Nigeria, Sept. 9 -- I met Professor Elaigwu through his former teacher and mentor, the late Professor Ali Mazrui, who transited to glory on 12 October, 2014. My meeting with Mr Mazrui was fortuitous.

I was living in London at the time and had founded the Adonis & Abbey publishers in 2003. The following year, I also founded the periodical, African Renaissance, then a bi-monthly, semi-academic journal, modelled after the US magazine, Foreign Affairs. That was at the height of 'Afro-pessimism', and there were efforts, especially from the Thabo Mbeki-led ANC government in South Africa, to promote the notion of an 'African renaissance'. One of the conservative newspapers in the UK had derided the whole notion by mockingly posing the rhetorica...