News & Events

The ASCL Library has acquired access to three important databases containing information about Africa from the years 1540 (!) to 1985. Main focus is on history and culture. The ASCL has also acquired access to large African newspaper databases, containing among other things a complete digital set of the famous South African newspaper Rand Daily Mail. 

On Friday 19 January some thirty representatives of the societal partners of the ASCL attended the yearly Societal Panel Day. Representatives from ministries, knowledge platforms, NGOs, the diaspora, the private sector, the media and LeidenGlobal were invited to discuss the relevance of the African Studies Centre Leiden for society. The ASCL would like to thank all partners for their highly useful contributions during this inspiring day.

The ASCL is thrilled and relieved that Dr Merera Gudina has been released from prison in Ethiopia. Dr Merera is a political scientist and chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress in Ethiopia, a legal opposition party. He was arrested on 1 December 2016. Dr Merera has been a visiting scholar to the African Studies Centre Leiden twice. We wish him a warm reunion with his family and loved ones. 

The ASCL will be presenting a new programme of outstanding seminars in 2018, for which you are kindly invited. The professors of the African Studies Centre Leiden - Rijk van Dijk, Jan Abbink, Chibuike Uche, Marleen Dekker, Jan-Bart Gewald and Mirjam de Bruijn - have been asked to invite internationally renowned speakers within their area of research for this series. This has resulted in a list of exceptional seminar speakers who will present their research and enter into discussion, chaired by the ASCL Professors.