Pius Adesanmi. Image from Kogi Reports.

In honour of the towering late scholar who passed on in March, the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA) has established the Pius Adesanmi Memorial Award for Excellence in African Writing, a biennial honour for “an outstanding single-authored book focused on Africa and/or the global African world.” The winner, according to the Association’s website, will receive a cash prize, a plaque, and lifetime membership of the ASAA.

Submissions should be made “by or on behalf of a scholar, activist, and/or artist.” The award committee will consider “books that cover any historical period and come from any discipline or combination of disciplines, published in English, French, Portuguese, or an African language,” as long as they are “theoretically, conceptually, and/or methodologically innovative.”

The ASAA has called the demise of the Carleton University professor of literature and African Studies “a monumental loss to the global African Studies community.”

Eligibility

Submitted works must meet the following criteria:

  1. Be a single-authored book focused on Africa and/or the global African experience. Edited volumes will not be considered.
  2. Be published in English, French, Portuguese, or any African language.
  3. Have a copyright date of no more than four years prior to the year of the award. Books published between 2015 and 2019 will be eligible for the inaugural 2019 award.

Submission Criteria

  1. Entries will open on MAY 9, 2019 and must be received by JULY 15, 2019 to be eligible for the 2019 award. Nominations should be emailed to piusadesanmimemorialprize@as-aa.org
  2. Submissions may be made by the publishers or authors of nominated books.
  3. Nominations for the award must include a short description of the book, its theoretical, conceptual, and/or methodological significance, and what makes it an example of excellence in African writing.
  4. Nominations must be accompanied by six physical or electronic copies of the book for review by each member of the award committee. Physical copies of submitted books will not be returned.
  5. Please contact piusadesanmimemorialprize@as-aa.org after MAY 9, 2019 for details of the mailing address for physical books.

Founded in 2013 to mark the 50th anniversary of the University of Ghana’s Institute of African Studies, the ASAA’s mission is “to promote Africa’s own specific contributions to the advancement of knowledge about the peoples and cultures of Africa and the Diaspora.” According to its website, it is “currently the only multidisciplinary and trans-disciplinary professional association on the continent dedicated to the study of Africa from the Africanist perspective.” The Association holds biennial conferences: the first in 2015 at University of Ibadan, Nigeria; the second in 2017 at the University of Ghana; the third forthcoming in October 2019 at the University of Nairobi, Kenya.

The winner of the inaugural Pius Adesanmi Memorial Award for Excellence in African Writing will be announced at the 2019 ASAA Biennial Conference in Nairobi.