News & Events

We are delighted that this year’s Stephen Ellis Annual Lecture will be given by Muna Ndulo, Professor of Law at Cornell University, USA. In his lecture Prof. Ndulo will contend that a poorly designed constitution can hinder inclusiveness and promote ethnic grievances and conflicts. He will identify key issues that must be addressed in the constitution making process to promote inclusiveness and a sense of citizenship and ownership of the political process in a diverse nation state. The lecture takes place on 17 November at 18.30.

During the ASAUK conference in Cambridge, 7-9 September, African Affairs will present the new Stephen Ellis prize and announce its inaugural winner. The Stephen Ellis prize is awarded for the most innovative article in African Affairs in the previous two year period, and is intended to highlight and promote the kind of thought provoking, politically engaged and pathbreaking analysis that Stephen Ellis pioneered throughout his hugely influential career.

The scoping study on regional trade & investment in West Africa conducted by the ASCL in cooperation with LEI Wageningen UR and the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) has now been finalized and has generated a number of written outputs.

ASCL's Director Ton Dietz presented a paper at the 33rd International Geographical Congress in Beijing that took place from 21-25 August. The paper examines the evidence in Africa regarding the intentions of municipalities and their leadership to develop more sustainable cities, and to mobilise business and popular support for more sustainable futures in a continent that is likely to have the fastest urbanization trends in the decades ahead. Read the paper.

In this seminar Vincent Hiribarren (King's College London) will analyse the history of the borders in the region of Borno (Nigeria). By focusing on borderlands known for harbouring Boko Haram terrorists, this seminar will bring a historical dimension to contemporary security issues in the Lake Chad region. It will be argued that British imperialism did not always destroy nineteenth-century African polities but, as in the case of Borno, favoured the reconstruction of a nineteenth-century territory within the Nigerian colony.