REMEMBERING DUSE MOHAMED ALI

Duse who? I’m sure many readers would be surprised that their Column, in this “season of remembrances” (Sardauna, Murtala, Malcolm X) is remembering someone they have no idea ever existed. Neither did I also, until twenty years ago when I was at the Journalism and Mass Communication Department of the American University in Cairo (AUC) […]

Duse who? I’m sure many readers would be surprised that their Column, in this “season of remembrances” (Sardauna, Murtala, Malcolm X) is remembering someone they have no idea ever existed. Neither did I also, until twenty years ago when I was at the Journalism and Mass Communication Department of the American University in Cairo (AUC) as a graduate student. During the summer of 1995, I had taken up an internship at Al-Ahram Weekly, the English edition, published every Friday, of the famous Al Ahram stable of newspapers. That was in addition to running a column and helping edit the departmental weekly, Caravan.
My boss on the Africa Page was Gamal Nkrumah, son of the late Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah. During the six weeks I was at Al-Ahram Weekly, I had written, among other pieces, an analysis on a then fresh military coup in Niger Republic (which overthrew President Muhammad Usman); the then schism (since satisfactorily resolved) between the mercantilist and intellectual branches of the Tijjaniyya Tariqa (then respectively led by Shaikh Isyaka Rabi’u and Shaikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi); and the real reason why Fahad Stores in Kano had to change its name to Sahad Stores (now a superstore in Kano, Abuja and Dutse, among other places) – actually a treatise on the First Gulf War.
One day in early 1996, my colleagues on the Africa Page of Al-Ahram Weekly asked if I was doing any tribute on the 50th Death Anniversary of Duse Mohamed Ali, so that they could leave me some space. Duse who, I had asked. Duse Mohamed Ali, they said, that Egyptian-born and Nigerian-died Pan-African journalist who lived most of his life in West Africa and died in Lagos, Nigeria. I almost swore I never heard of him, which was the truth, but that would have been a shame, knowing my Egyptian colleagues (with their airs). So I said, Oh, him? Of course I remember him and yes, I was going to write something about him and that they had only taken the wind off my sail, etc. In actual fact, I was hoping they wouldn’t ask for more until I research into Duse.
To cut the long story short, yesterday Friday marked the exact 70th Anniversary of the death of this journalist, Duse Mohammed Ali who was born on 21 November 1866 in Alexandria, Egypt and died on 26 February 1946 in Lagos, pre-independence Nigeria, at almost 80 years old. I was pleasantly intrigued when I first read about Duse – Egyptian journalist living and dying in pre-independence Nigeria? Why didn’t anybody teach us about him when they were telling us about Iwe Irohin Yoruba and other bits and pieces of African Media History? Well, there we are. Almost all I garnered about this great Pan-Africanist then as now has been from the Internet, and perhaps the accuracy may not be tops.
Duse Mohamed Ali, says Wikipedia, was an influential Pan-Africanist, a supporter of Islam, who traveled widely throughout the African Diaspora. He founded the African Times and Orient Review in London in 1911, which spread the call for African nationalism, and later founded The Comet in Lagos, Nigeria. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt, on 21 November 1866 to an Egyptian father, Abdul Salem Ali (who was an army officer), and a Sudanese mother (reason why it has been said Ali considered himself more black than Arab).
Ali, according to this information, was sent to England for schooling in 1876 and lost contact with his family — they could not afford for him to return to Egypt (as a result he lost his knowledge of Arabic). Ali’s father was killed in the nationalist uprising of 1882 (at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir — fighting against the British with the rebellious Egyptian army). His father’s death required Ali to return to Egypt to put his family’s affairs in order. It was at this point that he adopted the name Duse, to distinguish himself from the common Egyptian name Mohamed Ali. He returned to Britain impoverished and unable to continue his education.
While in Britain, Ali began a career as an actor and playwright — although his plays failed to achieve critical acclaim. He began working for Wilson Barrett’s theatrical company (although he is said to have worked with more famous acting companies over the years) and between 1885 and 1909 he played at venues around the UK, and toured in India, the Caribbean, and the length of the Americas. He quit the touring company in the US and began work as a ‘penny-a-line’ [today’s freelance] journalist. He returned to Britain in 1898 to resume acting and to begin writing for the British press. By 1909 Ali was contributing to the liberal weekly paper New Age, in which he highlighted the plight of Black peoples around the world and pushed for Egyptian nationalism.
Ali was invited to attend the Universal Races Congress in 1911 at the University of London. Although a thousand people attended, only a small proportion were from the African Diaspora. Ali did, however, meet WEB Du Bois and John Eldred Taylor (an entrepreneur from Sierra Leone). In 1912 Taylor and Ali launched the African Times and Orient Review (AT&OR), but their relationship soon floundered and financing the paper switched to a consortium including JE Casely Hayford.
The paper advocated Pan-African and Pan-Asian nationalism, and became a forum for African activists and intellectuals. Marcus Garvey worked on the paper between 1912 and 1913 and was heavily influenced by Ali. (It is reported, however, that Ali dismissed Garvey for laziness.) The AT&OR suffered a hiatus during World War I and was re-launched as the African and Orient Review in October 1918. It continued in publication until 1920.
The British government had by now determined Ali to be a ‘notorious disseminator of sedition’ and the AT&OR was banned in India and Africa, and Ali was refused ‘safe conduct’ to visit West Africa. However, in 1920 he finally received a permit to travel abroad, and he departed for Africa in July that year, never to return to Britain. He stopped for several months in Lagos, Ibadan, and at ports along the Gold Coast [today’s Ghana]. He then took up residence in New York.
Despite Ali’s relationship with Garvey being strained, Ali contributed articles on African issues to Garvey’s Negro World, headed a department on African affairs, and worked for Garvey’s United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Garvey gained access to Ali’s Pan-Islamic connections and the subscription list for AT&OR. But by 1924 Ali and Garvey had separated once more. In 1926 Ali established the Universal Islamic Society in Detroit, Michigan (which in turn influenced the creation of the Nation of Islam by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in 1930) [and precursor to Malcolm X].
In 1931 Ali returned to West Africa acting as an agent for a New York cocoa buyer. He was refused entry to the Gold Coast, and eventually landed at Lagos. His business plans, which included finding financing for West African farmers directly from African Americans, once again failed. Ali started working as a journalist on the Nigerian Daily Times, became editor of the Nigerian Daily Telegraph in 1932, and in 1933 founded (and edited/managed) The Comet. It was soon Nigeria’s largest weekly, selling around 4,000 issues per week.
Among his famous sayings was this: “Europe stretches out her hands on every side to squeeze the darker races to her advantage, because she knows the people of Africa and the people of Asia to be divided. Her aim has been to promote division. It therefore behoves you, men of Asia, men of Africa, to join yourselves in one common bond of lasting friendship.”
Duse Mohamed Ali died in Lagos on 26 February 1946, seventy years ago yesterday. And may Allah forgive his shortcomings.