News & Events

South Africans will go to the polls on 7 May in what promises to be the country’s most interesting election since 1994. There is no doubt that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) will win again, but the polls suggest a much reduced majority. What is the balance sheet of 20 years of democracy? Keynote speaker at this ASC Community Country Meeting on 22 April in The Hague is Prof Susan Booysen of the Witwatersrand University. After her introduction Dutch politicians will enter into a debate.

After an academic career of 27 years at the African Studies Centre, senior researcher Dick Foeken is retiring. Next to his research in the field of urban poverty, urban water supply and urban agriculture, Dick was a member of the management team and deputy director of the ASC. In the nineties he started to coordinate the publications department, thus arranging over 300 publications. Dick started working at the ASC in 1987, when he became part of the Food and Nutrition Studies Programme.

De Nederlandse anti-apartheidsbeweging was een van de sterkste sociale bewegingen van Nederland. Toch heeft de beweging slechts beperkte invloed gehad op het Nederlandse overheidsbeleid ten aanzien van Zuid-Afrika. De achtereenvolgende kabinetten hebben steeds gekozen voor de handelsbelangen van Nederland. Tijdens dit seminar op 1 mei zal onderzoeksjournalist en auteur Roeland Muskens de anti-apartheidsbeweging analyseren. Please note that this seminar will be held in Dutch.

The documentary film 'From Namibia with Love' tells the story of an old Finnish-Namibian couple who fought for Namibia’s independence. In the 1970’s the couple assisted the Namibian Liberation Movement SWAPO that fought the South African occupation. In the middle of the struggle Anita and Salatiel got into a conflict with the SWAPO leadership. The hardships they experienced in the 1970s still haunt them. Filmmaker Laura Meriläinen will be present at this ASC film seminar on 11 April.

East Africa has delivered an impressive economic growth rate and is expecting an economic boom in the near future. However, the ordinary East African does not feel the benefits yet. At the ASC seminar on 15 April Aidan Eyakuze, Associate Regional Director of the Society for International Development, will present the State of East Africa Report 2013, revealing new information and sparking the imagination for the processes that are shaping East Africa.