Unisan wins the 2021 Ali Mazrui Award 4/23/2021 TM School Professor Serges Djoyou Kamga, a renowned scholar of human rights, recently received the 2021 Ali Mazrui Award for Scholarship and Research Excellence.

Professor Serges Djoyou Kamga from the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs (TM-School) and a renowned scholar of human rights has received the 2021 Ali Mazrui Award for Scholarship and Research Excellence. This award, given by the University of Texas in Austin, was presented at the 20^th Africa Conference, held from 1 to 4 April 2021. The Ali Mazrui Award is given to an African scholar, both at home and in the Diaspora, who has distinguished himself/herself in his/her academic career. The objective of the award is to encourage scholars to be more committed to the propagation of knowledge that advances the course of Africa in the comity of nations. This award recognises contributions to research on Africa and serves as motivation to do more going forward.

Professor Serges Djoyou Kamga

Kamga’s contribution is in line with Unisa’s Research and Innovation Strategy, strategic target 3: A leading participant in and producer of research and innovative solutions in identified niche areas, with particular focus on identifying African solutions and global responses to African/continental strategic focus areas and concerns.

Over the years,  has demonstrated a profound and sustained commitment to advancing knowledge about human rights in Africa, especially the right to development in the African human rights system, human rights from cross-cultural perspectives and disability rights. From a multi-inter-transdisciplinary perspective, while his research examines the nexus between law, economics and development, it also looks at issues with regard to international affairs, paying special attention to the Africa (the place), poverty, inequality and global justice in general.

Kamga is currently an NRF-rated researcher and recognised as an established researcher amongst his peers. He has received several research grants and has been awarded fellowships in support of his research, including the NRF Competitive Grant for rated researchers; the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) Grant for Research on regional integration in Africa; the Constitutional Law Association’s fellowship award (2019); an award from the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice based at the School of Law, University of Texas in Austin (2019) and the 2019 CODESRIA Africa-Diaspora Meaning-Making Research Initiatives Grant Award.

Besides being widely published in accredited and peer-reviewed journals, Kamga has published numerous books. He is the author of The right to development in the African human rights system (Routledge 2018); co-author of the book Migration and regional integration in Africa: lessons from Southern and West Africa (CODESRIA-BRILL Press 2020); the editor of the book The right to development in Africa: issues, constraints and prospects (Pan-African University Press 2020); and co-editor of the following books: 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 also the co-editor of two academic journals: The African Disability Rights Yearbook and Cross-Cultural Human Rights Review.

What contributed to this success?

Kamga’s success is the result of a firm commitment to research, teaching and learning as well as community engagement. He collaborates intensively with his peers, students and mentees in developing curriculum, teaching methods and framing research projects with clearly defined academic outputs. He engages with senior academics to learn from their experiences, listens to his peer and considers all opinions including those of his students. Moreover, he enjoys a strong institutional support from the TM-School and Unisa without which this award would not have been possible.

How does he motivate others?

Kamga is involved in the mentoring of students and junior academics, within and outside the Unisa environment, who are working on issues of common interest. To this end, he engages regularly with his students and mentees with whom he organises workshops and conferences and co-publishes or guides them to produce academic outputs. He strongly believes that the future of academia lies in mentoring junior academics.

Congratulations Professor Kamga, the TM-School and Unisa! 

*By the TM-School Communication Team