News & Events

The University of Edinburgh hosted the 8th European Conference on African Studies, Europe’s largest conference with an African focus, from 11-14 June. With about 250 panels and up to 1500 attendants, the conference was a huge success. About thirty researchers from the ASCL/Leiden University organized a panel or presented a paper.

In March, the World Happiness Report 2019 was published. Surprisingly, Botswana rank among the most unhappy people around the globe. Now ranked 148, the country belongs to the nine unhappiest the world knows, just one place higher than war-torn Syria. How is this possible, while Botswana has long been seen as Africa’s miracle, a country marked by unprecedented growth rates? Rijk van Dijk searches for answers in the latest contribution to the ASCL Africanist Blog!

The African Studies Centre Leiden Annual Report for 2018 is out now! In addition to an excellent list of publications by our researchers, you will find other highlights such as the Destination Africa Conference in March, Nelson Mandela's Centenary in June, and the Stephen Ellis Annual Lecture by Henrietta Moore in December. 

Dr Adegbite's research focus is on Nigerian laws and their interactions with international agreements on children’s rights and inclusive development. Unlike children’s rights laws, international developmental agenda accepts children as individuals with capacities to benefit and contribute to economic growth. While both structures agree on the role of education in human development, the former de-emphasizes the children’s economic capabilities, while the latter seeks to maximize all potential within efficient human right standards. Most works have argued on children’s rights to human capital development through education, but due to ideological discrepancies in the conception of childhood, child labor and also the caretaker’s insistence on recognition on the basis of affection, not many studies have attended to structures of law that protect children’s rights to education with little regard for their economic freedom. Within existing jurisprudence, this work examines the Nigerian statutes and Yoruba Customary Law on child education and economic empowerment.

In Africa, infertility is often not only painful on a personal level, but also seen as a big problem by society as a whole. This sensitive and often taboo issue is not only examined in academic publications, it is also explored in literature and film. The novel Stay with me from Nigeria and documentary film L'Arbre sans fruit from Niger, both created by women, explore the consequences of infertility. They form the subject of our latest Library Highlight!