News & Events

 In preparation for the 'Africa 2020' workshop about The Nile on 20-21 February, Germa Seuren of the ASCL Library and PhD candidate Abeer Abazeed (co-organiser of the workshop) have compiled a web dossier about The Nile's governance and the distribution of its waters. It includes titles from the ASCL Library collection, the broader Leiden University Library collection, and the library of IHE Delft Institute for Water Education. Read the web dossier!

At the ‘Pushing Boundaries in Advocacy for Inclusion’ conference, organised on 29 January by the Liliane Foundation, the Dutch Coalition on Disability and Development and the ASCL, over 200 professionals, activists, policy makers, media and academics exchanged knowledge and experiences on advocacy for inclusion. Key themes were the success factors of advocacy, the importance of intersectionality and the roles of Northern and Southern organisations in advocacy networks.

Professor Lungisile Ntsebeza of the University of Cape Town was awarded an honorary doctorate during the Dies Natalis of Leiden University on 7 February. Honorary promotor was Jan-Bart Gewald, Professor of African History. In his laudatio Gewald highlighted Ntsebeza’s personal history. During the apartheid, Ntsebeza spent over five years in prison because of his battle against the repressive regime. After the apartheid, 'you stayed true to your calling as a teacher, scientist and liberator of people, regardless of their race or beliefs', Professor Gewald said.

On 30 January 2020, LeidenASA and the ASCL organised the conference 'Africa: 60 Years of Independence' in Leiden. It was the kick-off for 'Africa 2020', the year in which 17 countries on the African continent celebrate 60 years of independence. Keynotes were given by Lungisile Ntsebeza (University of Cape Town), Birgit Meyer (Utrecht University), Carolyn Hamilton (UCT) and Jan Abbink (ASCL/Leiden University), who gave their views on decolonising the academy, religion, the use of oral archives, and changes of leadership in Ethiopia and Sudan.

In the 19th century Abirè Goro, singer-prophet in Central Mali, gained a huge reputation that still reverberates among the Dogon. His main legacy, a cycle of songs called the baja ni, is still sung as part of the funeral rituals, a performance during the night lasting seven hours. Wouter van Beek and colleagues have for the first time transcribed, translated and put into print these songs. The book is in French and contains a CD.

Sixty years ago seventien African countries became independent. Despite economic growth, unemployment is still high, and many of these countries are faced with poverty, terrorism and war. Neo-colonialism is not the heart of the problem, ASCL researchers Chibuike Uche and Akinyinka Akinyoade say in an interview in Trouw; 'the failure of Africa is an African problem'.

The print culture of 1920s Lagos, Nigeria, was innovative and effervescent. Numerous new weekly and daily newspapers were started in this decade. Five of these papers were in Yoruba and sought to convene a wider audience than before. During the online ASCL Seminar on 7 October Karin Barber (University of Birmingham) will suggest that this resulted in the establishment of several new genres, the most influential of which was the famous confessions of a fictional Lagos 'harlot', Sẹgilọla.

On the occasion of the special 'Africa 2020' year, the ASCL and its Library have made several knowledge products relating to 60 years of independence: a thematic map 'Africa at 60'; a web dossier on African Leaders of Independence; an overview of the 17 countries that gained independence in 1960, offering web resources and selected open access publications; and infosheets about the countries that became independent in 1960. The infosheets kick off with Cameroon.