>> From the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
[ Pause ]   >> Mary Jane Deeb: Good afternoon.

Good afternoon everybody.   Can you hear me down there?

Yes? Okay.
I'm Mary Jane Deeb, Chief of the African and Middle Eastern Division,
and welcome to the Library of Congress.
I'm delighted to see you all here on this very special occasion.
Today we are launching a brand new program entitled Conversations
with African Writers and Poets.
We are three partners in this endeavor.
The African Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division,
the Poetry and Literature Center here at the Library headed
by Robert Casper, and the Africa Society of the National Summit
on Africa whose President and CEO is Bernadette Paolo,
who actually made this program possible,
and I want to thank her very, very much.
In a moment you will hear more from both of them.
Suffice it to say that the three partners have decided
to host a series of conversations with established African authors
and poets, as well as with young
and upcoming literary figures whose interviews we will tape
and make available on our website for everyone to see and to use.
The aim is to record for posterity the voices and thoughts
of African writers so that they may remain with us for generations
to come and also that they may become accessible today not only
to everyone in the United States but also to people around the world.
And to put this new program into its cultural and historical framework,
we have invited Professor Ali Mazrui,
one of the most revered scholars on Africa
to share his thoughts with us.
The interview will be conducted by Dr. Angel Baptiste,
the area specialist for West Africa, who is a scholar
on Africa in her own right.
The next program, which we are planning soon, will take place
on November 16 at six o'clock in the evening
when we will have Dr. Susan Kiguli, a poet, a writer and a professor
at Makerere University in Uganda.   And, of course, you're all invited.

I want to thank Karen Jenkins who is here, right there.
She is the Executive Director of the African Studies Association
who has brought two Presidential Fellows to the Library.
And that's the first time we've done that, so two Presidential Fellows
from Africa one of whom is Susan Kiguli.
So we will be celebrating her in our program on November 16.
Before I turn over the microphone to Robert Casper,
the head of the Poetry and Literature Center,
I would like to add that as an administrative point I would
like to add that the interview will last for an hour.
This will be followed by a 15 minute Q and A,
and after which we will whisk Professor Mazrui away
as he has other engagements.   Okay? So enjoy.

And now Robert Casper.   Thank you.

[ Applause ]
>> Robert Casper: Hi, thank you all, thank you all for coming.
I just want to say that in my six months of heading the Poetry
and Literature Center I've had the opportunity to meet with and work
with a number of divisions within the Library, but few are as dynamic
and as exciting as the African and Middle Eastern Division.
And a special thanks to Mary Jane Deeb
for making this series possible, and thanks to Angel Baptiste
for taking this on and heading this first program
and doing the interview.
We're really thrilled to be supporting the division
and to be supporting world literature, not just focusing
as it's easy enough to do on the literature of the United States,
and complementing the programs that we do most famously
with the Poet Laureate of the United States with programs
that feature writers and scholars from across the world.
So, thanks so much for coming, and I hope you come to more
of our programs here in the African and Middle Eastern Division
and throughout the Library.
And with that I'd like to introduce Bernadette Paolo.
>> Bernadette Paolo: Thank you, Robert.
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, all.
Thank you to Dr. Mary Jane Deeb and Dr. Angel Baptiste
and Dr. Robert Casper for everything you have done
to make our collective vision a reality.
I'd also like to thank our staff, Patricia Bain [phonetic],
Maryann Bah [phonetic] and Sarah Caruso [phonetic] who are
from Uganda, Senegal and Kenya
and represent the African youth here today.
Today marks the beginning of a global campaign
to highlight the academic achievements
and literary contributions of African writers and poets.
Their collective impact has been profound
and has permeated the consciousness of scholars and students
as it has depicted the realities, cultures and aspirations
of the continent's diverse citizenries.
The Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa is very pleased
to partner with the African Section of the African
and Middle Eastern Division, and the Poetry and Literature Center
of the Library of Congress, for we believe very strongly
in Africa's promise and potential
and in showcasing the continent's many contributions to the world.
Our mission is to engage and educate Americans together with our partners
about the diverse cultures, histories and economies
of the countries comprising the continent of Africa.
It gives everyone associated with the Africa Society great honor
to have as the first speaker in this series a named icon
of the 20th century, one of Kenya's and Africa's most acclaimed sons
and a member of our Board of Directors, Professor Ali Mazrui.
Well, introducing the Professor is a daunting task
with a 13 page biography and 187,000 mentions on Google.
There is no danger of overstatement which is a consolation,
for today we have a genius in our midst, an eminent scholar,
a prolific writer, a world renowned film maker whose achievements
and accolades would take longer than the time we have allocated
for this interview in its entirety.
Deemed one of the top 100 intellectuals in the world
by Foreign Policy and Prospect Magazines, Dr. Mazrui is heralded
as being one of the key African literary figures
and scholars of all times.
Born in Kenya, Mazrui earned a bachelor's degree
from the University of Manchester in England, a master's degree
from Columbia University in New York, and a doctorate
from Oxford University in England.
He spent ten years at Makerere University in Kampala,
Uganda where he served as head of the political science department,
Dean of the faculty of social sciences,
as well as the Dean of the law faculty.
He served as Professor of Political Science at the University
of Michigan where he directed the Center
for Afro-American and African studies.
He is now Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities
and Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies
at Binghamton University, State University of New York.
He is also Albert Luthuli Professor-at-Large
at the University of Jos in Nigeria.
He is Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large Emeritus
and Senior Scholar in Africana Studies at Cornell University.
He has no spare time as you can see.
[Laughter] Dr. Mazrui has been appointed Chancellor
of the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya,
an appointment made by Kenya's Head of State.
He has been visiting scholar at Stanford, Chicago, Colgate,
Singapore, Harvard, Australia, Oxford, Ohio State, Baghdad.
He has lectured on five continents.
He has served as Special Advisor to the World Bank, and on the Board
of Directors of the American Muslim Council.
He has published more than 30 books and published hundreds of articles.
And I might add you will see when you look up Dr. Mazrui
that more articles have been written about him than those he has written.
His research interests include African politics,
international political culture, political Islam
and north/south relations.
For those of you who are old enough to remember,
Dr. Mazrui is best known
for his 1986 PBS BBC documentary series The Africans:
A Triple Heritage.
Like all great men, I can tell you that the Professor's humility
and gentility are among his greatest assets.
And, as they say, behind every great man is a great woman.
He is accompanied today by his wife, Pauline,
who we are glad could be with us.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Dr. Mazrui
who will discuss post independence African literature.
[ Applause ]
>> Angel Baptiste: For most of us, Dr. Mazrui is generally recognized
as the Pan-African scholar and the political writer.
Today we acknowledge   >> Louder please.

>> Angel Baptiste: Today we acknowledge Dr. Mazrui's
literary scholarship.
Dr. Mazrui himself has written one work of African fiction,
The Trial of Christopher Okigbo.
In addition to his written work, Dr. Mazrui is perhaps best known
for his major work, the television documentary series, The Africans:
A Triple Heritage, which refers
to the three main cultural influences impacting Africa,
traditional African culture, Islamic culture and Western culture.
Again, we acknowledge your literary scholarship.

Professor Mazrui, in 1986, you published an article
in the UNESCO General History of Africa on the State
of Modern African Literature in the Period Since 1935.
At that time you noted that the basic forms of creative literature
in this period of African history were poetry and rhetoric,
drama, theater and the novel.
Can you provide a short summary of post independence African literature
and also define the African literary canon
in modern day African Literature?   >> Ali Mazrui: Thank you very much.

Is the microphone too loud?
No? Let me thank the Library very much indeed
for this initiative not just in relation to my participation
but to the concept itself and the intention to record the ideas
and views and [inaudible] of African writers and making them available
in the Library's archives.
I think it's a very important initiative, and I look forward
to listening to other writers in the coming months and years God willing.
I must also apologize for my nasal voice today.
I'm just recovering from a cold.
I'm glad I wasn't coming here at the worst time of the cold.
Now I'm a little better than before.
So I hope in spite of the nasal nature
of the voice you can identify the different words I
utter intelligently.   Now, back to business.

Well, it is true I wrote an article about the development
of African literature as part of that massive UNESCO project
of the history of the continent in eight volumes, and I was privileged
to be called upon to edit the eighth volume, the final volume of Africa
Since 1935 and be a co- author
by providing additional chapters to the volume myself.
I'm delighted that the particular chapter is one
of the more influential chapters I have written.
Many people have written to me in relation to what I said there,
and it seems to have triggered some interest on the part of the Library.
That's important, but you want me to update it as it were.
>> Angel Baptiste: Yes, sir, quite.   [Laughter]

>> Ali Mazrui: I will try.
Because first of all there have been further developments since then.
There have been changes.
African writers are becoming more confident in experimentation.
They used to stick to whatever it was the conventions
of the inherited categories of literature
that they were writing in.
They responded and complied with the literary talent
as it was enunciated by the Western world.
So what has been happening since then is a great eagerness
to experiment with other things,
what the [inaudible] has called post-realism,
post-realism so that the novel doesn't have
to be more closely constructed in terms of believable lifestyle,
but you can take risks and rely on the suspension of this belief,
like the situation where you have some supernatural events happening
in the novel.
Way at the beginning of African writing
in the European languages they avoided because it was risky.
And now I think they are taking liberties
in what is called post-realism to venture forth.
And this, of course, is being followed independently
of Africa in Western literature.
That's what Harry Potter is all about.
This spectacular success of Harry Potter writings as well
as the movies is part of this fascination with magic and wonder
and what is supernatural.
So African writers haven't gone quite as far
as flying carpets [laughter] but they're moving in that direction.
I mention it here because it's a sign of greater self-confidence
and a greater readiness to experiment.
I was disappointed when I launched the project that African writers
in indigenous languages did not get enough recognition.
As some of you may be aware, as the last century was coming
to an end I was addressing a meeting of primarily publishers of books
from different countries, but they were assembling in Harare, Zimbabwe,
and in my lecture as the century was coming
to an end I said we should identify the hundred best books
of the last 100 years from Africa,
and then recognize publically those 100 best books.
I give suggestions in my speeches all over the world,
so I wasn't very confident that anybody would take care of it
and find it an interesting idea [inaudible].
But these publishers suddenly decided,
eureka, what an excellent idea.   And it took off, it really took off.

They established the machinery for evaluating novels
and then identifying them in terms of merits,
and before long we were well on our way towards implementing it.
My books were disqualified for consideration
because I was the originator of the idea.
[Laughter] So to compensate for this deprivation they imposed on me,
I was made founding father of the project
and given a special assignment, a [inaudible] I'll always remember
that we had chosen as one of the books
which won Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom
which he had written in prison.
And the project said, okay founding father, this is your reward.
You are going to present the award to Nelson Mandela
in Cape Town at the ceremony.
Now, if I had received an award from Nelson Mandela [laughter]
that would have been a great honor enough.
But to be giving an award to Nelson Mandela was one
of the highlights of my life.
So we did have a spectacular event in Cape Town and I awarded this,
and I did have an opportunity to do that for Mandela.
But although I was happy my idea of 100 great books had taken off
so spectacularly, I was still disappointed by inadequate attention
to literature written in African languages.
So there's still a heavy bias
in recognizing literature in European languages.
And even in the case of where [inaudible] won a Nobel Prize.
I haven't double checked, but he's almost the only Nobel Price literary
winner who has won it for literature in a language other than his own.
Most other literary Nobel Laureates get rewarded
for things they had written in their own language.
Even [inaudible] in Egypt got his works in Arabic.
[Inaudible] is always very sensitive to African culture,
he was clearly being awarded for contribution
to literature in the English language.
So we are hoping to increase in that domain
and there will be some change.
I will clarify more fully with your further question


>> Angel Baptiste: Okay.
Modern African literature has gained international recognition
with the classics, with the class I'm sorry.
Modern African literature has gained international recognition
with the classics of Chin Werachabe [phonetic] and Ngugi wa Thiong'o
and the Nobel Price winner Wole Soyinka.
Who are today's permanent African writers?
Also, how have African women asserted themselves
into the African literary scene?
>> Ali Mazrui: Well, it's true one of the disadvantages
of my particular generation,
and my particular generation does include people like Chin Werachabe
and Wole Soyinka, is that we came at the time
when there was spectacular interest in what independent Africa was doing
or was about to do, because we came at the great divide
between the literature of the colonial era and the beginning
of the post-colonial era.
So the publishers were scrambling all
over the place wanting to publish our works.
And we had more opportunities than future generations of writers.
So many of the younger writers
in the field have had a much greater difficulty because of the decline
of the novelty of African creativity,
and the competition has been much greater than it was before.
Now, it is true that there are attempts at moving literature
in new fields, but the literary people
who write they are becoming increasingly in the [inaudible]
so Africans are seeking other opportunities in the Western world
and writing from the Western world.
So people like Isidore Okpewho, my colleague, combines effects
of the interpreting the ballad in the experience of Africa,
and at the same time attempts novels which are infused with fantasy
so that there's less of everything.
With regard to women writers, well, there has been progress.
There has been progress with regard
to women writers including my colleague
at Syracuse Michelle Emugo [phonetic] who pushes the frontiers
of innovation in the literary field.
But there's still a lot more to be done to carry women writers.
In the field of indigenous literature women started
out more spectacularly.
There is publishing taking place in a number
of different languages including my own mother tongue, Swahili,
and there have been a lot of writing in Swahili in Tanzania and Kenya
in recent years including experimentation.
So all those classes so women like [inaudible] starting earlier
from tradition linked with indigenous narration
and story telling, started a process in Eastern Africa
which has been followed by other writers since then.
>> Angel Baptiste: Thank you.
Again, if we refer to your earlier article on the State
of African Literature Since the 1930s,
in that article you identified seven conflict things,
particularly the clash between Africa's past and present,
between the individual and society,
and between African identity and humanity.
Do these things continue and are there new things explored
in current African literature?
>> Ali Mazrui: Those seven conflicts I wrote about more
than a decade ago, also one of the classification for the writer is
that they are cited time and time again as the persistent dilemmas
of the writer, the conflict within orientation towards the individual
and orientation toward our society.
And the conflict within the loyalty to society
and [inaudible] of the human race.
And many of these aspects have continued as part of the reality
of choice that we have to do.
There are things that have been inadequately addressed
by African writers.
For a continent that suffers from many conflicts,
it's very sad that there is inadequate poetry
of war in a continent of war.
So there is a lot of conflicts of different kinds
within our continent unfortunately.
In most other circumstances this would trigger lamentations,
examinations [inaudible] tragedies, etc., etc.,
because almost every country has a neighbor that has suffered,
and I have noticed there has been various issues.
So I have brought lines from a writer who was himself killed
by war, and I suspect had he lived long enough he would have become an
anti-war poet.
That precisely is Christopher Okigbo about whom I wrote a novel.
So I wrote something at the conference
at Harvard a few years ago in honor of the memory of [inaudible].
But this lamentation I had at Harvard is still there.
This is a continent of war which has not
yet produced poets of war, poets of war.
And we don't have to celebrate war.
We can lament war, but there has been very little.
I have lines here from Christopher Okigbo and how he became a victim.
And strangely enough they are lines that sound like they come
from someone who ought not to have joined the Biafra war.
So it's almost as if it's ironic he joined the Biafra war and he died.
But his muse seemed to be aware of the costs of war.
So with your permission may I read these?
>> Angel Baptiste: Yes.
>> Ali Mazrui: Death may in ambush that evening in that island.
Voice sought its echo that evening in that island.
And I lost its light and light lost its shadow,
for the wind eternal suitor of dead leaves unroll his bandages
to the finest trimmer, because an evening without flesh or skeleton,
an evening with no silver bells to its tail, without lanterns,
an evening without buntings,
and it was an evening without age or memory.
For we are talking of such common places
and on the brink of such great events.
And in the freezing [inaudible] of the white chamber,
eyes that had lost their animal color have [inaudible] eyes
of a [inaudible] race pinned me cold to the marble stretcher
until my eyes lost their blood and the blood lost its color.
The everlasting fire from the oblong window provoke the taste
of ash in the air's marrow.
And wish them solitude, smothered by scattered cry.
And then it's probably one of the most beautiful written [inaudible]
in Africa [inaudible] when you have finished
and then my stitches wake me near the altar
and this poem will be finished.
[Audience appreciation sounds] It sounds very much
of someone concerned by the cost of war and
yet he didn't have to fight it.
The only [inaudible] intellectual that joined the war as a soldier
and then died very fast after that.
I personally, although he wasn't someone I knew all that well,
I was a very great admirer of his.   I was moved so deeply,

and I regretted his death [inaudible] tragedy
from 1967 to 1970.
And then in my quest to put the tragedy to rest in my psyche,
as some of you may know who have read The Trial
of Christopher Okigbo, which I had intended to be a therapy
for my own anguish which I wrote at that time.
So I still lament, and I hope poets will rise to the occasion
that we are a continent of war without poets of war,
and we need to fill that gap.   >> Angel Baptiste: Thank you, sir.

We've noted earlier that many of Africa's writers are now living
in the west and they're writing in the west.
And the content and style of their works are geared
to western audiences.
In this contemporary context, is the direction
of African literature changing?
Are African writers living in North America and Europe writing
from the continent different from the social reality portrayed.
>> Ali Mazrui: That's a very important question.
It's true that people like me that African writers
who are now abroad and continue to write.
What audiences do they have in mind?
This is part of the canon we were discussing earlier.
It is about what makes a work African?
Is it the contents, is it the substance, what it is about?
Well, that's not enough.
You see, after all we don't assume that Hamlet,
Prince of Denmark is part of Danish literature, you know?
So the fact that the work itself is the audience it's a Denmark-based
story doesn't transform Hamlet
into a Danish contribution to world civilization.
So it's not enough that it's about Africa
to make a novel or a poem African.
The second type of measurements we have grappled with in the debate is,
but is the African-ness of the writer enough
to make that work African?   That I have a big debate with,

because sometimes the work may not be about Africa
but the person is African, and I have my father
as a possible illustration.   He wrote about Islam.

He wrote about Islam extensively both in Swahili
and in the Arabic language.
The fact that he wrote in Swahili Africanized his work, his time,
but in reality he was not discussing the African condition.
He was interpreting the Islamic provision which is bigger
than Africa by the time he was there.
So it's not enough either that the person writing it is African.
My third condition, what makes a work African is the
targeted audience.   If the targeted audience is African,

then the author is consciously sensitized to that issue and seeks
to be understood in terms of the impact of that work upon Africans.
We who live in the West are now in a major dilemma
because very often the audiences we have in mind may be Africans,
but many of them are Africans in the [inaudible]
and that may not be enough.
The fourth area of defining what makes a work African
to give advantage to those who don't write
in European languages like my old man.
So my old man if you're writing
in an indigenous language it's impossible for you
if you are African and you are writing in let's say Somali,
not to be constantly conscious of the Somali people.
Notably [inaudible] in Somali is the most distinguished novelist
in the English language.   That's a dilemma.

He says if I wrote in the Somali language I would be conscious
of addressing the Somali people.
But he confessed that Somalia was under a dictator
so he wouldn't be read at all.
But if he wrote in the Somali language at that time when Somalia
as a whole was under a dictator he argued that he wouldn't be read
at all because his books would be banned inside the countries
where there were Somali leaders.
And so he started writing both novels
and plays in the English language.   I follow his plays.

I took part in them.
I don't know what role they gave me [laughter] but we produced it
in [inaudible], and like so many of the works
of [inaudible] he was very conscious of the consequences
of the tyranny in the human condition.
So that illustrated this dilemma you are referring to.
So when you are writing in English and you are based
in the United States, or you are writing in French and you're based
in France or Belgium, which audience are you conscious of?
When I flatter myself I say, look, I interpret Africa for Africans,
and I'm trying to interpret Africa for the world.
In reality most Africans know about me much more
through my television series than they know about me through my books.
In fairness they may know some types of the books I have written
without the books being available int their books stores.
Many of them are too expensive
because they were published in the West.
So we have this constant dilemma as Africans.
I don't think it's bad that some of us should be interpreting Africa
for the world rather
than interpreting Africa for fellow Africans.
But the best of all worlds would be one
where you reach the African audience intimately,
and right now if you live in the West and you write
in a European language you have less success in reaching Africans.

>> Angel Baptiste: Professor, my concluding question.

Does or what role does African literature have
in the world arena of literature?
Is there a social and cultural message
that African literature can bring to American and European audiences
and to humanity in general?
>> Ali Mazrui: Yes, writers of Africa including those
who are just currently writing poetry
or are writing fiction very often are simultaneously activists.
They are people concerned with the human condition
and not simply interpreting other peoples' novels
and being literary critics.
So people like Ngugi wa Thiong'o, the novelist from Kenya
and [inaudible] they are actively political activists.
They write essays that are engaged in dealing
with the human condition more generally,
and sometimes they even get into trouble as a result.
So in the case of Wole Soyinka I'm proud of one thing.
I brought him to Binghamton, New York simultaneously
with Yakubu Gowan who was Head of State at the time
when Wole Soyinka was being mischievous about the Biafran war.
He was very sympathetic tor the condition of the Igbo
and highjacked a radio station, and the government
of Yakubu Gowan put him in jail, put him in jail.
Many years later Wole Soyinka and I had clashes on the sizeable issues
of the way of the human condition.
We quarreled and then had a conference
on globalization [inaudible] between civilizations.
I said, okay, I will invite Wole Soyinka, see whether he will come
after my problem with him.   And lo and behold he said yes.

I didn't know if I had [inaudible]
on the radio [laughter] only offered expenses.
Because he was a Nobel Laureate,
a distinguished playwright, he was in great demand.
But that one with the invitation he decided it's time
to bury the hatchet between himself and myself and he came.
He didn't know I had with me at the same conference a former Head
of State of Nigeria who had locked him
up [laughter] a few decades before.
And then we had great fun realizing in a conceptive way the fact
that one of them had jailed the other,
and in the end we must now bury the hatchet and start afresh.
And it was quite a successful event.
But above all there was this notion that these are people
who had participated in historical events, who had been witnesses
to history, and who are very concerned
about what goes on in the wider world.
I haven't as yet done what I want.
That is produce more poets of war in a continent
that needs talent in that direction.
But they have done other methods of containing human suffering,
protesting human misery and allowing the possibility
of human reconciliation.   >> Angel Baptiste: Thank you.

Professor Mazrui this concludes my questions.
Again, I would like to thank you for granting me this interview,
for granting us this interview here at the Library of Congress.
And we thank you for helping us to launch our new series,
Conversations with African Poets and Writers.
Thank you.   [Applause]

>> Ali Mazrui: Thank you.
Bless you all and best wishes for this project which is worthy
of your support, that we have such a truth, yes, such a truth.
>> Angel Baptiste: I'm sorry.
At this point we will open the floor to questions.
And I'd like to mention that we are web casting this program.
When you ask a question you are granting permission to be web cast.
I'd like to ask also that we keep the questions very brief.
As we mentioned the Professor does have another engagement.
So please keep your questions brief.
>> Audience Question: [Inaudible] My question is what is your assessment
of the state of [inaudible]?
>> Ali Mazrui: This is a subject matter that is of great interest
to myself as well you can imagine.
There are people who are writing today
that are more Pan-African now than they were before.
So it's good that the flow in the literary field is
to have greater consciousness of an African identity
and greater interest in the production of literature
in the [inaudible], and African professors will teach courses
that combine literature from the continent
or from people of African ancestry.
There is some greater consciousness among politicians,
not enough on our politicians, but one of the tragedies
of the Libyan war is that Gaddafi was the only Arab leader
who decided he was an African first and an Arab second.
Of all the Arab [inaudible] he's the only one who,
and we've already said it,
the activist that he was an African first and Arab second.
And he made a mess of his relationship with the Arab world,
and he paid heavily because the Arabs threw him under the bus.
The people who tried to end the civil war in Lybia
by sending a particular delegation to solve it were people
from the African Indians there.
Africans of the continents were the only ones
who went there trying to end the conflict.
But their position was not interested
because they had the backing
of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization there.
So the fact that Gaddafi made a mess
of his Libyan policy should not make us forget
that he was more positive in his Pan-Africanism.
I spent many hours with him when he was in power.
I was on record as saying he was a good African but a bad Libyan,
etc. But he invested in different African countries.
But in general he wasn't the only one among the leaders
of the continent as a whole
who are becoming more sensitive to Pan-African leaders.
>> Angel Baptiste: Okay, we'll take one more question here.


It's kind of a two part.   But I recently read [inaudible].

She knew the [inaudible] language
for [inaudible] as well as [inaudible].
Is that a good vehicle for active writers to be able to stay connected
to their African audience as well as [inaudible]
up to the American audience or English speaking audience?
And my second part was I wanted you to make a comment
about your [inaudible] who recently passed away
and was also a writer [inaudible].
>> Ali Mazrui: Well, it's true infusing a work
in the European language and in English with the wisdom
from African languages to produce in African languages.
[Inaudible] did a bit of that,
but we need to do more of that to do that.
And much of that would also affect what audiences would respond
to this style of writing.
It's true that whole new languages are emerging but are mixed.
There should be greater creativity in Pigeon English in Nigeria.
It's a language in its own right.   It's very widely spread.

It may not be regarded as respectable
but we should regard it as potentially creative.
There is Pigeon English in Ghana,
and there is in Kenya what is called Swah-English,
a combination of Swahili and the English language.
So the trend is there but not yet fully mature.
With regard to [inaudible], yes it was a very sad loss.
[Inaudible] she was already in her 70s
but she always looked 50 years younger than me.
[Laughter] Very sad.
I [inaudible] on this issue with [inaudible]
that she helped change the criteria of peace.
Peace is more than just saving human lives,
it's also saving planet earth.
It's very important to save the human lives,
most Nobel Prizes were concerned with [inaudible] that's important,
but there's a tendency to overlook the other forms
of dangers including the dangers of planet earth.
She on her own helped to move the Nobel system for peace
which is based in Oslo in Stockholm.
She moved it to as regarding defending planet earth [inaudible]
for peace.
I was truly delighted that the conception of peace had widened
to the extent of rewarding those who are trying their best
to save the habitat of the human species.
So we will always remember her for that contribution.
>> Angel Baptiste: Thank you.
Unfortunately we have to conclude our program at this time.
I'd like to invite all of you to please visit the African
and Middle Eastern Division website for the Conversation
with African Poets and Writers series.
We are currently scheduling future writers to join us.
So if you visit our website you will see some of the writers
that we will be featuring or interviewing here at the Library.
We thank all of you for joining us today.
Thank you.   [ Applause ]

>> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress.