The Toyin Falola Africa Book Award is awarded at the annual conference to the author of the best book on Africa published during the preceding year. The award was established in 2005 in honor of Toyin Falola, one of Africa’s outstanding historians and intellectuals. The first award was presented at the annual conference in 2006 at Winston-Salem State University. The 2006 winner was Adam Ashforth for his excellent work, Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy in South Africa, published by the University of Chicago Press. The award is open to members and non-members of the association. The award recipient will receive a plaque and a $500 cash prize, generously funded by Falola. Only monographs and similar original studies will be considered. Please do not submit anthologies or edited works. To be considered for the award, send a cover letter to the committee chair and a copy of the book to each of the three committee members as soon as the book is published.
Award Committee (2021 – 2026)
Dr. José de Arimatéia da Cruz [chair]
Georgia Southern University Armstrong Campus
11935 Abercorn Street
Department of Political Science & International Studies
Savannah, GA 31419
Jdacruz@georgiasouthern.edu
Dr. Ishmael I. Munene
2840 N Elk Run St.
Flagstaff, AZ 86004
Col. James T. Gire, Ph.D.
403 Carroll Hall
Virginia Military Institute
Lexington, VA 24450
CALL FOR BOOKS FOR 2022-2023 AWARD
Book submissions must have a publication date between 1 January 2022 and 15 August 2023. The deadline for the submission of entries is 15 August 2023. The award will not automatically be given each year, but only when the committee decides to submit a book of considerable merit. Rubric for decision: originality in terms of the research area and interpretation; contribution to the intellectual debates within the subject area in which they are framed; and the presentation of well-substantiated arguments.
Qualifications:
1. Only monographs and similar original studies will be considered. Please do not submit anthologies or edited works.
2. An individual who wishes to be considered must send a letter of application to the committee chair, Dr. José Arimatéia da Cruz jdacruz@georgiasouthern.edu
3. Publishers can nominate an author’s book if the above rules are observed.
4. An individual seeking the award is responsible for sending each committee member a copy of their book.
Previous Award Winners
2006 – Adam Ashforth, Witchcraft, Violence, and Democracy in South Africa
2007 – Assefaw Bariagaber, Conflict and the Refugee Experience: Flight, Exile, and Repatriation in the Horn of Africa
2008 – Ogbu Kalu, African Pentecostalism: An Introduction and Collins O. Airhihenbuwa, Healing Our Differences: The Crisis of Global Health and the Politics Of Identity
2009 – Bayo Holsey, Routes of Remembrance: Refashioning the Slave Trade in Ghana
2010 – Patrick Manning, The African Diaspora: A History through Culture
2011 – Richard Beltrop, Darfur and the International Community: The Challenges of Conflict Resolution in the Sudan
2012 – Raymond Jonas, The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire
2013 – Zubairu Wai, Epistemologies of African Conflicts: Violence, Evolutionism, and the War in Sierra Leone
2014 – Cati Coe, The Scattered Family: Parenting, African Migrants, and Global Inequality
2015 — Timothy Raeymaekers, Violent Capitalism and Hybrid Identity in the Eastern Congo: Power to the Margins
2016 — Mohamed Zayani, Networked Publics and Digital Contention
2017 — not awarded
2018 — not awarded
2019 – Rosalind C. Fredericks, Garbage Citizenship: Vital Infrastructures of Labor in Dakar, Senegal
2020 — not awarded
2021 – not awarded
2022- Cati Coe, Changes in Care: Aging, Migration, and Social Class in West Africa