several of his books, and I can tell that he is a very good writer.
From New Africa Press
Author Profile: Godfrey Mwakikagile
Godfrey Mwakikagile is an African writer from Tanzania. He was born on 4 October 1949 in Kigoma, a town and port on Lake Tanganyika, in western Tanganyika. In 1964, Tanganyika united with Zanzibar to form Tanzania.
He grew up in Tanganyika, and Tanzania, and attended school in his home country from primary school to high school.
He went to primary school in his home district, Rungwe, Mbeya Region, in the Southern Highlands in the Great Rift Valley, which borders Malawi and Zambia; attended Songea Secondary School in Ruvuma Region from 1965 to 1968 on the border with Mozambique; and Tambaza High School from 1969 to 1970 in the nation's capital Dar es Salaam.
After finishing high school (Form VI or Standard 14) at Tambaza, he joined the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in the nation's capital as an information officer and later became a news reporter at the country's largest English news paper, the "Daily News," which was also and still is based in Dar es Salaam. Concidentally, his editor at the "Daily News," Benjamin Mkapa who also helped him to go to school in the United States, later became president of Tanzania from 1995 to 2005.
His relationship with the "Daily News" started earlier when he was still a student at Tambaza High School in Form V and Form VI from 1969 to 1970 when he started working at the paper as a news reporter. The paper was then known as the "Standard." It was nationalised in 1970 and renamed "Daily News."
After working at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for some time, he returned to the "Standard," after it was renamed "Daily News," and joined the editorial staff as a news reporter (1).
He later attended school in the United States where he graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He also attended Aquinas College in Grand Rapids in the same state.
He wrote a major book about President Julius Nyerere not long after the former Tanzanian leader died and has witten other books. His works have been getting serious attention among many people including academics in a number of countries who have also reviewed some of his books in scholarly journals.
His first book was published in 1999 and he has maintained a steady pace since then, writing books, as demonstrated by the number of titles he has on the market. He may be one of the most prolific Tanzanian authors today.
He has written 20 books (since 1999) mostly about Africa during the post-colonial period, and has been described as a political scientist although his works defy classification. He has written about history, politics, economics and contemporary affairs from an African and Third World perspective and is known for such works as "Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era," and "Africa and the West."
Both have been favourably reviewed in a number of publications including the highly influential "West Africa" magazine ( founded in 1917) which reviewed two of his books in the same year; a rare accomplishment in such a major publication.
His work, "Nyerere and Africa," probably his most well-known title, was reviewed by "West Africa" magazine three years after Nyerere died of leukemia in October 1999 at the age of 77 (2).
It was also reviewed by the "Daily News," Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which said about the book: :"For a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the interior narrative of Mwalimu Nyerere, one needs not look elsewhere" (3).
The book has also been cited by a number of African leaders including South African Vice President Ms. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka in one her speeches about African leadership and development in which she quotes the author (4).
Although his books have been able to get the attention of some African leaders, it is impossible to know if they have had any influence on any of them. But the mere fact that they are cited by them shows that he is taken seriously as an author, not only in Tanzania but also in other African countries and probably elsewhere.
Godfrey Mwakikagile's other book, "Africa and the West," which is a sweeping survey of the continent before the advent of colonial rule and during the colonial era as well as after independence, was also reviewed by "West Africa" magazine in its edition of 21st - 27th January 2002.
It was described by Kofi Akosah Sarpong, a Ghanaian and senior editor of the magazine, as "a new book calling for a return to African traditions and rejection of harmful Western ideas...and an uncompromising demand for dignity and respect for Africans....Godfrey Mwakikagile's book is also a reflective treatise, especially in its philosophical discussion of the importance of African values, history and traditions, African philosphical concepts, and the way of life in pre-colonial times as compared to the advent of colonialism" (5).
"West Africa magazine" also described Godfrey Mwakikagile as an author who articulates the position of "African Renaissance thinkers." He is one of the most well-known Tanzanian writers.
Although he has been exposed to Western cultures, was educated in the Western intellectual tradition and even lived in the United States for many years, his perspectives and philosophical conceptions have undoubtedly been shaped by his African upbringing and are deeply rooted in African cultures and traditions. And he rejects the notion that Africa was a blank slate until Europeans came to write on it.
He passionately argues that the history written about Africa by Europeans when they first went to Africa and even during colonial rule as well as after independence is not African history but the history of Europeans in Africa; and maintains that traditional Africa has produced philosophers and other thinkers whose knowledge and ideas can match and even surpass the best in the West and elsewhere in the world. He forcefully articulates that position in his book, "Africa and The West." As he states in the book in which he focuses on the Sutu-nguni community as one of the study cases he has written about to illustrate his point::
"We have discussed at length the cosmic view of reality articulated by Africans who contitute the Sutu-nguni community in what is South Africa today to demonstrate that Africans did indeed engage in philosophical reflection and had eminent conceptual thinkers without whom it would have been impossible to develop such a complex system of thought. They still do. Anyone who dismisses such a system as shallow simply lacks depth perception...The African personality (is) on the same level with the best in the West and other cultures.
Africans have never been given credit in the department of intellectual inquiry as original thinkers. But the evidence we have presented here demonstrates otherwise....Africans are no less capable of profound theological reflection that Saint Thomas Aquinas or Karl Barth, phenomenological reduction than Edmund Husserl, or 'a leap of faith' than Soren Kierkegaard....African philosophy is comparable to the best in terms of philosophical profundity." (6).
He undoubtedly has strong convictions but does not neatly fit into any ideological category. He expresses strong Pan-Africanist views in his writings and sees Africa as a collective entity and one organic body and has strongly been influenced by staunch Pan-Africanist leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Sekou Toure and Patrice Lumumba whom he also strongly admires (7).
But some of his critics contend that he overlooks or glosses over the shortcomings of these leaders precisely because they are liberation icons and played a leading role in the struggle for independence and against white minority rule in southern Africa (8).
He also seems to be "trapped" in the past, in liberation days, especially in the seventies when the struggle against white minority rule was most intense. But that may be for understandable reasons. (9).
He was a part of that generation when the liberation struggle was going on and some of his views have unquestionably been shaped by what happened during those days as his admiration for Robert Mugabe, for example, as a liberation icon clearly shows; although he also admits in his book, "Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era," that the land reform programme in Zimbabwe could have been carried out in an orderly fashion and in a peaceful way.
But his admiration for Mugabe as a true African nationalist and Pan-Africanist remains intact; a position that does not sit well with some of his critics. And by remarkable contrast, his contempt for African leaders whom he sees as whites in black skin also remains intact. He mentions Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda as a typical example of those leaders (10).
So, his identification with liberation heroes is clear and understandable; and so is his "nostalgia" about liberation days in the sixties and seventies. And that may be why some of his critics and supporters say "he belongs to the old school of thought."
He also lived and grew up under the leadership of Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, a legendary figure, a liberation icon and staunch Pan-Africanist and one of the most influential and most respected leaders Africa has ever produced, whose socialist policies he has also defended in his writings because of the egalitarian ideals they instilled in the people of Tanzania enabling them to form a peaceful, cohesive nation in which they saw themselves as one people and equal in terms of rights and dignity as fellow human beings in spite of the poverty they endured under ujamaa , Nyerere's African version of socialism.
Yet, in spite of his admiration of liberations icons, he also is highly critical of African leaders from the same generation who led their countries to independence, contending that most of them did not care about the well-being their people; a position he forcefully articulates in his writings (11).
He sometimes seems to be a contradictory character, or simply difficult to understand, but he is actually torn between two worlds because of the generation to which he belongs, having been born before independence and partly brought up under colonial rule.
One of his critics has described him as "a shrewd intellectual in defence of liberation icons" and accuses him of not being intellectually honest about leaders such as Nyerere and Nkrumah for not criticising them harshly for their failures (12).
In a way, some people may see him as a complex character not always easy to understand, although he articulates his position clearly and forcefully.
Some of the confusion among his readers about his position on African leaders of the independence generation has to do with his own background since he was an integral part of that generation in the sense that he witnessed the end of colonial rule and the emergence of the newly independent African states although he was not old enough to have participated in the independence struggle himself (13).
He admires the leaders who led their countries to independence, yet he is highly critical of them in most cases for their failures during the post-colonial period. He admires many aspects of Nyerere's socialist policies in Tanzania, yet concedes the policies were also a failure in many cases. And he strongly favours fundamental change in African countries, yet he is nostalgic about the past (14).
His advocacy for fundamental change is articulated in many of his writings including "The Modern African State: Quest for Transformation," one his more well-known books.
In his review of the book, Ronald Taylor-Lewis, a Sierra Leonean and editor of "Mano Vision" magazine, London, described it as:
"A masterpiece of fact and analysis. In the one book he manages to extensively cover the 'rebirth' of Liberia, the 'powerless' state of Sierra Leone, 'ethnic cleansing' in Rwanda, 'stateless' Somalia, slavery in Mauritania and Sudan, and the fall of Mobutu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire). Any one of the topics is the subject of a book in itself....The whole book is a great read for scholars and people merely interested in the affairs of the continent and reads as a piece put together by someone who has taken the trouble to research his facts properly" (15).
The book has also been reviewed in other publications. Tana Worku Anglana reviewed Godfrey Mwakikagile's "Modern African State: Quest for Transformation" in "Articolo" at
www.africansocieties.org/n1/paginaarticolo2.htm and stated, in "Discussing African Social Fates: A First Overview of An Unbiased Literature," the following:
"Another group of authors maintain that the reasons for Africa's crisis mainly lie in an inadequate political system. An interesting example comes from the analysis carried out by G. Mwakikagile, in the book "The Modern African State" (2001) , which stresses the need for a democratic system as a prerequisite for peace and stability in Africa.
However, in the author's view, democracy per se cannot survive in countries torn by conflict. Conflicts spring from poverty, and the poverty in many African countries is caused by dictatorships, corruption, tribalism and want. For the author, these are the gravest problems that feed one another and give rise to a dangerous vicious circle.
This is why Mwakikagile makes a list of necessary actions for Africa to achieve political stability, which is the essential foundation for widespread development.
These include: the decentralisation of power; an independent judiciary; promoting political pluralism and consensus for coalition governments; introducing federal systems favouring greater freedom; creating independent electoral committees composed of members of all political and ethnic groups and of community representatives; promoting national conferences for the participation of all regions and ethic groups; promoting citizen participation in legislative and political changes; establishing an independent free communication service; setting fixed terms of office for presidents (6 years) and members of parliament (3 years); setting up monitor groups to investigate power abuse and corruption in the governing class.
In short, the author feels that development cannot be possible without fundamental changes inside African countries themselves, damaged by decades of dictatorships and that still have a significant number of one-party systems" (16).
In what is probably is his most controversial book, "Africa is in A Mess: What Went Wrong and What Should Be Done," he strongly crticises most of the leaders of post-colonial Africa for tyranny and corruption, and for practising tribalism, a common theme in the works of many African writers and other people including well-known ones and many African scholars in and outside Africa. But Godfrey Mwakikagile's book stands out as one of the most blunt ever written about Africa's rotten leadership.
Unfortunately, because of its vitriolic condemnation of most African leaders during the post-colonial era, the book has been cited by some people, who obviously have not read it well if at all, as a clarion call for the re-colonisation of Africa (because things are so bad, colonial rule was better) although the author says exactly the opposite in his work (17).
He unequivocally states in his book, "Africa is in A Mess," that he does not support any attempt or scheme, by anybody, to recolonise Africa, although he also concedes that African countries have lost their sovereignty to donor nations and multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF dominated by Western powers including those who once colonised Africa and are therefore virtual colonies already. He also admits that African countries have really never been free in spite of the instruments of sovereignty they are supposed to have. Yet he has wrongly been portrayed, along with some prominent African scholars, as someone who advocates the recolonisation of Africa as one writer asked:
"Given the crisis in post-colonial Africa, is it time that the former Western colonial powers (Britain, France, Belgium, Portugal, Italy & Germany) committed themselves, as proposed by a growing body of African and European academics - Ali Mazrui, Christoph Blocher, Mahmood Mamdani, Peter Niggli, R. W. Johnson & Godfrey Mwakikagile - as well as a number of African diplomats and politicians, including the Prime Minister of Sierra Leone in the nineties, to a form of temporary semi re-colonisation of the continent?" (18).
Godfrey Mwakikagile says exactly the opposite in his book "Africa is in A Mess."
His fellow Africans who have reviewed the book on amazon.com and elsewhere in different publications and on the Internet strongly support the author and share his concerns about Africa's plight and the misguided leadership the continent has had to endure for decades since independence (19).
And in the same book, "Africa is in A Mess," he is also highly critical of Western powers for ruthlessly exploiting Africa even today in collusion with many African leaders.
His books have also been reviewed in a number of academic publications including the highly prestigious academic journal "African Studies Review" by leading scholars in their fields. They include "Military Coups in West Africa Since The Sixties" which was reviewed Professor Claude E. Welch of the Department of Political Science at the State University of New York, Buffalo; and "Ethnic Politics in Kenya and Nigeria" reviewed by Nigerian Professor Khadijat K. Rashid of Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. (20).
For more reviews of his books, see also "Expo Times," Sierra Leone; "The Mirror," Zimbabwe, and other publications including those featured on the Internet (21).
He has also written about race relations in the United States and relations between continental Africans and people of African descent in the diaspora. His titles in these areas include "Black Conservatives in The United States;" "Relations Between Africans and African Americans;" and "Relations Between Africans, African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans."
Godfrey Mwakikagile's books are found in public and university libraries around the world and have been adopted for class use at many colleges and universities in the United States and other countries. Most college and university libraries in the United States have his books.
Here is a list of titles by Godfrey Mwakikagile:
"Economic Development in Africa," 1999
"Africa and The West," 2000
"The Modern African State: Quest for Transformation," 2001
"Military Coups in West Africa Since The Sixties," 2001
"Ethnic Politics in Kenya and Nigeria," 2001
"Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era," 2002
"Africa is in A Mess: What Went Wrong and What Should Be Done," 2004
"Tanzania under Mwalimu Nyerere: Reflections on an African Statesman," 2004
"Black Conservatives: Are They Right or Wrong?," 2004
"Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era: Expanded Edition with Photos," 2005
"Relations Between Africans and African Americans: Misconceptions, Myths and Realities," 2005
"Life in Tanganyika in The Fifties: My Reflections and Narratives from The White Settler Community and Others," 2006
"African Countries: An Introduction," 2006
"Africa After Independence: Realities of Nationhood," 2006
"Life under Nyerere," 2006
"Black Conservatives in The United States," 2006
"Africa and America in The Sixties: A Decade That Changed The Nation and The Destiny of A Continent," 2006
"Relations Between Africans, American Americans and Afro-Caribbeans: Tensions, Indifference and Harmony," 2007
"Investment Opportunities and Private Sector Growth in Africa," 2007
References:
1. "Tanzanian writer: Godfrey Mwakikagile" web site.
2. Kofi Akosah Sarpong, "Nyerere's Vision," in "West Africa," 25th November - 1st December 2002, p. 41.
3. Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala, "Nyerere: True pan-Africanist, advocate of unity," in "Three Years After Mwalimu Nyerere, " in the "Daily News," Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Monday, October 14, 2002, p. 19.
4. Godfrey Mwakikagile quoted by South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka in "Address Delivered by the Deputy President, Ms. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka at the Third Annual Julius Nyerere Memorial Lecture at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa." Issued by the Presidency through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pretoria, South Africa, 6 September 2006.
5. Kofi Akosah-Sarpong, "Back to The Roots," in "West Africa," 21st - 27th January 2002, p. 43 .
6. Godfrey Mwakikagile, "Africa and The West," pp. 23 - 24. See also pp. 1 - 46, and 201 - 218.
7. Godfrey Mwakikagile, "Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era." For Godfrey Mwakikagile's Pan-Africanist views and perspectives, see also Professor Eric Edi of Temple University, in his paper, "Pan West Africanism and Political Instability: Perspectives and Reflections," in which he cites Godfrey Mwakikagile's books, "Military Coups in West Africa Since The Sixties" and "The Modern African State: Quest for Transformation."
8. Reviews of his book, Godfrey Mwakikagile, "Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era" on amazon.com.
9. Godfrey Mwakikagile, "Nyerere and Africa: End of Era"; and Godfrey Mwakikagile, "Africa After Independence: Realities of Nationhood".
10. Godfrey Mwakikagile, "Africa After Independence: Realities of Nationhood," pp. 156 - 163.
11. Godfrey Mwakikagile, "Africa is in A Mess: What Went Wrong and What Should Be Done," and "Africa After Independence: Realities of Nationhood."
12. Kwesi Johnson-Taylor in his review of Godfrey Mwakikagile's book, "Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era," on amazon.com, February 21, 2006.
13. Biography on the web site, "Tanzanian Writer: Godfrey Mwakikagile."
14. Godfrey Mwakikagile, "Africa is in A Mess," "Africa and The West," and "Life in Tanganyika in The Fifties."
15. Ronald Taylor-Lewis, in his review of Godfrey Mwakikagile, "The Modern African State: Quest for Transformation," in "Mano Vision," Issue 23, October 2001, pp. 34 - 35. See also Professor Catherine S.M. Duggan, Department of Political Science, Stanford University, in her paper, "Do Different Coups Have Different Implications for Investment? Some Intuitions and A Test With A New Set of Data," in which she cites Godfrey Mwakikagile on fundamental changes in African countries. See also Godfrey Mwakikagile, cited in Christopher E. Miller, "A Glossary of Terms and Concepts in Peace and Conflict Studies," p. 87; and in Gabi Hesselbein, Frederick Golooba-Mutebi, and James Putzel, "Economic and Political Foundations of State-Making in Africa: Understanding State Reconstruction," Working Paper No. 3, 2006.
16. Articolo: http://
www.africansocieties.org/n1/paginaarticolo2.htm.
17. Dr. Kenday Samuel Kamara of Walden University in his abstract, "Considering the Enormity of Africa's Problems, is Re-Colonization an Option?" in which he cites Godfrey Mwakikagile's "Africa is in A Mess" and related works by other African leading academic authors including Professor Ali Mazrui, and Professor George Ayittey's "Africa in Chaos." See Mwakikagile's book on the subject, "Africa is in A Mess: What Went Wrong and What Should Be Done." See also Tunde Obadina, "The Myth of Neo-Colonialism," in "Africa Economic Analysis," 2000; and Timothy Murithi, in his book, "The African Union: Pan-Africanism, Peacebuilding and Development."
18. Hobbit, in "Gaire: Africa Re-Colonized," 28 March 2007.
19. Professor Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, a Zimbambwean teaching international studies at Monash University, South Afica campus, in his abstract, "Gods of Development, Demons of Underdevelopment and Western Salvation: A Critique of Development Discourse as a Sequel to the CODESRIA and OSSREA International Conferences on Development in Africa," June 2006. Professor Ndlovu-Gatsheni advances the same argument Godfrey Mwakikagile does and cites Mwakikagile's work, "Africa is in A Mess," to support his thesis. See also Floyd Shivambu, "Floyd's Perspectives: Societal Tribalism in South Africa," September 1, 2005, who cites Godfrey Mwakikagile's "Ethnic Politics in Kenya and Nigeria," in his condemnation of tribalism in post-apartheid South Africa; Mary Elizabeth Flournoy of Agnes Scott College, in her paper, "Nigeria: Bounded by Ropes of Oil," citing Godfrey Mwakikagile's writings including "Ethnic Politics in Kenya and Nigeria"; Professor Eric Edi of Temple University, in his paper, "Pan West Africanism and Political Instability: Perspectives and Reflections," in which he cites Godfrey Mwakikagile's books, "Military Coups in West Africa Since The Sixties" and "The Modern African State: Quest for Transformation."
20. Professor Claude E. Welch, Jr., in "African Studies Review," Vol. 45, No. 3, December 2002, pp. 124 - 125); and "Ethnic Politics in Kenya and Nigeria," reviewed by Nigerian Professor Khadijat K. Rashid of Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. in "African Studies Review," Vol. 46, No. 2, September 2003, pp. 92 - 98).
21. Godfrey Mwakikagile in "Expo Times," Freetown, Sierra Leone, and in "The Mirror," Harare, Zimbabwe, 2002.
