Condolence Messages
Que la terre lui soit légère
See you son
From the spaces I find myself in, we need more Africans to speak for Africa. Our agency, our narratives our very future needed people like you to prepare people like me.
Rest in Peace, ulale salama, Hamba Kahle Mwalimu na Shujaa!!
Mesdames et Messieurs les Membres du CODESRIA,
Cher-e-s collègues
Je viens d’apprendre la mort de Thandika Mkandawire, économiste de renommée internationale, professeur et universitaire originaire du Malawi. Ce décès intervient dans un contexte particulier déjà chargé de tristesses et d’émotions, parce qu’il survient au moment où nos blessures ne se sont pas encore refermées du fait de la disparition du professeur Samir Amin qui nous a quittés il y a seulement quelques mois. Le professeur Thandikak était un membre très influent du et au CODESRIA. Il est parmi les personnalités et figures emblématiques qui ont donné une âme et un esprit au Conseil. Thandika était un monument de la pensée, un mentor et un économiste de classe exceptionnelle dont les écrits ont constitué une source d’inspiration pour plusieurs chercheurs africains et étrangers. Thandika fait partie de la classe des chercheurs africains qui ont fait de la décolonisation des sciences sociales et humaines africaines leur cheval de bataille et qui ont milité pour casser les fractures épistémologiques et instaurer une diversité épistémique. En tant que membre du Comité Exécutif du CODESRIA, je salue la mémoire et l’œuvre immense de cet érudit qui vient de nous quitter au moment où l’on avait encore besoin de ses services et présente, à l’occasion, mes tristes condoléances à la famille biologique de Thandika Mkandawire, et à toute la communauté africaine des chercheur-e-s.
Que Dieu puisse avoir en repos l’âme de celui que nous appelions affectivement Mkandawire pour les uns ou Thandika pour les autres.
Jacques TSHIBWABWA KUDITSHINI
Université de Kinshasa/Université de Paris 8
Your works on Developmental State will forever be cherished!
J’ai eu l’occasion de le rencontrer et de discuter avec lui dans son propre pays le Malawi dans la conférence Guy Mhoné en 2007, puis en Zambie dans la même conférence en 2008. J’ai pu voir de près ses qualités scientifiques et humaines de modestie et de gentillesse.
Mes sincères condoléances à sa petite famille, aux proches, et à toute la communauté scientifique du CODESRIA.
Abdelali NACIRI, Economiste, Mohammedia, Maroc.
Adieu Thandika le sénégalais.
I quoted the line below by him in my Phd and to date I continue to try to ensure that I work towards changing this irony.
“A major irony of African development history is that the theories and models employed have largely come from outside the continent. No other region of the world has been so dominated by external ideas and models.” Mkandawire and Soludo (1999)
As many others, especially my colleagues in CODESRIA, I have been greatly influenced by Thandika, both directly as an individual, and indirectly as a member of the fourth generation of post-colonial academics nurtured by CODESRIA. I have cited his work - my very first publication on "nurturing the fourth generation" was indeed built on his own thinking, cited in this official tribute by CODESRIA's Executive Secretary, Godwin Murunga. I cannot remember how many times I have quoted his pithy, profound, memorable one-liners, especially to my peers and students, whether it be reminding us that we must be careful in negotiating the "networks" of relationships we enter into as African intellectuals, or in understanding what it means to "run as others walk" as we figure out how to meet our historical mission as the different generations engaged in intellectual work. I have used the "confession" he made with regard to his conversion to embracing feminist theories as an introduction to students on epistemic communities, as thinking, debating, engaging communities where the emphasis is not so much to defend positions but to grow together in thinking together. I have returned to his reflections on development and on SAPs to bolster my understanding of the contexts in which I work.
But perhaps my favourite memory of Thandika dates back to my first "real" encounter with him at my very first CODESRIA General Assembly. I have to admit that I was somewhat awed to be in that space with so many of intellectual giants whose names were familiar in bibliographies I was then reading as a graduate student. I was waiting for some friends in the lobby of the hotel, I think the plan was to go out for dinner. Thandika was "presiding" over a group sitting at some chairs in the lobby, engaged in some happy debate on something I can no longer remember. He spotted me standing by myself, called me to join them, mentioning a comment I had made in a session and saying he thought I had made a good point, and seamlessly integrated me into the group. If I remember correctly, when the friend I was waiting for came to the lobby, he insisted that she join us for a while before we went on our way. I learned an important thing about mentoring as a way of life and not an assigned task that day that I have carried through my own understanding and practice of nurturing and being nurtured by colleagues who share a space that I am in.
Farewell Mwalimu. You will be greatly missed - but oh, how so richly blessed we were as a community to have you!
My most sincere condolences to his family, my thoughts and prayers are with them.
From you, Professor Thandika Mkandawire, I will always keep and visit the words through which I learned that thinking on Africa is not transferring knowledge, but creating the possibilities for the real production and the construction of knowledge on and from Africa.
En cette douloureuse circonstance, je présente mes sincères condoléances à sa petite famille, au CODESRIA et à toute la communauté des chercheurs en Afrique.
B. Elmorchid, Université Cadi Ayyad de Marrakech
J'ai été particulièrement touché par la disparition du Professeur TM ... J'ai eu l'honneur de le rencontrer pour la première fois, et d'une heureuse manière, à Lusaka, à l'University of Zambia (UNIZA) en 2008 lors de la Conférence Guy Mhone organisée par le CODESRIA. En effet, j'étais l'un des 3 lauréats du prestigieux prix africain Guy Mhone, (du nom d'un autre brillant économiste qui nous déjà quitté hélas !). Encore jeune Assistant, j'avais beaucoup d'admiration pour nos aînés du CODESRIA (nos "héros scientifiques"), et j'étais donc fier de recevoir le prix Guy Mhone des mains de l'un de ces baobabs scientifiques ... C'était en présence du Professeur Adebayo Olukoshi, alors Secrétaire Exécutif du CODESRIA. Et je m'en souviens encore ... comme si c'était hier... Et le Prof. Thandika Mkandawire a lancé une petite boutade : "Eh mon ami, on va partager ça !" [et en français, lui qui était anglophone]. Et nous trois, nous nous sommes mis à rire pendant quelques instants; puis les Prof. Adebayo Olukoshi a lancé à son tour: "c'est pour encourager les jeunes chercheurs !" Et finalement, lui d'ajouter: "Oui, mon ami, il ne faut pas tout bouffer, il faut acheter des livres !"
Son passage au CODESRIA, à l'UNRISD et à la LSE ainsi que son acuité intellectuelle nous auront beaucoup marqué et édifié: tu laisses une oeuvre monumentale. Je suis fier de toi, oh que dis-je, nous sommes fiers de toi, cher Maître. Reposes en paix !
Prof. José Mvuezolo Bazonzi, Sociologue, Université de Kinshasa, RDC
You were a light unto this world, and we will miss you terribly, even though you liked to make jokes about the state of South African soccer.
Bahru Zewde
Adieu!!!
Rest In Power!
The Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) has learnt with great shock and sadness of the passing of Professor Thandika Mkandawire.
An accomplished scholar, researcher and teacher, Prof Mkandawire was one of the shining stars in the firmament of African intellectual pursuits. Born in Malawi, his career spanned many geographies and disciplines, displaying a profound understanding of the African and global political economy. Prof Mkandawire eschewed the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake and sought always to complement his probing analysis of African societies with bold propositions on how the continent can lift itself from the legacies and path-dependencies of the colonial era.
We are proud as the Mapungubwe Institute and its partners to have been among the beneficiaries of his erudition and wisdom. In particular, we are truly honoured that he delivered the inaugural Mapungubwe Annual Lecture in 2012. His profound thoughts on the theme, Building the African state in the age of globalisation – the role of social compacts and lessons for South Africa, remain an enduring source of knowledge and inspiration as South Africa climbs out of the quagmire of debilitating neopatrimonialism and state capture.
In this hour of grief, MISTRA draws solace from the conviction that Professor Thandika Mkandawire will continue to inspire intellectuals and practitioners alike in the cause of improving the human condition in Africa and further afield.
We express our profound condolences to his family and all his colleagues around the world.
Executive Director
What Thandika Mkandawire taught me about African development - by Teniola Tayo
In Memoriam | Thandika Mkandawire
SE SOUVENIR DE THANDIKA MKANDAWIRE PAR LA CHRONIQUEUSE DE SENEPLUS, RAMA SALLA DIENG
Deaths of Professors; Harry Garuba, Thandika Mkandawire, Euphrase Kezilahabi and Ken Walibora Waliaula: Cruel Impeachment to Africa’s Course of Self-Determination by Alexander Opicho
Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) conveys condolences on the passing of Professor Thandika Mkandawire
Thandika Mkandawire : An Intellectual Giant, an Incorrigible Pan-Africanist, An Obituary By Ibbo Mandaza
Hommage du CODESRIA à Thandika Mkandawire (1940-2020): Chercheur, mentor et bâtisseur d’institutions
Prof. Thandika Mkandawire’s Remarks at the 15th CODESRIA General Assembly
Thandika Mkandawire has passed on!
It is with great sadness and a deep sense of loss that the Council for the Development of Social Science in Africa, CODESRIA, announces the passing away of Professor Thandika Mkandawire on March 27, 2020. Thandika as he was fondly known was a brilliant economist and prodigious scholar whose works on African political economy challenged dominant ways of seeing the African continent on a wide range of issues that included structural adjustment and economic reform, democratic politics, neopatrimonialism and insurgent violence. Thandika was a very dedicated member of CODESRIA. He led the Council as its Executive Secretary from 1985 to 1996 and continued to play important roles in the life of the organization after moving on to head UNRISD and later taking on a distinguished professorship at the London School of Economics. From 2015-2016, he led the internal review of CODESRIA’s governance and membership whose recommendations underpin an ambitious process of reform that the Council is undertaking. On April 11-13, 2016 CODESRIA organized a conference in Lilongwe, Malawi with the theme “Thinking African, Epistemological Issues: Celebrating the Life and Work of Thandika Mkandawire” in his honor. Thandika will be sorely missed by the CODESRIA community and the entire African social science community. His brilliance was matched by his humility, wit and willingness to mentor new generations of scholars. CODESRIA extends its sincere condolences to Thandika’s family. CODESRIA will announce its plans for celebrating the life and ideas of Thandika in the days ahead. May his soul rest in perfect peace.
Reflections of an Engaged Economist: An Interview with Thandika Mkandawire
Below is a link to an interview that our colleague Kate Meagher conducted with the late Prof. Thandika Mkandawire. The interview was published under the title “Reflections of an Engaged Economist: An Interview with Thandika Mkandawire,” in Development and Change, vol. 50 no. 2, 2019, pp. 511-541. More…
THANDIKA MKANDAWIRE LE BOSS – Par Mamadou Diouf
Je n’aime pas les oraisons funèbres. Elles annoncent, avec brutalité et désespoir, la disparition d’un être cher qui a marqué son temps et laissé une marque. Elles s’évertuent à tracer une histoire, exhumer une contribution remarquable, pour attester de sa clôture, même si l’on clame la continuité. Nonobstant nos efforts, l’oraison funèbre signale la mort ; elle enterre la personne pour n’en laisser qu’une trace et obturer une vie. More…
Thandika Mkandawire the Boss – By Mamadou Diouf
I do not like funeral orations. They announce, with brutality and despair, the disappearance of a loved one who has marked his time and left a mark. They strive to tell a story, to unearth a remarkable contribution, to bear witness to its closure, even if we claim continuity. Notwithstanding our efforts, funeral orations signal death; they bury a person and leave only a trace and seal a life. More…