News & Events

Matatus (mini buses) provide transport for about 70 percent of Nairobi’s population. The sector is one of the largest in Kenya and has been thriving since the 1950s. In this seminar on 21 November Kenda Mutongi, Professor of History at Williams College (USA), focuses on the social, economic, cultural and political history of matatus and how they have become so deeply rooted in Kenyan life.

The Research Masters in African Studies 2013 has taken off! A group of highly motivated new students will for the coming two years follow an interdisciplinary programme that combines in-depth study of a particular theme and region with fieldwork. The Research Masters in African Studies is offered in cooperation with Leiden University.

Artisanal Mining & Youth. Livelihoods, leisure and love in Tanzanian urbanizing mine settlements. Over the last three decades, artisanal gold mining has increasingly provided a source of employment for hundreds of thousands of miners in Tanzania. Gold strikes in the country’s ‘ring of gold’ have catalyzed widespread labour migration. Many of the migrants are youthful, having hopes of economic improvement. Dr Deborah Bryceson of the University of Glasgow will speak about this Wednesday 2 October.

Fred van der Kraaij’s boek ‘Liberia: van Vrijheidsideaal naar Verloren Paradijs’ wordt vrijdag 18 oktober tijdens een speciale Liberia-bijeenkomst gepresenteerd. Het boek is Van der Kraaij's persoonlijke relaas van het veelbelovende land waar hij in de jaren 70 werkte, en dat veertig jaar later bezig is te herstellen van twee gruwelijke burgeroorlogen. Bijdragen deze middag komen o.a. van de consul van Liberia in Nederland, van de NABC over de handelsmissie naar Liberia en van Stephen Ellis over verzoening.  

Studies on North Africa have usually been included within the scope of research on the Arab world and on the Middle Eastern world. 'The rest' of Africa, on the other hand, has been approached as a relatively homogeneous world labelled sub-Sahara or ‘black’ Africa. This will be discussed at a workshop on Friday 20 September. Please note the changed location: Huizinga building, Doelensteeg 16, Leiden, room 004.

This book is about the history of consumption and social change from 1840 until 1980 in Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Angola. Topics range from the social history of firearms to the perception of the railway and include contributions on sewing machines, traders and advertising. By looking at the socio-economic, political and cultural meaning and impact of goods, the history of Central Africa is reassessed.