Prof Calestous Juma’s indelible footprints in Comesa

US-based Kenyan scholar Calestous Juma who died in Boston, Massachusetts. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • His death sent shock waves throughout the world, among political leaders, his peers in the academia, his large community of students and social media followers and global family of friends. 

  • Prof Juma was successively named among the 100 most influential Africans and most reputable people in the world.

  • He was a master of the big picture and structure of things, from which he constructed institutions and systemic solutions for change.

Once in a while, humankind gets blessed with prodigious talents to light the world and dispel darkness. Civilisations and breakthroughs in human history have arisen from such gifted people.

Such was Prof Calestous Juma, who died on December 15, 2017, after a battle with cancer, and interred last Saturday.

His death sent shock waves throughout the world, among political leaders, his peers in the academia, his large community of students and social media followers and global family of friends. 

Some will remember Calestous as an academic, a scientist, the founding executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, or the founder of the African Centre for Technology Studies. But many of us will remember him as a development engineer who fervently sought solutions to social economic problems afflicting humankind. 

Prof Juma was successively named among the 100 most influential Africans and most reputable people in the world.

INSPIRATIONAL FORCE

When in 2010 King Mswati III of Swaziland chose science and technology as the theme and organising logic for the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), Calestous Juma was the man who provided its intellectual underpinning. “This bright son of Africa”, as the Comesa ministers affectionately called him, has over the years been a transformative and inspirational force for the bloc. 

The Comesa Virtual University, a network of 22 universities, and the Comesa Innovation Awards (17 given so far), were concrete proposals he made which have been operationalised. So are the Comesa Committee of Ministers responsible for Science and Technology, and the Comesa Innovation Council.

Calestous was at hand to make comments on working papers and numerous documents and write policy briefs on key issues on request. He was always prepared to try new models. He thus organised and gave in Lusaka, Zambia, the Harvard Kennedy School of government science technology and innovation executive course for Comesa senior officials.

FREE TRADE AREA

Calestous closely followed the negotiations for the Comesa-EAC-SADC Tripartite Free Trade Area, covering 27 countries, and those for the African Continental Free Trade Area, covering 55 countries. These have been the biggest and most ambitious FTA negotiations ever.

The professor was about to publish a book he has written on these negotiations with Dr Francis Mangeni, the Comesa director of Trade and Customs.

Gifted with immense wit, charm, courage, humour and modesty — itself a rare combination — Prof Juma was a trusted adviser to heads of state and government throughout the world on critical issues affecting humankind.

He was a mentor and inspiration to many young students, professionals and political leaders that he taught over the years and a public educator and entertainer to his very large family of social media fans.

SAVING THE PLANET

Through his writings and public engagements, he has made an indelible and enduring contribution to humankind’s understanding and efforts in saving the planet and creation in all its vibrancy and biological diversity, and in eliminating poverty, hunger, disease and ignorance through education and training, entrepreneurship, and better productivity.

He believed, taught and demonstrated that, through science, technology and innovation, we could positively change the world and our circumstances at the societal and individual levels.

A scholar of incredible brilliance and energy, his multi-disciplinary and inclusive approach to problem identification and solving, covering governments and public policy, the private sector and civil society organisations, as well as the academia, was, and remains, pertinent for our times, given the hair-breadth specialists many of our education systems produce.

SYSTEMATIC SOLUTIONS

He was a master of the big picture and structure of things, from which he constructed institutions and systemic solutions for change. His autobiography will, therefore, be much awaited. In characteristic modesty and humour, he titled it The University Drop-in, a Memoir.

What then would Calestous have us do? He very much wanted the Juma Institute of Science and Technology (JIST), in honour of his parents and with the mission of supporting innovation and young entrepreneurs, up and running immediately. Let’s look into this.

 

Mr Ngwenya is the secretary-general of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa). Website: http://www.comesa.int.