The ASCL has a vibrant Visiting Fellowship Programme. Selected fellows collaborate and network with colleagues, make use of our excellent library, and give a seminar. Learn more about our current visiting fellows: Girma Negash, Gloria Okeke, and Aurore Vermylen.

Submit your Africa-related master’s thesis for the Africa Thesis Award 2025, have it published and win €500! The Africa Thesis Award is an annual initiative by the African Studies Centre Leiden that recognises outstanding master’s theses on African topics. Deadline: 30 September.

On 2 June, Mayke Kaag gave a keynote speech at the UN Headquarters in New York about the importance of trust and trust-making in African politics for security sector reform. The other keynote speaker was renowned economist Paul Collier. Both keynotes can now be watched online.

We are excited that a large delegation of the African Studies Centre Leiden and the wider Leiden University will participate in the 10th European Conference on African Studies (ECAS). ECAS will take place from 25 to 28 June in Prague.

The jury of the Africa Thesis Award is delighted to announce that the 2024 prize has been awarded to Baleseng Maeneche, a graduate of the University of the Western Cape, for her thesis 'Media Representations of Male Perpetrators of Violence against Women and Children: A Decolonial Feminist Analysis'.

On 28 May 2025 African literary giant Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o passed away at the age of 87. ASCL senior researcher Annachiara Raia wrote a tribute in his honour, highlighting his fight as, in his own words, 'a language warrior' for African-language literatures.