By Sylvester I. Ebhonu, Admiralty University of Nigeria
Emeritus Professor Peter Okebukola’s influence in African higher education is indeed difficult to overstate. There are over 27 referencing styles globally, and none of them originates from Africa. As reported by Punch Newspaper on the 2nd of December, Okebukola is set to formally launch the African Scholarly Referencing Style (ASRS), which will be the first referencing style conceived, developed, and owned by Africa. My first thought about this was that this is what academic independence should look like.
Over the years, academic institutions, researchers, and librarians have worked within referencing systems that are entirely shaped by Western epistemologies. As useful as the popular APA, MLA, Chicago, and Vancouver styles are, they were designed without the African intellectual landscape in mind. They do not consider our indigenous knowledge, folklore or the kinds of grey literature that often features the richest insights on Africa. So we have always tried to fit in our knowledge into the frameworks created by others, and this announcement of ASRS changes that narrative, because how do you explain contributing immensely to global knowledge, yet your intellectual traditions remain underrepresented in the very systems used to validate scholarship. This is one quiet and structural way that epistemic marginalisation happens, and most times without resistance, because we do not have our own frameworks.
The fact that ASRS will be 95% aligned with global standards while introducing meaningful African adaptations is really great. So the new style will not be entirely different, as students/scholars will get to still work with something familiar, but African. The beauty of the initiative is in the 5% addition where Africa gets to intentionally inscribe itself:
- Citing oral knowledge.
- Acknowledging custodians of traditional wisdom.
- Recognising community voices.
- Making space for African languages.
- Documenting institutional archives and grey literature that rarely get global visibility.
I see this innovation as a significant shift in African scholarly communication. Of course, ASRS is not the sole solution to the structural challenges we face. Africa still contends with limited open access adoption, under-indexed journals, inadequate digital infrastructure, and persistent visibility gaps for indigenous scholarship. But even in the midst of these realities, ASRS represents a bold and necessary step toward reclaiming our scholarly identity. Introducing or announcing the new referencing rules will not be sufficient, it will definitely need critics, contributors and people/systems that will adopt them.
Librarians are the custodians of knowledge organisation, and if anyone is positioned to give life to the ASRS, it is the library community. No matter how ground-breaking a referencing style, it will not be easy to implement across Africa. We all have to first see it as a collective win for all of us because this can strengthen the discoverability of African scholarship in indexing systems. It could bring some coherence to how African sources are cited. So, as someone committed to strengthening digital literacy, visibility, and intellectual identity across the continent, I see ASRS as a big turning point if it gets the required collective support.
This is an invitation for African Librarians to rethink how we organise knowledge, and it brings with it, an opportunity for us and academics to lead a great movement that future generations will benefit from, because this isn’t just about Okebukola. Librarians are encouraged to:
- Get a copy of the final version of the Concept Note on the African Scholarly Referencing Style (I got mine delivered today via email from the author himself).
- Follow the updates closely
- Review it and offer professional input and constructive critique
- Participate in pilot studies
- Train students, faculty, and researchers when the time comes
- Advocate for its inclusion in theses, journals, and institutional policies
- Ensure that African knowledge is represented with dignity and accuracy
The ten-year deployment plan announced for ASRS is quite practical, because this will definitely not be easy without collaboration, its going take a long time before the awareness is created, then integration into our systems and eventually global recognition. The good news however remains that the world will learn from a referencing style that carries the imprint of our history, our languages, our communities, and according to Okebukola, “it is a declaration of capability, and a bold stride towards academic self-definition for the continent”.
What are your thoughts on the African Scholarly Referencing Style (ASRS)? Do you see it as timely, transformative, or long overdue? Your perspective matters.