He suffered during the colonial period and was arrested a few times; in fact on one memorable occasion it was Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, the late President of Tanzania, who paid the necessary fine to secure his release. The Abu Mayanja Foundation inaugural memorial lecture was delivered by the renown African academic and political writer Professor Ali Mazrui on 30 July 2007 at the Rwenzori Ball Room, Sheraton Kampala Hotel. Professor Mazrui has in the past lived and worked in Uganda. He was at Makerere University from 1965 to 1973 as Head of the Department of Political Science (1965–1973), and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences (1967–1969). The inaugural lecture by Professor Ali Mazrui was entitled ""Between Secular Activism and Religious Observance – Abu Mayanja and Africa's Triple Heritage"".