***This campaign is now complete***

To support the next Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Scholar, please go to our new page:

https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/newdaughtersaward

The Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award

In 2020, Idza Luhumyo, a writer from Mombasa Kenya, became the inaugural recipient of the New Daughters of Africa Award for her MA in Comparative Literature at SOAS.

Scholarships are crucial for removing the financial barriers between talented students and their potential. Idza described her studies at SOAS as life-changing, and before graduating, she won the 2021 Short Story Day Africa Prize. This year, Idza won the 2022 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing . This was a major achievement for Idza who was competing among 349 entries from 27 countries. These phenomenal strides Idza has made in developing her writing career, starting with her Masters at SOAS, might not have been possible without her scholarship.

Margaret Busby is well known as having been Britain's first Black, female publisher after co-founding Allison & Busby in the 1960s. In 1992, Margaret changed the literary landscape forever when she published 'Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent'.

To continue this legacy, Margaret was inspired to set up this crowdfunded scholarship at SOAS to mark the publication of her 2019 follow-up Anthology, 'New Daughters of Africa', which follows in its forebear's footsteps and celebrates the work of 200 women writers, all of whom donated their fee to the scholarship.

Idza's award was funded entirely through donations, and thanks to the generosity of many supporters, there will be another awardee starting at SOAS this academic year. Now, we are crowdfunding again to ensure the continuation of this important programme, so that more talented writers might come to SOAS and enjoy success on the same scale as Idza's.

Thank you to our generous supporters for making this award possible:

Sir Michael McWilliam

Grace Owen

Margaret Busby

Luke Daniels

Idza Luhumyo

Jade Umeh

Bill Keeling

Little, Brown