Top African scholar, Ali Mazrui dies

Kenyan born academic and political commentator and writer on African and Islamic studies, Ali Al'amin Mazrui dies in the US after illness.

NEW YORK, USA  (REUTERS) -  One of the foremost scholars of African studies, Ali Mazrui has died at the age of 81.Mazrui, a leading pan-Africanist was a professor at the Binghamton University in New York at the time of his death. Reports say he had been ill for several months.

Mazrui was born in Mombasa, on Kenya's coast in 1933. He grew up in Kenya but went on to pursue higher education in the United Kingdom, Makerere University in Uganda and then the United States.

Mazrui was named one of the top 100 intellectual people in the world by American and British magazines.

His research in African and Islamic studies, international politics and culture and North-South relations is highly respected and referred to widely in the academic world.

Officials in Kenya say his body will be flown back to Kenya for burial.