A former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Emeritus Professor Peter Okebukola, is set to formally launch the African Scholarly Referencing Style (ASRS), a groundbreaking initiative that marks a significant milestone in Africa’s academic history. ASRS is the first referencing style conceived, developed, and owned by Africa, filling a major gap in global scholarship.
Despite Africa’s rich intellectual heritage and thousands of universities, none of the world’s 29 major referencing styles originates from the continent. Existing systems, such as APA, MLA, Chicago, Vancouver, Harvard, and IEEE, are entirely Western in origin and structure. ASRS aims to address this imbalance and provide a referencing style that reflects Africa’s unique intellectual traditions.
Professor Olusola Oyewole, Secretary-General of the Association of African Universities, praised Okebukola’s initiative, stating that it represents a groundbreaking contribution to Africa’s intellectual sovereignty. “Professor Okebukola’s initiative rightly responds to longstanding concerns around epistemic colonialism, the marginalisation of African epistemologies, and the under-recognition of African scholarly traditions in global citation frameworks,” he said.
ASRS is designed to be compatible with global academic standards while introducing African-centred innovations. The style provides frameworks for citing oral knowledge, traditional custodians of wisdom, multilingual sources, folklore, community authorship, and indigenous knowledge systems. It also offers ten specialised variants adapted from major global styles, including APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and others.
Okebukola stated that ASRS is more than just a new citation format; it is a statement of Africa’s intellectual independence and a bold declaration that the continent is ready to determine its own knowledge frameworks. The initiative has already secured strong continental and international endorsement, with the Association of African Universities expressing its support and willingness to host its development and deployment.
The implementation strategy for ASRS is ambitious and pan-African in scope, with a ten-year roll-out plan that includes the development of the style manual, training materials, and citation software tools. The plan culminates in the establishment of ASRS as the standard referencing system across Africa and its recognition by global indexing services such as Scopus and Web of Science.
Okebukola brings decades of international scholarly leadership to the initiative, having served as Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, winning the UNESCO Kalinga Prize, and chairing the governing councils of several universities.
The launch of ASRS is expected to strengthen the visibility of African scholarship, enhance the discoverability of African sources, and foster a collective scholarly identity across the continent’s diverse linguistic and cultural regions.