News & Events

On 10 September, Dr William Ellis (University of the Western Cape) gave an intriguing webinar entitled 'Walking with herders: Animal and plant ontologies in Namaqualand'. Dr Ellis talked about his project with Nama pastoralists in the dry arid regions of the Northern Cape, South Africa, where he and his research group have been walking with herders and learning from them literally 'on the hoof'. As part of the webinar, Dr Ellis showed photos of herders and animals in their environment, taken by Clement Cupido. Take a look at these magnificent photos and read the stories about the herders.

On 22 October Agnieszka Kazimierczuk successfully defended her PhD dissertation Tracing Inclusivity. Contribution of the Dutch private sector to inclusive development in Kenya. Case study of Unilever Tea Kenya Ltd., the flower sector and Lake Turkana Wind Power project, at Leiden University. Promotors were Prof. Ton Dietz and Prof. Chibuike Uche. Dr Kazimierczuk's dissertation can be read online from 23 October.

Jan-Bart Gewald is stepping down as Director of the African Studies Centre Leiden. After three years of directing the ASCL, Jan-Bart will be concentrating on his academic research again. He will stay in function until 1 December 2020. More information about the selection procedure for the new director will follow soon.

The ASCL Library recently received two large donations: one from art historian Nicolaas Vergunst, and one from theologian Frans Verstraelen. The donation of Nicolaas Vergunst (born in Cape Town of emigrant Dutch parents) contains materials on art, history and literature. Among the materials is the clandestinely in South Africa published edition of The African Communist - disguised as Literary Gazette. The donation of Roman Catholic theologian Frans Verstraelen consists of several hundred books on religion and politics in Africa.