Elphick’s Book Finalist for Prestigious African Scholarship Award

A book written by Rick Elphick, professor of history, tutor in the College of Social Studies, received “honorable mention” for the Herskovits Prize, the most prestigious award for scholarship on Africa. This annual award is named in honor of Melville J. Herskovits, one of the African Studies Association’s founders.

Elphick is the author of The Equality of Believers: Protestant Missionaries and the Racial Politics of South Africa, published by the University of Virginia Press in September 2012. The Equality of Believers reconfigures the narrative of race in South Africa by exploring the pivotal role played by these missionaries and their teachings in shaping that nation’s history. Providing historical context reaching back to 1652, Elphick concentrates on the era of industrialization, segregation, and the beginnings of apartheid in the first half of the 20th century. The most ambitious work yet from this renowned historian, Elphick’s book reveals the deep religious roots of racial ideas and initiatives that have so profoundly shaped the history of South Africa.

“My work, which was many years in the making, was substantially supported by Wesleyan at various stages, and I’m grateful to the numerous deans and chairs who looked on my grant applications with a benign eye,” Elphick said.

Learn more about Elphick’s book in this past Wesleyan Connection article.