Passage of two African icons: A Tribute by Adekunle Animashaun

This passing week, Africa lost two illustrious sons namely, Professor Samir Amin, a foremost African Political Economist and Mr Kofi Anan, former UN Secretary General. Words are not enough to describe the loss that Africa has suffered with the transition of these two titans. Generations unborn will read about the respective contributions of the duo to Africanist scholarship (Samir Amin) and global security (Kofi Anan).

I wasn't privileged to meet Kofi Anan physically while on earth but a friend of mine who had a rare privilege of  interacting with Mr. Anan as part of his doctoral thesis on Africa and Global Peace told me about Mr. Anan"s deep and engaging perspectives about global peace and security, his nationalism and concerns about African condition. Strikingly, Mr. Anan's perspectives were to be the only primary data used to write the entire thesis. His achievements and legacies as the former world's number one bureaucrat, the second to be produced by Africa after Egyptian Boutrous Ghali, will continue to be a reference point in the UN discourse for a long time.

I had the privilege of meeting Samir Amin twice at two CODESRIA programmes in Yaounde and Dakar. At my first contact with him at CODESRIA General Assembly in Yaounde in 2008, I was struck by his simplicity and erudition demonstrated both in his presentation and interventions at plenary and other presentations. Most of his submissions in my two encounters with him were a reinforcement of his ideas and arguments about African condition and pro-active remedial measures which I was exposed to by Professor Eghosa Osaghae in his African Politics class during my undergraduate years at the University of Ibadan.

It is on record that Samir Amin was one of the strongest voices against the arguments of Western scholarship on African condition, development challenges and policy choices for economic and governance renewal. As the continent mourns these two great African citizens, we pray that God will grant their families the fortitude to bear these certainly irreparable losses. Adieu Amin and Anan.