News & Events

Asian Tigers, African Lions: Comparing the Development Performance of Southeast Asia and Africa, published by Brill in 2013 and coordinated by the African Studies Centre and the KITLV in Leiden, has won a Choice Outstanding Academic Title Award 2014! Asian Tigers, African Lions contains contributions by scholars and (former) diplomats comparing the performance of development of four pairs of countries in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The review that appeared in Choice in May 2014 called the book 'essential'.

ASC senior researcher André Leliveld, who is also a researcher within the Centre for Frugal Innovation in Africa (CFIA), gave a web lecture about frugal innovations and inclusive economic growth. Frugal innovations can be described as sober but ingenious products and services for small budgets and local conditions. The Centre for Frugal Innovation in Africa is a joint multidisciplinary centre of the Leiden, Delft and Erasmus universities.

Museums in Western countries that possess cultural objects acquired during the European colonial era, try to ‘decolonise’ their practices and relations with museums in former colonies. Yet they have difficulty to seriously rethink the distribution of these objects. In the 1970s, Indonesia and the Netherlands, and Belgium and Zaire agreed upon new cultural relations, including the transfer of a number of museum items. At present, Nigeria is in discussion with some Western museums about Benin art treasures seized by British soldiers in 1897. In this ASC seminar on 12 March, PhD researcher Jos van Beurden (VU University) will analyse the agreements of the 1970s and the ongoing process between Nigeria and Europe.

Het ASC heeft een nieuwe themakaart geproduceerd: 'No-go' gebieden 2014. Deze uitgave bevat een kaart van Afrika én een kaart van de wereld waarop veilige en onveilige gebieden te zien zijn, gebaseerd op de reisadviezen van het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken. Begin november ontstond er opschudding over een vermeend bericht dat de Hogeschool van Amsterdam haar studenten niet naar Afrika liet reizen vanwege ebola en toenemende onveiligheid. De themakaart toont de situatie op 24 november 2014.

The historical novel Knot of Stone is a multi-layered tale of historical detection; incorporating oral testimonies, recorded histories, official documents, letters, diaries, dreams and prophecies. As a novel, it presents a carefully crafted and insightful revision of actual events, offering a courageous departure from mainstream historical writing. The main protagonists travel through Portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland, then on to Holland and England before returning to their country of residence South Africa. Via various roadside encounters they reconstruct the past and their own identities. Knot of Stone is the subject of our latest Acquisition Highlight!