News & Events

Nigeria mirrors a society where persistent wrongdoings by public officials breed systemic corruption and offer justifications for the proliferation of anti-corruption laws. There are for instance about nine extant regulations that deal directly in issues relating to corruption and fraud control in the country, most recent of which is the Whistleblowing Policy introduced by the federal government in December 2016.

The Leiden-Delft-Erasmus minor 'Frugal Innovation for Sustainable Global Development', starting in September, offers in-depth insight into how and under which conditions frugal innovation can be accomplished and contribute to sustainable global development. The minor is accessible for third-year bachelor students from Leiden University, TU Delft and Erasmus University Rotterdam. Registration is open up to and including 31 May. Find out how to apply.

18 July 2018 will mark the centenary of the birth of Nelson Mandela (1918-2013). Mandela, former President of South Africa, received an honorary doctorate from Leiden University in 1999. To celebrate the legacy of Nelson Mandela, Leiden University, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the South African Embassy to the Netherlands are organising the ‘Celebrating Mandela 100’ event on 1 June in Leiden, with a keynote lecture by Prof. Tom Lodge (University of Limerick), author of the biography Mandela. A Critical Life. 

Sorry you’ve been troubled contains a selection of twenty book reviews by Nigerian writer Omoseye Bolaji. Omoseye Bolaji’s enthousiasm about African literature is irresistible. The reviews in his book focus mainly on older Nigerian and South African writing and include work from Soyinka and Achebe, but also from authors who are less known. Many of the books he has reviewed are available in the ASCL Library. Sorry you've been troubled is the subject of our latest Library Highlight!

Pitching your research becomes increasingly important to researchers: how to convince a subsidy provider, a future employer or, for example, a policy maker of your great research plans and/or findings in only a few minutes?? In the training called "Pitch Your Research Project", given by Karin Nijenhuis, you will learn how to tailor a message for a specific audience and how to deliver the pitch. And don't be afraid: it will be fun!

Recent travels to Chad, Cameroon and Mali confronted Prof. Mirjam de Bruijn with the conflicts in these countries as well as in the Central African Republic, and the youth’s involvement in them. How are researchers to analyse these developments? Are the protests the result of a youth that - through ICTs - is more informed about the world and its inequality - or is there more to it? Read Prof. De Bruijn's latest contribution to the ASCL Africanist Blog!

The ASCL library holds the archives of legal scholar Petrus Johannes Idenburg, one of the founders of the African Studies Centre. Idenburg (1898-1989) specialized in Constitutional Law. From 1947 he taught African Studies at Leiden University. Of special interest are e.g. the material on the Mandates Commission South West Africa (1937-1940), papers on the Bukavu Conference (1955), and notes about trips to Moscow and Washington (1960-1961). The archives can be consulted in the ASCL Library.