News & Events

While postage stamps have been in use in the world since 1840, it lasted until 1890 before the first postage stamps were issued along the East Coast of Africa. Postage stamps are miniature communication tools, that also have a political and aesthetic message, with a strong flavour of ‘identity’. This exhibition has been organized to coincide with the retirement of Prof. Ton Dietz as director of the ASCL on 1 September. Ton Dietz is also the initiator of the African Postal Heritage Series. On Monday 18 September at 4pm Ton will give an introductory talk about the exhibition, to which you are kindly invited.

Wouter van Beek (ASCL) and Emilie Guitard are the editors of a new book on the rites and religions in the Lake Chad Basin. From the cover: "Trois grand thèmes sont analysés: la relation dialectique entre les changements sociaux et l’evolution de phénomènes religieux, les liens entre religion, pouvoir et territoire, et enfin l’idée de communitas qui met à jour le travail de la religion dans la cohesion sociale. L’ouvrage est indispensable pour la comprehension du phénomène religieux dans la region du bassin du lac Tchad et de son évolution à travers le temps, au moment où le ‘religieux’ s’y exprime parfois de manière extrême et violente."

In her book Crying for Our Elders: African Orphanhood in the Age of HIV and AIDS, Kristen Cheney argues that the misidentification of “orphans” as a category for development and humanitarian intervention has subsequently been misappropriated by many Western individuals and charitable organizations. The result is an ‘orphan industrial complex’ that problematically commoditizes children as targets for charitable intervention - particularly in the global south. Cheney will discuss her book during the seminar on 14 September.

Together with the Yangambi Platform for contemporary African arts and cultures, the ASCL will screen the documentary 'The African Who Wanted to Fly' on 21 September. This film by Samantha Biffot tells the extraordinary destiny of Luc Bendza, a young man in Gabon who dreams of flying like the fighters in the martial arts. He leaves for China in the eighties and makes his dream come true: today he is a ‘Wushu’ (Kung Fu) master.