Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award celebrates second student

The directors of the Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award and SOAS have announced that a second student from Africa has enrolled at the university, thanks to the bursary funded partly by writers.

The bursary prize was set up by Margaret Busby, publisher Myriad Editions, and SOAS University of London to support a new generation of African women writers. They are now appealing for more donations to continue the bursary for years to come.

The award has so far raised more than £32,000 and funded two scholars – Idza Luhumyo and Stella Gichohi, both coincidentally from Kenya – to pursue a master’s degree at SOAS University of London.

Busby is well-known as having been Britain’s first Black female publisher after co-founding Allison & Busby in the 1960s. She published Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent (Pantheon Editions) in 1992.

Twenty-seven years later, as she compiled her follow-up landmark anthology, New Daughters of Africa (Myriad Editions), she decided to celebrate its publication with a longer-term legacy.

New Daughters of Africa celebrates the global writing of more than 200 writers of African descent. All contributors – featuring both well-known and emerging writers – donated their fees towards this legacy, the Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award.

The award directors said: “Their generosity built a bedrock of support and, together with the backing of Myriad and investment of Margaret herself, who donates a proportion of her royalties to the fund, made it possible to launch the award in 2019 in collaboration with SOAS University of London.”

Luhumyo, the inaugural recipient of the New Daughters of Africa Award for her MA in Comparative Literature at SOAS, went on to won the 2021 Short Story Day Africa Prize and then the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing in 2022. "These phenomenal strides would not have been possible without her scholarship," prize organisers said.

Candida Lacey, director of the Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award and former publishing director of Myriad Editions, commented: “Scholarships are crucial for removing the financial barriers between talented students and their potential. Our aim is to build on these funds and ensure that the award can be offered not only twice, but every year.

"Every donation, no matter the size, will contribute directly to the Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award and help make it possible to fund another African student to study for her master’s degree. We want the Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award to have a life-changing impact on generations of African writers.”

Busby said: “I could not be more proud of being associated with this truly inspirational project. The award has already demonstrated just how much is possible when we join together to empower the creativity of others – from which the whole world can ultimately benefit.”

Busby’s own collected writings will be published by Hamish Hamilton in October 2024.

For more information please contact Lacey at candida@pearlmanandlacey.com. Donations to the award can be made directly at: justgiving.com/campaign/newdaughtersaward