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Quote: Dusé Mohamed Ali was an influential Pan-Africanist, a supporter of Islam, and traveled widely throughout the African Diaspora. He founded the African Times and Orient Review in 1911, which spread the call for African nationalism, and later founded The Comet in Lagos, Nigeria. Date of Birth: 21 November 1866, Alexandria, Egypt. Date of Death: 26 February 1946, Lagos, Nigeria. Mohamed Ali 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. Ali 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 Dusé, to distinguish himself from the common Egyptian name Mohamed Ali. He returned to Britain impoverished and unable to continue his education. Dusé Mohamed 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. Ali quit the touring company in the US and began work as a 'penny-a-line' 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. In 1911 Dusé Mohamed Ali responded to comments about Britain's role in Egypt made by Theodore Roosevelt (during a public speech at the Guildhall, London, 30 May 1910). Roosevelt had urged Britain to use 'violence and injustice' against the 'fanatical' Egyptians and their 'farcical' attempts at self-government1. The result was a book: Land of the Pharaohs, published both in London and New York. It was widely acclaimed, but it was soon revealed that Ali had plagiarized earlier works. Ali apologized, and his continued stalwart stance against British imperialism (and the treatment of Africans in the US) produced much acclaim amongst the African Diaspora. 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. Ali noted in the inaugural issue that it would be "a Pan-Oriental, Pan African journal at the seat of the British Empire which would lay the aims, desires and intentions of the Black, Brown, and Yellow Races -- within and without the Empire -- at the throne of Caesar" and that it would present "the truth about the African and Oriental condition that is rarely stated with precision and accuracy in the columns of the European press". 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 the Great War (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. At the end of 1920 Ali became a director of the Inter-Colonial Corporation and traveled on its behalf to New York. In his biography, Ali's Gold Coast business partners cheated him out of funds, leaving him destitute in New York. Whilst attempting to earn money by giving lectures, Ali's other business venture, the American African Oriental Trading Company, also collapsed. In desperation he turned to his pan-African contacts, including Marcus Garvey. Despite Ali's relationship with Garvey being strained, they both profited: 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). 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. Ali serialized both his novel Ere Roosevelt Came (which described his experiences in the US) and his autobiography Leaves from an Active Life in The Comet in 1934 and 1937 respectivley. In 1943 he retired as managing director. Dusé Mohamed Ali died in Lagos on 26 February 1946. 1 Hakim Adi and Marika Sherwood, Pan-African History, Routledge, 2003.