News & Events

Recently the ASCL Library purchased Kenya: through my father’s eyes, number 338 of a limited edition of 2,000 copies by Salim Amin. The book is dedicated to his father, Mohamed Amin (1943-1996), arguably the best documented African photographer and journalist ever. Many of Amin’s pictures appear in the Leiden collections and his contribution to our understanding of major events in African history can hardly be underestimated. Read all about it in the latest Libary Highlight!

On the occasion of the Africa 2020 year, the ASCL Library has compiled a web dossier about African leaders of independence. It is a ‘growing’ web dossier that will be expanded monthly. It has now been updated with sections on Gabon, Senegal and Nigeria. Also have a look at the corresponding interactive timeline. Enjoy the web dossier!

In the 1960s, there was an African ambition to build modern states based on ‘national development’. But in the late 1980s, national development was dismissed - in most cases under compulsion from the international financial institutions. And without national development project, there are really no states in Africa, Rahmane Idrissa writes, only regimes. In the Sahel, this paved the way for the establishment of the ‘Islamic state’. Read the latest blog post!