ASC Newsletter May 2015

Submit your thesis for the Africa Thesis Award 2015!

Final-year students who have completed their Masters thesis with distinction at a university in Africa or the Netherlands may apply for the Africa Thesis Award! The ASC offers you the chance to win € 500, and the winning thesis will be published in the African Studies Collection. Deadline: 12 July 2015.

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Film of the workshop 'Governance and Connections in Africa's Contemporary Conflicts' (March 2015)

In March, the ASC organized a 2-day workshop that explored the connections between conflict zones ranging from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa and from Central Africa to the Great Lakes Region. A public lecture 'Globalised Conflict Situations - Nigeria’s Boko Haram in Perspective' was given by Prof. Egosha Osaghae of Igbinedion University, Nigeria. Sjoerd Sijsma made a film of these events.

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Students in the Netherlands: apply for the Research Masters in African Studies

Students in the Netherlands with a Bachelor's degree who wish to follow the Research Masters in African Studies (starting September): apply before 15 June! Submit your application online on Leiden University's website.

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ASC and Liliane Foundation participate in a new research collaboration

The Liliane Foundation and the ASC cooperate in a new research project: 'Breaking down barriers to exclusion; building capacity for lobby and advocacy for children with disabilities'. For this project Dr Willem Elbers has been employed as a post-doc at the ASC. Read the interview with Elbers!

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Update 'No-go areas' map

In January 2015, the ASC published a Thematic Map of 'no-go areas' in Africa and the world, according to the travel advice of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Read the latest update of the travel advices for African countries.

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News from INCLUDE

The consultation on inclusive development by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has resulted in 106 expert contributions, including a substantial number of contributions from Africa. These will serve as input for the policy letter that Ms Lilianne Ploumen, Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, will send to Parliament this spring. The recommendations have been synthesized into two articles: one on the promotion of inclusive development and one particularly addressing the role of social protection in inclusive development.

Contesting control: land and forest in the struggle for Loita Maasai self-government in Kenya

Angela Kronenburg García's PhD dissertation has been published in the African Studies Collection. Contesting Control is about the Loita Maasai in Kenya who, faced with increasing outside interventions and pressure from neighbouring communities, the state and other agencies, have been struggling to maintain access and control over the land they inhabit and the forest they use.

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From Idol to Art. African ‘objects-with-power’: a challenge for missionaries, anthropologists and museum curators

Harrie Leyten's PhD thesis has been published in the African Studies Collection. In the book, Leyten describes how missionaries, anthropologists and curators of ethnographic museums have tried to come to grips with objects with power over the years.

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Institutional pluralism, access and use of wetland resources in the Nyando Papyrus Wetland, Kenya

The Nyando Papyrus Wetlands in Kenya have multiple uses and users who often overlap spatially, seasonally causing conflicts.This study shows that there is legal pluralism in the area, which requires synergy for sustainable livelihoods in the local communities and for ecosystem management. Authors: Serena Nasongo, Fred Zaal, Ton Dietz and Joash Barack Okeyo-Owuor.

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Impacts of large-scale farming on local communities' food security and income levels: empirical evidence from Oromia Region, Ethiopia

This article investigates the impact of large-scale agricultural investment on household incomes and food security in Oromia Regional State in Ethiopia. It shows that in particular situations, putting land into large-scale farming reduces local communities' food-security status and results in a loss of income among local people. Authors: Maru Shete and Marcel Rutten.

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Acquisition Highlight: Renewable Energy in Africa

In the last ten years, the ASC library’s collection has developed from focusing on (print) monographs and journals to aiming for a more flexible, hybrid collection which includes open access material. Renewable energy is a discipline in which vital knowledge is disseminated by free online sources rather than through the classical scientific media. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) 2015 synthesis report on renewable energy potential in Africa has now been added to the ASC's Catalogue.

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Alert services for INCLUDE: Stay tuned for new publications on inclusive development!

The ASC Library recently developed two new subject alerts on inclusive development for INCLUDE: one on social protection and one on productive employment. Subscribe now!

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Article on xenophobia in South Africa by Pedzisai Maedza in de Volkskrant

Pedzisai Maedza, winner of the ASC Africa Thesis Award 2014, wrote an article on the recent 'xenophobic' attacks against African immigrants in South Africa for the Afrikablog of de Volkskrant. Maedza is a Zimbabwean playwright who lives in South Africa. A longer version of this article appeared on the ASC website.

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Seminar: Dangote Cement Plc: An African Success Story?

This seminar on 21 May by ASC researchers Chibuike Uche and Akinyinka Akinyoade, both from Nigeria, investigates how Nigerian cement company Dangote Cement Plc was able to displace long-established cement multinationals and become the dominant player in the country's cement industry. In less than 12 years Nigeria moved from being heavily dependent on imported cement to become the leader in cement production in Africa.

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Religious business and the violation of human rights in Africa today

The growing pauperization of the lower classes in Sub-Saharan Africa is giving birth to new religiosities; notably, a Christianity of misery, characterized by countless unemployed and street-smart individuals striving for survival. Dieudonné Zognong of the University of Yaounde I, Cameroon, will talk about this subject on 28 May.

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Can African countries successfully implement industrial policy?

African governments generally have been less successful in implementing industrial policies, historically and in the contemporary period, compared to other developing country regions. This presentation by Lindsay Whitfield of Roskilde University, Denmark, on 4 June sets out to understand why.

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Marcel Rutten blogs about faulty comparison made by Joris Luyendijk about Mount Kilimanjaro

In his most recent blog post, ASC researcher Marcel Rutten points to a faulty comparison made by investigative journalist Joris Luyendijk, who in a documentary links the shrinking of the Kilimanjaro glaciers to global warming.

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PhD defence André van Dokkum

On 9 June, André van Dokkum will defend his PhD thesis at the VU University in Amsterdam on the subject 'Politics, History and Conceptions of Democracy in Barue District, Mozambique'. Promotor: ASC researcher Prof. Jan Abbink.

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CODESRIA 14th General Assembly 8-12 June in Dakar

CODESRIA (Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa), one of our partners in Africa, will organize its 14th General Assembly from 8-12 June in Dakar, Senegal. ASC senior researcher Benjamin Soares will be present.

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