Mapping Mazrui’s Mind Assessing the Mazruiana through a Bibliometric Lens

Abstract

Ali Mazrui has left his enormous intellectual footprint in politicalscience in general and African studies in particular. By the beginningof the 1990s, his output had been impressive enough to bringabout Abdul Bemath’s 1998 compilation The Mazruiana Collection(1962-1997).1 As the years unfolded, Bemath saw the need toupdate his earlier compilation, which he renamed The MazruianaCollection Revisited. The 2005 annotated bibliographical text thathe painstakingly put together continues to generously serve the socialsciences and humanities. This compilation’s latest edition isabout to be concluded and will include all of Mazrui’s publicationsbetween 2005 and 2014, as well as other edited texts that containMazrui’s writings that were compiled posthumously.This article essentially returns to Bemath’s invaluable compilationas well as to Mazrui’s updated resume to study and review froma bibliometric perspective Mazrui’s substantial contribution to thesocial sciences and the humanities. Put differently, it sets itself thetask of undertaking a bibliometric approach that will help map outthis scholar’s “mind” by reflecting upon the numbers of peer reviewedarticles alongside his long list of books and book chapter publications. It graphically depicts and analyzes Mazrui’s outputin order to show the extent of his contributions toward the knowledgeproduction process related to the above-mentioned disciplinesand in particular to that of African studies.