The formation of the African Society for Biomathematics (ASB) was driven by the rapid growth of biomathematics as an interdisciplinary field at the interface of mathematical and biological sciences across the African continent. Recognizing the increasing need for structured collaboration, ASB was founded to foster research partnerships, academic exchange, and the development of biomathematics as a key scientific discipline in Africa.

The society was formed with the vision of bringing together researchers, educators, and practitioners from diverse mathematical and biological backgrounds to advance biomathematical research and its applications to real-world problems. 

The history of the African Society of Biomathematics (ASB) dates back to December 2003 in Kampala Uganda during the first Pan African Biomathematics Conference when the first interim leaders were put in place with Prof. Livingstone Luboobi as the first President. These pioneering leaders drafted the constitution by circulating the document for all to contribute; these were days before the common use of cloud computing and data sharing.

Years after these initial efforts at setting up the society, another push was made during a roundtable discussion about mathematical biology in Africa, at African Mathematics Millennium Science Initiative (AMMSI) twin events organized by Prof. Wandera Ogana in Nairobi Kenya, namely the Eastern African Mathematics Conference held from December 4-6 2006 and the Mathematical Biology Workshop held December 7-10 2006. At this event, Dr. Michel Tchuenche was assigned the task of compiling the list of African biomathematicians both in Africa and in the diaspora (the initial database is available here). It was also suggested that the Society should have representation (committee members) from all regions of Africa.

The positive acceptance of the Society, the efforts, and drive led to two other biomathematics meetings, first the Biomathematics conference held in Cape Town, South Africa in January 2007 and the Marrakech Biomathematics conference held at Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech, Morocco from January 3 - 8, 2008 organized by Prof. Hassan Hbid of Cadi Ayyad University, Morocco and Prof. JYT Mugisha Makerere University Uganda. Over 150 participants from more than 40 African countries attended the meeting. During the meeting, a special session was held to discuss the draft constitution of ASB, and two committees  were put in place namely the steering (Joseph Mugisha (Uganda), Hassan Hbid (Morocco), Ogana Wandera (Kenya), Edward Lungu (Botswana) and Henry Laurie (South Africa)) and a Liaison committee (Abba Gummel (Canada), Odo Diekmann (The Netherlands), Pierre Auger (France),  Abdul-Aziz Yakubu, Avner Friedman and Carlos Castillo-Chavez (USA)). The Steering Committee was charged with developing the structure of ASB (officers, membership, etc.) and the Liaison Committee was to help ASB with connections and support from the international community, including other societies of mathematical biology.