Marking the 25th anniversary of the anthology

25 years after Margaret Busby’s Daughters of Africa anthology, a new companion volume brings together the work of over 200 writers from across the globe – Antigua to Zimbabwe, Angola to the USA – to celebrate a unifying heritage, illustrate an uplifting sense of sisterhood and showcase the remarkable range of creativity from the African diaspora.

Margaret Busby is joined by Ayòbámi Adébáyò, Nadifa Mohamed, Namwali Serpell and Bernardine Evaristo to celebrate the global sweep, diversity and extraordinary literary achievements of Black women writers.

Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ is the author of Stay With Me, which was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times and a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian, The Economist, and others.

Ghanaian born Margaret Busby co-founded Allison & Busby, publishing C L R James, Buchi Emecheta, Nuruddin Farah amongst many others, and became Director of Earthscan. She judges literary awards, including the Caine, Baileys and Commonwealth prizes, and others.

Nadifa Mohamed was born in Hargeisa (now in the Republic of Somaliland) in 1981 and moved as a child to England in 1986. Her first novel, Black Mamba Boy, based on her father's memories of his travels in the 1930s, was published in 2010.

Namwali Serpell is a Zambian writer who teaches at the University of California, Berkeley. Her first published story, Muzungu, was selected for The Best American Short Stories 2009 and shortlisted for the 2010 Caine Prize for African writing. 

Bernardine Evaristo is the award-winning author of eight books and numerous other published and produced works that span the genres of novels, poetry, verse fiction, short fiction, essays, literary criticism, and radio and theatre drama. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London. 

This event is part of Africa Writes.

In partnership with The Royal African Society and The Royal Society of Literature

Image: Margaret Busby by Adrian Pope, Ayobami Adebayo image by Pixels Photography, Nadifa Mohammed by Sabreen Hussain, Bernardine Evaristo by Marlon James and Namwali Serpell by Peg Korpinski

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