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HEAD2HEAD: Silas Nyanchwani goes after Prof Makau Mutua’s jugular; Harvard vs Columbia, Nation vs Standard

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Bombshell: what Prof Makau Mutua writes is not any different from the silly things we write on Facebook for fun and likes

By Silas Gisiora Nyanchwani

Makau Mutua has really run out of ideas to write. There are things that should be left to younger and stupider people like us to peddle here on Facebook. He is a scholar who should interpret better stuff for us.

In recent past, he has criticized the artificial women hair(weaves and wigs) reducing such a complex subject into tired cliches that any scholar, especially on the liberal left, should steer clear of. I am a man. I don’t like weaves or wigs. I know the racial and such arguments about weaves and wigs. But I do know enough about the notions of beauty, politics of female hair, the economics that govern such to be humble to know that I should keep my mouth shut.

Next he discussed about the folly of our English and Christian names. Well, we all know we were colonised and our changing our names as we used to be instructed when converting to Christianity is not cool.

But again, this is a subject that cannot be addressed using cliches from the 1960s. I think scholars should not only criticise, but must address our problems with well-thoughtout practical solutions. If I change my name to Ondicho Nyanchwani, it is not like I will get a job tomorrow or sort my economic situation.

Today he came for supporters of English Premier League. I have never read a hopelesly sad thing.
Going by his logic, we should not listen to European music, we should not watch Hollywood stuff, we should travel in airplanes(they were made by colonizers), we should not wear clothes, we should communicate in English(he writes in English, lives in America where he teaches in a college and his son plays American supporter-which he justifies with some flimsy excuse). I can go on. But we all know the inherent contradictions of some of these foolish and populist ideas.
Makau Mutua is a scholar who is using his brain in another country instead of coming home to offer solutions like most of us.

He has the best and prime spot in our local dailies. Sunday Fucking Nation. He is a great lawyer. He can use his brains better than regurgitate some populist cliches that don’t improve the quality of debates, or any decent solutions to the complex problems we face as a continent.

Sunday Nation should offer that space to younger people who can steer better debates about more immediate problems the country faces. God knows how much we miss Murithi Mutiga.
I can’t remember the last time Makau Mutua with his crystal balls wrote or said anything that was life-changing. What Makau Mutua writes is not any different from these silly things we write here on Facebook for fun and likes.
Period.

Makau Mutua responded: Silas, you are one lazy chap. Who stopped you from writing a column? Go and convince a paper to hire you so we can hear those great thoughts that you purport to have, and which are bursting to gush out of your noggin. I, for one, will be glad to read them. I am even willing to market your CV to the papers, if you post it here.

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