News & Events

The research of historian Duncan Money focuses on the mining industry, and he has closely examined the many thousands of white mineworkers who came to the Copperbelt in Zambia in the 20th century. These mineworkers, he argues, constituted a highly mobile migrant working force, moving between mines and industrial centres around the world. Read the interview we did with him!

Annachiara Raia entered Mahmoud Mau’s library on Lamu island, 350 km from Mombasa, Kenya, for the first time in 2014. He became her primary informant as well as a fatherly figure. With his knowledge, she embarked on reading and deciphering nineteenth-century Swahili Islamic manuscript poems, which flourished in the Lamu archipelago. She gradually realized the value of Mahmoud Mau’s library as a living archive. Read Annachiara's post for the ASCL Africanist Blog!

During the Namibian War of Independence, more than 400 Namibian children were relocated from various refugee camps to the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The children grew up in the GDR and only returned to their home country in 1990, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, at the onset of Namibian independence. In the film ‘Omulaule heisst schwarz’, a couple of these children look back on their childhood and youth. The film is the subject of our latest Library Highlight.

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.