News & Events

On the occasion of the exhibition 'Slavery' at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, opened by King Willem-Alexander on 18 May, the ASCL Library has compiled a web dossier on the Indian Ocean slave trade. The dossier consists of selected titles from the ASCL Library Catalogue, extended with sources available through the broader Leiden University Library collection. The dossier is introduced by Rijksmuseum curator Maria Holtrop. Read the web dossier.

Set in the Eastern Cape (South Africa) of the late 1800s, A sin of omission follows the story of a black South African Anglican deacon, Stephen (Malusie) Mzamane, who has to journey to his mother’s rural home to inform her of his elder brother’s death. A sin of omission is one of six titles which were shortlisted for the Walter Scott Award 2020. The author, Marguerite Poland, who spent her own formative years in the Eastern Cape, is the recipient of two national Lifetime Achievement Awards for English literature. A Sin of Omission is the subject of our Library Highlight.

Marleen Dekker, Professor of Inclusive Development in Africa, became director of the African Studies Centre Leiden on 1 April 2021. In this interview she talks about the impact of COVID-19 and lockdowns on the progress in poverty reductions in Africa, considering to do fieldwork with adjusted protocols in countries that have no mobility restrictions, and the societal role academics have to play. 'The idea that Africa is not a country is gaining ground'. Read the interview.

Duncan Money and Limin Teh wrote an annotated bibliography for JSTOR Daily about race and the organisation of labour from a global perspective. It charts the global history of race and labour in the early twentieth century, highlighting the complex ways in which race, labour, and imperialism intersect. The article is available open access.

Rahmane Idrissa wrote an article about the death of Chad’s late president Idriss Déby from a historical perspective for Sidecar, the blog of New Left Review. 'What did France gain in tirelessly propping up a dictator against the aspirations of his people? Such interests are at first sight hard to perceive. They are certainly not economic.'