Prof Serges Djoyou Kamga, Extraordinary Professor in the Free State Centre for Human Rights (FSCHR) at the University of the Free State (UFS), has been awarded the prestigious Ali Mazrui Award for Scholarship and Research Excellence for 2021. Prof Kamga received this distinction, awarded by the University of Texas at Austin, during the 20th Africa Conference, held from 1 to 4 April 2021.

The Ali Mazrui Award is intended to encourage scholarly commitment to the development and propagation of knowledge that advances the cause of Africa. It recognises contributions to research on Africa and is awarded to an African scholar, whether at home or in the Diaspora, who has distinguished her/himself in this respect.

Prof Kamga, who – apart from his affiliation to the UFS through the FSCHR – is a professor in the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs at Unisa, and is a leading scholar on human rights in Africa. His focus is in particular on the right to development in Africa; human rights in cross-cultural perspectives; and disability rights. He approaches his work from an interdisciplinary angle, examining the links between law, economics, development, and international politics, with a special concern for poverty and inequality and the place of Africa in global justice.

An NRF-rated researcher, he has published widely in accredited journals and has also published a number of books, including The right to development in the African human rights system (Routledge 2018); Migration and regional integration in Africa: lessons from Southern and West Africa (as co-author) (CODESRIA-BRILL Press 2020); and as editor or co-editor, The right to development in Africa: issues, constraints and prospects (Pan-African University Press 2020); Insights into policies and practices on the right to development (Rowman & Littlefield International 2020); Concrétisation du Droit au Développement en Afrique – Le Cas du Cameroun: Défis, Enjeux et Opportunités (Pretoria University Law Press 2020); Perspectives on the right to development (Pretoria University Press 2018); Power, development and institutions in Africa (Pan-African University Press 2019); and Re-awakening and shaping Africa’s future in a globalised world (African World Press 2019). He is co-editor of two academic journals: The African Disability Rights Yearbook and Cross-Cultural Human Rights Review.

Prof Kamga joined the Free State Centre for Human Rights as extraordinary professor in 2018 and has since been actively involved in the centre’s research focus group on the right to development in Africa. He has also co-published regularly with members of the centre.

The FSCHR extends its hearty congratulations to Prof Kamga on this well-deserved honour.