News & Events

Curious about the experiences of our new Research Masters students so far? One of them, Njeri Mwaura, wrote the first blog of this academic year: 'An activist approach to African Studies'. If you want to know more about the African Studies Masters and the African Studies Research Masters, visit the 'Masters Information day' at Leiden University, 8 November!

In his recent book entitled Poor Numbers: How We Are Misled by African Development Statistics and What to Do about it, Morten Jerven analyses the production and use of African economic statistics. Where do these statistics originate from and how accurate are they? Jerven argues that reliable statistics, including estimates of economic growth and per-capita income, are central to the operation of governments in developing countries and vital for the NGOs that provide financial aid to them.

Hans Muller and Arie Sonneveld have been selected as 'Wikipedians in Special Residence' at twelve scientific libraries in the Netherlands. Participating libraries vary from the African Studies Centre Library to the Rijksmuseum Library and the Peace Palace Library. From November 2013 until December 2014 the two Wikipedians hope to raise the diversity and quality of Wikipedia through the collections and knowledge present at these institutions, and enhance Wikipedia skills of the staff.

Swahili, Somali, Xhosa, Zulu, Berber, Hausa… het zijn slechts een paar van de tweeduizend talen die in Afrika gesproken worden. Voor het Nederlandse publiek is er een website over die talenrijkdom, stemmenvanafrika.nl, opgezet door een team onder leiding van Maarten Mous, hoogleraar Afrikaanse Taalkunde aan de Universiteit Leiden, en Pieter Muysken, hoogleraar Taalwetenschap aan de Radboud Universiteit. Stemmenvanafrika wil mensen aan het denken zetten en waardering wekken voor de diversiteit van Afrika.

Roger Nord, Deputy Director of the IMF’s African Department, spoke about Africa's strong economic performance at the ASC seminar on 22 November. He cited the latest IMF's Regional Economic Outlook: Sub-Saharan Africa (Oct 2013), which you can now read on our website, as well as his lecture.