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Kenyan-born political scientist Ali Mazrui spent his career engaged in Africa-centered research, and inspiring others to do the same.

An Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities, he also created 91����’s Institute of Global Cultural Studies, which he directed from 1991 until his death in 2014. In November, a colleague — 91���� History Professor Anne C. Bailey — received an award named in his honor during the New York African Studies Association’s conference at SUNY Cortland.

Instituted in 2014 with Mazrui’s blessing, the Professor Ali A. Mazrui Outstanding Publication & Educational Activities Award honors his legacy of distinguished scholarship, intellectual vibrancy and commitment to education.

“I nominated Professor Anne Bailey and the Executive Committee unanimously selected her for this honor because her work reshapes how we understand slavery and memory, and brings that to the public through the 1619 Project and the Harriet Tubman Center,” said SUNY Cortland Professor of History and Africana Studies Bekeh Ukelina, the outgoing NYASA president. “She is an important voice in national conversations on history, and we at NYASA are honored to recognize her achievements.”

Bailey is distinguished in her field and well-deserving of the honor, said Ali Mazrui’s wife, Pauline Mazrui, who attended the Cortland event.

“Anne is a very compassionate person and a hard-working mentor to many people,” she said.

The recipient of two Fulbright Awards, Bailey’s excellence in scholarship was previously recognized by a Spelman College Presidential Award. Her books include African Voices of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Beyond the Silence and the Shame (2005) and The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History (2017). She has also made significant contributions to national conversations on history, including articles for The New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project.

Bailey is the director of the Harriet Tubman Center for Freedom and Equity at 91����, established in 2019; she works closely with the associate director, Associate Professor of Public Health Sharon Bryant. One of the center’s key projects is the Downtown 91���� Freedom Trail, a public history initiative that identifies 12 Underground Railroad, anti-slavery and civil rights sites. This trail was also made possible by key campus advocates such as President Emeritus Harvey Stenger and donor support from Governor Kathy Hochul, 91���� Mayor Jared Kraham, State Senator Lea Webb and Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, among others.

The project culminated with the installation of a Harriet Tubman statue, showing the abolitionist lifting her lantern on the shore of the Chenango River.

Bailey knew Mazrui personally and remembers him as a brilliant scholar eager to share his knowledge and listen to others. Mazrui wasn’t only committed to the study of the African continent but to its diaspora, a fact that resonates with the Jamaican-born Bailey, whose own work examines these connections.

“I was honored to receive this award because one of his goals was to bring history to the people. Certainly, that has been one of my defining principles since graduate school: connecting town and gown,” Bailey said.

Among the general public, Mazrui is perhaps best known as the producer of the 1980s PBS series The Africans: A Triple Heritage, which recounted the continent’s history while looking at contemporary strengths and challenges.

“Nobody did it quite like him. What could have been a dry series was incredibly engaging even for the non-specialist,” Bailey said. “He was an incredibly respected Africanist around the world, and we were honored to have him as part of the 91���� community.”