News & Events

ASC director Ton Dietz was interviewed by journalist Max van Weezel for the Dutch radio show 'Met het oog op morgen' about the introduction of a new common currency and monetary union in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi).They also briefly discussed the sudden death of renowned ASC researcher Prof. Stephen Ellis.

We are very sad to report that Prof. Stephen Ellis died on 29 July 2015. Stephen had leukemia, a disease that manifested itself three years ago, and was treated effectively until four weeks ago. With great admiration we have seen how he coped with his illness, and until very recently worked on a book manuscript about his most recent research, a history of Nigerian organized crime, which is virtually ready. Many obituaries have been published by colleagues all over the world. 

Join us at the Voice4Thought festival 24 - 29 August! Voice4Thought (V4T) is an artistic-academic project of Leiden University and the African Studies Centre based on inspiring voices from all over the world, starting with Africa. Three African artists - Didier Lalaye and Yaya Sarria from Chad and Pangmashi Yenkong from Cameroon - will enter into a dialogue with Dutch audiences. We will host a debate about the growing resistance of young people in Central Africa, we'll present three African films and we will stage an evening show at music venue Gebr. de Nobel in Leiden. Let's start the dialogue!

On 12 July 2015 Zimbabwean writer Chenjerai Hove died in Norway, at the age of 59. Widely considered a leading figure of Zimbabwean literature, Hove leaves an oeuvre of novels, poetry, plays, essays and journalistic articles. Hove was president of the Zimbabwe Writers’ Union from 1984 to 1992, as well as an active human rights activist and founder of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights). Between 1990 and 1992 he worked as a columnist for (Dutch newspaper) De Volkskrant.

ASC researcher Jon Abbink published an article in Cahiers d’Études Africaines in the field of sexual and reproductive rights. Among the Suri agro-pastoralists, a relatively self-sufficient people in the southwest of Ethiopia, adolescent girls often assert that they menstruate together and regulate their own menstrual cycle, relating it to the phases of the moon. “Menstrual synchrony” is a much debated phenomenon in the scientific literature. Abbink claims that the young, unmarried Suri girls follow a cultural script of sexuality and aim to fit physiological facts into a preferred socio-cultural mould. 

The ASC just published a new book: Liberia: from the love of liberty to paradise lost, by Fred van der Kraaij. In the 1970s the author left the Netherlands for the West-African country Liberia. He lectured at the University of Liberia where his students included future ministers. One later emerged as a feared warlord, while one of his colleagues became the country's president. The author travelled to every corner of the country, visited rubber plantations and spoke to managers and workers. Forty years later, Van der Kraaij looks back on the country he has grown to love.