News & Events

Last February, Carlien Donkor made a return visit to Nzulezo, Ghana, for her PhD research. The focus of the trip was to document the Indigenous craft of stilt construction unique to the community of Nzulezo, that have lived on and with water for more than five hundred years.

In this vivid ethnography, Tanja Hendriks details the decisions and dilemmas of Malawian civil servants in disaster response efforts after cyclone Idai (2019). Hendriks reveals how the aid-dependent Malawian state remains crucial to disaster governance despite chronic resource scarcity and limited capacity.

What is it like to live with the pollution from mining and oil day in day out? Through photography and poetry, this volume portrays scenes from everyday life in the Niger Delta, the Zambian Copperbelt, and Johannesburg. While the book features oil spills, sinkholes, and toxic wastelands, it also foregrounds how people have caringly made these places their home.

Development cooperation is not only assessed by what it delivers. It is assessed by how it is experienced and interpreted within wider narratives about power, history and global economic relations. A large study by INCLUDE with research teams across Africa examines these perceptions. 

On 23 August, poets, scholars and cultural practitioners from Kenya, Tanzania and Pemba Island gathered to honour Ustadh Mau for his contribution to Kiswahili poetry and Swahili literary heritage. Annachiara Raia, who co-led the digitisation of Mau’s archive with Mau himself, reflects on his significance to African literature.

Two recent additions to our library, Teaching World Epics and Soundjata Keïta, La femme-buffle, provide an opportunity to take a closer look at the Sundiata epic, which tells the story of the founder of the Mali Empire in the early 13th century. These two acquisitions are the subject of this month's Library Highlight.

The ASCL and the Netherlands Defence Academy are constituting parts of the Knowledge Hub Africa, which seeks to develop a research agenda on ‘African Peace and Security’. The Knowledge Hub Africa aims to highlight the agency of governmental organisations, non-state armed groups, and citizens in matters of war and peace.