The African Studies Association of the UK has awarded its 2026 Outstanding African Studies Award to two individuals who both have made highly remarkable contributions to the field of African Studies, both in the UK and beyond. These are Professor Emeritus William Beinart and Margaret Busby, CBE.The prizes were awarded at the latest ASAUK conference at the University of Durham, 10-12 September, and we are very grateful that both awardees could be present at this occasion.
William Beinart
William Beinart, formerly Rhodes Professor of Race Relations (1997-2015), is Emeritus Professor at St Antony’s College and the African Studies Centre. He served as chair of the Board of the Journal of Southern African Studies, Director of the African Studies Centre at Oxford and President of the ASAUK (2008-2010). In 2009 he was elected as a member of the British Academy.
At the award ceremony, Stephanie Kitchen (from the International African Institute) read the following citation in honour of William:
It is impossible to do justice to William’s lifelong contributions to our fields in a few short words, but I will try. William’s own research includes 11 authored or co-authored books, 15 co-edited books and journal special issues, and over 80 journal articles and book chapters.
William edited the Journal of Southern African Studies in various capacities from the early 1980s. He has written hundreds of peer reports. In 2024, William chaired the ASAUK monograph prize.
In putting together this nomination, I received at least eight statements of support, an indication of how much William means to so many people. I’ve chosen to quote from two of them this evening.
Prof. June-Bam (AfOx Fellow 2025-2026; Director: Centre for Education Rights and Transformation, University of Johannesburg) wrote:
“I came to know and work very closely with William Beinart around 20 years ago. I had by then only known William from our undergraduate reading lists in courses at the University of Cape Town and from the ‘underground’ reading circles. William formed part of a radical group of white scholars on South African history and historiography much admired then by the anti-Apartheid left who frequently cited his work and those of others from faded overused photocopied pages of articles and chapters. This was a group of notable radical black intellectuals in underground reading groups of the time who frequently read and cited (amongst others) the work of Beinart, Bundy, Dubow, Marks, Fanon, Samir Amin, Walter Rodney etc.”
Of his term as President of ASAUK, June says:
“I was the honorary secretary of the ASAUK from 2008 to 2010 and William was the President … William delicately and very astutely mentored and supported me as most likely the first African female scholar in this role in its then close to 50 years of existence. William’s astute strategic oversight laid the early foundations for a profoundly transformed ASAUK from a predominantly white and male organisation to a more African representative organisation. Under William’s directorship, we embarked on a long bus journey across the UK to universities far north and far south to recruit African scholars to the ASAUK and to break down the exclusionist barriers that existed for close to half a century. I was delighted to observe the long-term transformed demographic outcome at the ASAUK conference of 2024. Today, with WhatsApp and social media such slog to campaign and recruit is simply unthinkable. Under William’s directorship it was indeed thinkable!”
Prof. Andrew Bank (Dept. of Historical Studies, University of the Western Cape) writes about William’s contribution to History and African Studies, and how he supported his own career:
“In 1995 William nominated my Cambridge University doctoral thesis for an Audrey Richards Dissertation Award. In 2017 he arranged an Oppenheimer Fellowship for me at Oxford University African Studies Centre, offering to accommodate me at his house should the last-minute accommodation for which I had applied fall through. In the period from 2020 to 2026, he has effectively supervised my current monograph-near completion titled Audrey Richards and the Making of British African Studies. Without his guidance, this study would never have been produced. He is undoubtedly the most generous scholar I have ever worked with.”
It is hard to capture why William’s contributions have been so compelling. He combines unwavering progressive commitment and institutional vision, with calm gentle wisdom. William: we wish you a well-deserved retirement. It’s for the rest of us to take forward your legacy.
Margaret Busby
Margaret Busby, CBE, is known for her contributions and commitments in the world of publishing, particularly for writers, publishers and cultural organisations of African descent. She exudes patience and generosity as a literary activist and is herself, a remarkable creative talent in the genres of creative non-fiction, drama, (stage and broadcast) and writing as activism. Margaret Busby is frequently and rightfully cited as a pioneer in the history of Black publishers in the UK.
At the award ceremony, Kadija George read the following citation in honour of Margaret:
Known to be the youngest woman publisher and the first Black woman publisher in Britain, Busby is a benchmark in her fields reflected by the numerous accolades that she has received since graduating.
Margaret Busby co-founded the publishing house, Allison & Busby with Clive Allison. Despite being a general publishing house the success which came with their first writers were of African descent, with some of those works being classics today, and republishing others like the icon, CLR James, so that they did not fall into obscurity. Yet her resilient character is obvious as she tells the story of turning down a book of another icon, I Know Why the Caged Birds Sing by Maya Angelou, and adds that she and Maya, herself an activist, later became good friends. After leaving Earthscan publishers, her freelance work allowed her again to publish what she wanted and it was whilst doing so, that she established another part of her legacy with the publication of Daughters of Africa in 1992, a celebration of pioneer women authors. It was so groundbreaking that for the next 20 years other African women writers were still cajoling her to produce the next volume so that they could be part of the legacy of the next generations of African women writers until New Daughters of Africa was published in 2019. The royalties from this anthology established the ‘Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award’, a scholarship at SOAS for an African woman writer from the continent which is now supported by the Hawthornden Foundation and private donations.
By default, on the other side of her publishing career, Margaret became a literary activist, supporting publishers with advice, knowledge and patronage, particularly women, and particularly Black publishers. One of the first roles she became involved in was as a founder of GAP (Greater Access to Publishing), supported by the Arts Council in Britain which started by providing four women of African and Asian descent mentoring with publishers in the mainstream industry. Her activism includes writing for the community, both as an avid contributor to Wikipedia, particularly contributing to profiles on women, and Black organisations. She writes many obituaries for the Guardian, too, ensuring that people of note of African descent are noted and remembered for their contributions to society. She also chronicles this history herself, as she is rarely without her camera when she is at events. She also supports local Black literary events in her area, whenever she can, whether it is with an in-person appearance and or public and private words of support and encouragement. She has judged major literary prizes which include Chair of the Booker Prize 2020 jury and the Caine Prize for African Writing as well as being the Founding Patron and on the advisory board of the Etisalat Prize and Founding patron for the SI Leeds Prize for Black and Asian women in Britain.
Margaret Busby is responsible for bringing us so many important voices, as well as of a long-continued commitment to volunteering her expertise to emerging writers – whether in offering her editorial skills, her critical guidance, or her unstinting encouragement. She continues to give, generously and without fanfare, to those who are still finding their way. In a time where writers and other artists are under threat from AI and controlled by neocolonial corporations, this is a crucial time to celebrate and show our gratitude to a publisher who has promoted the art of those who push back against those exploitive structures.
Her many awards which include honorary doctorates from Exeter University and the Open University, recognise her for this and more. Her Lifetime Achievement Awards are from African centred organisations and national organisations, with one of her highest accolades being, Commander of the Order of the British Empire which was bestowed upon her in 2021. Other Lifetime Achievement Awards have been bestowed upon her from the Royal Society of Literature, and the London Bookfair. The latest award she has received which speaks directly to why she is being nominated for the Outstanding African Studies Award is the Honorary Doctorate from the University of Johannesburg, “for her dedication to critical African scholarship and publishing.”
We are very grateful to Margaret for her unwavering commitment to enriching African life, and we wish her many more healthy years in which she can see the fruits of her labour.
About the prize
The Outstanding African Studies Award (formerly known as the Distinguished Africanist Award) was inaugurated by the ASAUK as a way of paying tribute to individuals or teams who have made exceptional contributions to the field of African studies, i.e. scholars who have in one way or another expanded and disseminated knowledge of Africa, and interest in Africa.