We are proud and happy to announce that the “ASAUK – Outstanding African Studies Award 2024” has been presented to to our Founder Mr. Walter Bgoya and Ms. Mary Jay of African Books Collective for their contributions to African publishing and for their work to support many African writers.
Extract of the press release from ASAUK:
“It is important that African writers and academics should have more routes to publication and be more central in shaping their fields globally. For this it is essential that they have institutional support and also outlets for their work. Achieving these goals has been difficult. One central issue has been the domination of publishing and distribution by companies outside of the continent. Publishers in African countries have struggled for many years to find the capital and support for commercial operations, to find broader international markets for the books they publish, and even to get commissions for educational publishing in their own countries. African authors, both of academic work and fiction, have had little alternative but to go through international publishers if they are to get an audience. Walter Bgoya and Mary Jay have been key figures in addressing these issues for many years. They have both advocated strategies for African publishing, and successfully implemented some of these ideas. They took over as Chair (Walter Bgoya) and Secretary (Mary Jay) at an early stage the NOMA Award for Publishing in Africa, sponsored by a major Japanese publishing house, focusing on books published in Africa. Running for nearly thirty years (1980-2009), it gave considerable profile to a number of important African authors whose work would otherwise have struggled to find an international audience. The juries included leading African academics and writers. The winning authors – across disciplines, languages and genres of writing – included Mariama Bâ, Meshack Asare, Paul Zeleza, Luli Callinicos, Niyi Osundare, and Elinor Sisulu.”
Full press release accessible here.
Extract from Mr. Walter Bgoya’s keynote address:
“There can be no doubt about the crucial contributions African progressive intellectuals made to the total liberation of the entire continent from colonialism and apartheid. If there are examples of the strength of the pan-African ideal, the united position of African intellectuals in support of liberation is a shining one. We do know that at times the support for liberation of Southern Africa was used by African dictatorships to mask the internal repression that they were practicing in their own countries. Still it goes to prove the strength of the progressive forces that even such devils had at least to pay lip service and some money to the just cause. 9 It is equally clear that African scholars and academics have produced a wealth of research on all aspects of African states and societies and reduced considerably the overwhelming domination of Western scholarship that was the norm on the eve of independence. They have moved centre stage to own the debates on African issues and challenged western orthodox scholarship that analysed Africa through the prism of tribalism and other demeaning catch phrases.”
Full keynote address accessible here.