News & Events

The African Studies Centre Leiden congratulates its researcher Marleen Dekker with the subsidy she has been awarded by NWO within the Westerdijk Talent Scheme. Marleen Dekker is Professor of Inclusive Development in Africa at Leiden University. In 2017 the Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture and Science made additional resources (5 million euros) available to appoint 100 female professors. This is because the percentage of female professors in the Netherlands is one of the lowest in Europe. The subsidy amounts to € 50,000 for each appointment.

So far, animals did not feature much in African Studies; African Studies’ genealogy is rather focussed on humans. What does the scientific evidence on human and non-human similarities and continuities mean for the discipline of African Studies? Are we accepting it and starting to focus less on ‘only people’ and include ‘more animals’ in Africanist research? African Studies has to ‘go animal’, writes Harry Wels in the latest contribution to the ASCL Africanist blog.

Land Reform Revisited engages with contemporary debates on land reform and agrarian transformation in South Africa. The volume, edited by Femke Brandt & Grasian Mkodzongi and published in the Afrika-Studiecentrum Series, offers insights into post-apartheid transformation dynamics through the lens of agency and state making. The chapters have been written by emerging scholars whose analysis highlights the ways in which people negotiate and contest land reform realities and politics.

A few days before he was sacked, Rex Tillerson, the outgoing American Secretary of State, warned African countries not to give up their sovereignty by accepting loans from China. Some sound advice, Prof. Chibuike Uche argues in the latest contibution to the ASCL Africanist Blog. Read the blog!

The ASCL is looking, for the ‘digitalisation of African cultural heritage’ research project, for an Educational- and Research staff member (1.0 FTE). The project in question, DigiDogon, is part of the European Joint Program for Digitalisation of Cultural Heritage (JPICH), and aims at recording, digitalizing and preserving a vital part of the cultural heritage of the Dogon in Mali, in particular a song cycle inside the traditional Dogon funeral. Apply no later than 9 April. Read the full vacancy text.

How is 'governance' in Africa measured? The method used by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation's Index of African Governance is one, although it (too much) emphasizes the state’s role in ‘providing’ governance. Governance is more than that, Prof. Jan Abbink argues in the latest contibution to the ASCL Africanist Blog. It is not merely a question of technocratic application of measurable criteria, it is also an issue of public culture, respect for civic rights and duties, cultural freedom and a shared societal ethos. Read the blog!

The African Studies Centre Leiden is sad to report that Henk Meilink died on 21 March. An economist, Meilink worked at the African Studies Centre in Leiden as a senior researcher as from March 1977. He did research and consultancy work in Kenya, Zambia and other African countries. Among his publications is one article that would fit in well in the current discourse on migration: ‘Some economic interpretations of migration’ (in: African Perspectives, 1978). After his early retirement in 2005 Henk regularly visited the ASC. Our condolences go to Henk’s family and friends.