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Daughters of Africa

Daughters of Africa
UK 1st edition (hardback).
Photograph by Suzanne Roden
featuring Sibusiso Nozipho Mavolwane (1958–2015)[1]
EditorMargaret Busby
LanguageEnglish
GenreAnthology
Publication date
1992
Publication placeUK
Pages1127 pp.
Followed byNew Daughters of Africa 

Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora, edited and introduced by Margaret Busby,[2] who compared the process of assembling the volume to "trying to catch a flowing river in a calabash".[3]

First published in 1992,[4] in London by Jonathan Cape (having been commissioned by Candida Lacey,[5] formerly of Pandora Press and later publisher of Myriad Editions),[6] and in New York by Pantheon Books, Daughters of Africa is regarded as a pioneering work,[7][8] covering a variety of genres – including fiction, essays, poetry, drama, memoirs and children's writing – and more than 1000 pages in extent.[9] Arranged chronologically, beginning with traditional oral poetry,[10] it includes work translated from African languages as well as from Dutch, French, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.[11][12]

The anthology's title derives from an 1831 declaration by Maria W. Stewart (1803–1880), the first African-American woman to give public lectures, in which she said: "O, ye daughters of Africa, awake! awake! arise! no longer sleep nor slumber, but distinguish yourselves. Show forth to the world that ye are endowed with noble and exalted faculties."[13][a]

A companion volume called New Daughters of Africa – with the subtitle "An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent", and featuring a further 200-plus contributors from around the world born between the 1790s and the 1990s[16] – was published in 2019.[17][18] Associated with the anthology is the Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award for a woman student from Africa.[19][20]

  1. ^ "From Ayòbámi Adébáyò to Zadie Smith: meet the New Daughters of Africa", WebsLocal, 9 March 2019. Archived 8 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ^ Tonya Bolden, "Book Review: Two Types of Revelation – Daughters of Africa" Archived 27 May 2023 at the Wayback Machine, Black Enterprise, March 1993, p. 12.
  3. ^ "Introduction", Daughters of Africa, p. xxix.
  4. ^ Kinna, "Daughters of Africa edited by Margaret Busby" Archived 8 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Kinna Reads, 24 September 2010.
  5. ^ Candida Lacey, "Daughters of Africa Twenty-five years later", Wasafiri, 32(4), November 2017, pp. 7–8. Archived 19 April 2022 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ^ Margaret Busby, "Granddaughters of Africa", Commonwealth Writers, 19 March 2015. Archived 23 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ^ Margaret Busby profile, African Writing in Britain. Archived 21 May 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ^ "The 2015 Bocas Henry Swanzy Award Recipient: Margaret Busby, OBE" Archived 2 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine, NGC Bocas Lit Fest.
  9. ^ "Daughters of Africa", Goodreads. Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  10. ^ "Anthology of black women writers printed", Journal Gazette (Mattoon, Illinois), 3 December 1992, p. 19.
  11. ^ "50 Books by African Women that Everyone Should Read", What's_On Africa, Royal African Society, 30 June 2014. Archived 16 May 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  12. ^ Meserette Kentake, "Daughters of Africa", Kentake Page, 17 December 2013. Archived 16 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine.
  13. ^ Maria W. Stewart (ed. Marilyn Richardson), "Religion And The Pure Principles of Morality, The Sure Foundation On Which We Must Build", in America's First Black Woman Political Writer: Essays and Speeches, Indiana University Press, 1987, p. 30. Archived 31 October 2023 at the Wayback Machine.
  14. ^ "Nokutela (nee Mdima) Dube". South Africa History Online. 26 October 2012. Archived from the original on 25 October 2018. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  15. ^ Meghan Healy-Clancy, "The Daughters of Africa and Transatlantic Racial Kinship: C. L. Tshabalala and the Women's Club Movement, 1912–1943", Amerikastudien/American Studies 59, no. 4 (2014): 481–499. Archived 29 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
  16. ^ Tom Odhiambo (20 January 2020). "Entertainment: 'New Daughters of Africa' is a must read for aspiring young women writers". Kenyan Digest. Archived from the original on 30 August 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
  17. ^ New Daughters of Africa page Archived 2018-01-01 at the Wayback Machine at Myriad Editions.
  18. ^ Ellen Mitchell and Sophie Kulik, "Q&A: Margaret Busby on ‘New Daughters of Africa’" Archived 10 June 2023 at the Wayback Machine, Africa In Words, 29 June 2019.
  19. ^ "The Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award". SOAS University of London. Archived from the original on 28 May 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  20. ^ "SOAS University of London | The Margaret Busby New Daughters of Africa Award". Archived from the original on 26 October 2022. Retrieved 26 October 2022.


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بنات إفريقيا Arabic Daughters of Africa German Daughters of Africa Spanish Daughters of Africa French Daughters of Africa MOS

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