Previous gifts

Gifts in 2020

  1. Frans Verstraelen & Gerdien Gilhorst (books and archival material, Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa)
  2. Nicolaas Vergunst & Ellen Berends (books on art, history and literature, South Africa)
  3. Tirza Schipper (Lowani) (books on African languages)
  4. Thilo Schadeberg (books on African society, history, and culture)
  5. Several books donated by Jan Jansen, Madi Ditmars, Daryl Swanepoel, Marisca Bruinooge, Martha Lammen

Gifts in 2019

  1. Garance Reus-Deelder (>40 books, Zambia)
  2. Lex Achterstraat (>25 books; development, Senegal)
  3. Bill Kinsey (>20 books; diverse subjects)
  4. André van Dokkum (>10 books; Mozambique)
  5. Jan de Wolf (>10 books) (on oral literature etc.)
  6. Maarten Mous (>10 books, Ethiopia, dictionaries)
  7. and several books from: Akin-Otiko Akinymayowa, Willy Boezak, Bruno Braak, Luigi Gaffuri, Jan-Bart Gewald, Lucie Hubert, Jan Jansen, Robert Ross, Michael Tonfeld and others.

Gifts in 2018

  1. Bill Kinsey (>60 books, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Malawi)
  2. Mike McCall (>50 books, Tanzania, development)
  3. Jacqueline Langeslag (newspapers, Eritrea, Ethiopia)
  4. Raoul Snelder (several boxes)
  5. Martin Custers (>60 books, Tanzania, Zanzibar)
  6. Roelof Neeteson (>10 books, Okavango, The Gambia, water)
  7. Tom Hoogervorst (languages, Islam, foreign policy)
  8. Fred Zaal (Nigeria, Liberia, Uganda, SWAPO)
  9. And several gifts from Jan Jansen, Yiping Chen, Sakky Jojo, and others

Gifts in 2017

  1. Kenneth Post (1935-2017): 15 boxes with books on Nigeria.
  2. Gerrie ter Haar (Stephen Ellis): 151 books (South Africa, Liberia, Madagascar, crime).
  3. Mega van Rooijen: 60 books (East Africa).
  4. Dick Jaeger (Zambia, geography).
  5. Fred van der Kraaij (development, economy).
  6. Jan Jansen (div. Africa).
  7. Jan van Butselaar (novels).
  8. Annelien Bouland (comic books).
  9. And more gifts by Marisca Bruinooge, Jan-Bart Gewald, Katrien Polman, Connor Roberts and others.

Gifts in 2016

  1. Centre for World Food Studies (Max Merbis, VU Amsterdam): >300 books & reports (Nigerian economy et al.).
  2. Dirk Jaeger: books & pamphlets on Zambia.      
  3. Kevin Osei Assibey: Ghanaian Times.
  4. NIOD: on war in Africa (KIT).
  5. Sibylla Claus: comics, literature.
  6. Benjamin Soares: Nigeria, Islam in Africa.
  7. André van Dokkum: Angola, Mozambique.
  8. Jan Broekhuyse: several boxes.
  9. And more gifts, by Frauke Heldring, Jan-Bart Gewald, Jan Jansen, Tiny Kraan,
  10. Annemieke de Kler, Wijnand Klaver, Jan Hoorweg, Steve Tonah and others.

Gifts in 2015

  1. Olivier Nyirubugara donated his own book on mobile community reporting and four French titles on Rwanda.
  2. Affoh Guenneguez deliverd three rare books  written and published by Louis Kouama Abrima on history and traditional religion in Cote d’Ivoire. The ASC copy of these titles is the only known item in WorldCat.
  3. Nico Wesselingh again presented a highly interesting collection of pamphlets, maps and election materials from Southern Africa, Guinee Bissau and the DRC.
  4. Paolo de Mas donated 26 boxes with books, journals documentation material from the Marokko Instituut (Den Haag).
  5. Tom Draisma supplied the library with newspapers, pamphlets and books from Zambia/Northern Rhodesia.
  6. Aart Rietveld, a retired history teacher, surprised the library with extremely valuable material form the teachers college in Toro (northern Nigeria) from the early 1970s. One of the highlights is a collection of pupils’ essays on the Biafra war. But also Yoruba photo novels and missing issues from Drum magazine.
  7. Finally the ASC library took over 15 boxes with statistical publications from African countries, the result of a weeding operation by the Centraal Bureau voor de statistiek (CBS).

Gifts in 2014

  1. Nicolaas Vergunst (pamphlets, journals, 19 books (South Africa), large map of Congo now on display in the library)
  2. Elly Engelkes (collection of newspaper cuttings on women in Nigeria, 4 maps, 22 books)
  3. André van Dokkum (16 books, Portuguese-speaking Africa)
  4. Bekele Gutema (philosophy, Ethiopia)
  5. Michael Tonfeld (2 of his own publications)
  6. Beth and Robert Daniel (Bantu, South Africa)
  7. Mubarak Oladosu (own publication: Mind Mantra; poetry, Nigeria)
  8. Dick Foeken (theses, maps, research reports, Kenya)
  9. Robert Ross (great number of books mostly on South Africa, 2 boxes of microfilms of South African newspapers, amongst others Cape Town Mail)
  10. Gerti Hesseling (former director ASC, 2 boxes of her estate, 11 books)
  11. Wouter van Beek (9 publications)

We furthermore gratefully received donations from Stephen Ellis, Mayke Kaag, Jan Abbink and Jan Jansen

Gifts in 2013

  1. Stefano Bellucci (3 issues Ethiopian journal of Social Sciences and Humanities)
  2. Rob van den Boom (a number of books on diverse subjects)
  3. Reinier Derksen (on Wapare,Tanzania)
  4. Jan Willem Gunning (ca. 10 publications on economy, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Tanzania),
  5. Rantimi Jays Julius-Adeoye (4 publications on theatre, Nigeria)
  6. J.F. (Hans) Versnel (26 reports and theses,Tunisia)
  7. Nico Wesselingh (29 maps & 10 books, Angola & Mozambique)
  8. Henk Zomer (2 publications - in French - on language & philosophy, Congo).
  9. Jan-Kees van Donge (8 publications, Zambia)
  10. Anwar Seid (Proceedings workshop on Eritrean history)
  11. Ineke van Kessel (19 books on South Africa)
  12. Ton Dietz (a number of publications, amongst others on Drylands research)
  13. Stephen Ellis (30 books)

We also gratefully received gifts from Akinyinka Akinyoade, Marijke van Kesteren, Fred Paats, Sieth Delhaas, Peter Shark, Hussein Solomon and Joseph Wandera.

Gifts in 2012

  1. Arnold Parzer (several books, a.o. Grace Ogot & on Nyerere)
  2. [anonymous] 12 unique books from Ethiopia
  3. Solani Ngobeni / Africa Institute of SA (on philosophy & more)
  4. Gerald Neher (Life among the Chibok of Nigeria et al.)
  5. Chuma Nwokolo
  6. Gerard Linden
  7. (heirs of) Karoy Gludovacz
  8. David Millar (Ghana)
  9. Laurens van der Laan (Sierra Leone)
  10. Jan Abbink (Ethiopia)
  11. Stephen Ellis (books from Routledge)
  12. Maaike Westra
  13. Linda van de Kamp (Mozambique)
  14. Wouter van Beek (dissertations & more)
  15. Jan Jansen (multimedia research)
  16. Ton Dietz  (diverse)
  17. Jan-Bart Gewald (Uganda)
  18. Ineke van Kessel (South Africa)
  19. A.P. van der Graaf (Angola 1950-1970)

Gifts in 2011

  1. Gerrie ter Haar (150 books on religion, West-Africa, Ghana)
  2. Former library of the Centrum voor Milieukunde Leiden (200 books on environmental issues & Cameroon)
  3. Zakariyau Idrees-Oboh Oseni (Islam & Nigeria)
  4. Ingrid Djuly (ANC)
  5. Nelleke Hovestreydt (Joan Baxter & Malawi)
  6. Harry Wels (Wits University)
  7. Jan Jansen (Tanzania)
  8. Oliver Nyrubugura (Congo)
  9. Ton Dietz (40 books, grey literature & Kenya)
  10. Stephen Ellis (Sierra Leone, Liberia)
  11. Mirjam de Bruijn (Yako & Cameroon)
  12. Jan-Bart Gewald (crime novels & South Africa)
  13. Marion Eeckhout (FAO)
  14. Ursula Oberst (Cameroon)
  15. Ineke van Kessel (Kimberley, South Africa)
  16. Linda van de Kamp (Burkina Faso)

Gifts in 2010

  1. Dick van Galen Last [1952-2010] (books on black soldiers in Europe)
  2. John Griffiths (on Ghana’s Constitution)
  3. Jan Hoorweg (on Kenya’s Constitution)
  4. Piet Korse (translation of Hartering)
  5. Margherita de Koster [1918-2010] (on Ethiopia)
  6. Tiny Kraan (on Bitterkomix)
  7. Renu Modi (on Kenya’s elections)
  8. Jacqueline Parlevliet (on Kenya’s elections)
  9. Karel Roskam [1931-2010] (on South Africa and Mandela)
  10. David Sogge (grey literature on Mozambique)
  11. Henny Weima (on Mbankana)
  12. African Union (Addis Abeba, Ethiopia)
  13. International Institute for Social History, Amsterdam (Kier Schuringa)
  14. National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden (David Stuart Fox)

Gifts in 2009

  1. Rantimi Julius-Adeoye, a Leiden PhD student working on the dramaturgy of Ahmed Yerima, provided the ASC with 15 books written by Dr Yerima. The ASC library now has an outstanding collection of 21 works by this major Nigerian playwright, who is also the director of Nigeria’s National Troupe and the National Theatre.
  2. Rantimi Julius-Adeoye also donated three plays – "Atunto", "Temisan" and "The Thorn” – by the promising writer Bunmi Julius-Adeoye. The African Studies Centre is the first academic library in the world to have catalogued this writer.
  3. Ms Bernardine Beenacker, a historian, author and the director of a research bureau specialized in local history, offered the ASC library 89 books. Most are academic classics and books on African art (history). Especially interesting are the popular and/or practical books on Nigeria covering the period in the 1970s when she lived and worked there.
  4. The Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa (NIZA) donated part of its library’s collection to the ASC library.

Faced with a move to smaller premises, the Congegratie van de Heilige Geest (Spiritans) had to part with its Africa library and archives. The ASC was very happy to receive several boxes containing excellent material on the Central African Republic and the Portuguese-speaking colonies of Angola and Mozambique, which were all previously underrepresented in the ASC library.

Gifts in 2008

  1. From the Library of the Bijlmerbajes (Penitentiary De Stadspoort Amsterdam) the ASC Library received a donation of several books on African law and literature.
  2. In 2008 Ada L. van der Linde (formerly at ICCO and Oxfam) kindly donated a lot of books on women and development in Africa. These books (mostly in French) formed a welcome addition to the collection of the ASC Library.
  3. From the Library of the Dutch Parliament (Tweede Kamer) the ASC Library received Parliamentary Proceedings and other reports of the Government of Cape of Good Hope, dating from the period 1854-1885.
  4. Professor Albert Trouwborst, interim director of the ASC in the period 1994-1995, died on 17 October 2007. From his widow, Margot Trouwborst-Bemelmans, the ASC Library kindly received a collection of maps and archival material on Rwanda/Burundi as well as some books.
  5. Jan Willem Geuzebroek has very kindly donated 55 books from his personal library to the ASC library. Among these, the Portuguese-language publications about former Portuguese colonies in Africa are of particular importance to our collection.
  6. Leny Lagerwerf, who worked for many years at the Hendrik Kraemer Instituut in Oegstgeest, has left a large collection of books on Africa to the ASC library. The books fill in gaps in our collection and we are delighted to have received them.

Gifts in 2007

  1. Nico Wesselingh traveled extensively for the Dutch NGO Mensen in Nood while he was working for them and collected a great deal of material on the various countries he visited. He has kindly donated the publications about Africa to the ASC library.
  2. Galina Saprokhina from the Africa Institute in Moscow has made a selection of relevant titles published by her institute and forwarded them to our library. They are a welcome addition to our collection and we are very grateful to her for them.
  3. From 1967 to 1971 Jan de Wolf was seconded to the ASC. During this period he conducted fieldwork in Kenya and he has now donated his archives from this research to the ASC. The well-documented boxes contain, in addition to his personal notes and correspondence, tapes of Bukusu stories, music, photos and slides.
  4. Imad Babakir from Nijmegen has recently sent the ASC the nine issues of the newsletter Sudan Today that were published between January 1999 and February 2002.

Gifts in 2006

  1. Henk Meilink, a former ASC staff member, donated many valuable government reports dating from the period when he was conducting research in Kenya.
  2. Koos van der Meulen, the former head of the ASC library, has donated a number of interesting books on different subjects to the library.
  3. We are very grateful that the ISS has again this year sent us the books and brochures that are surplus to requirement in their library.

Gifts in 2005

  1. We have recently received the archives of R.C. Winter who did his PhD at the Free University in Amsterdam in 1960 on the transition of various countries from dependent territory to independent state, with special emphasis on the associated legal aspects.
  2. SPIL, the political-science students’ association, has kindly given the ASC library the archives of political scientist Gerard Schellingerhout, who fought apartheid and backed democratization in South Africa during his lifetime.
  3. The libray is very grateful to Ms M.J.A. de Koster from Amsterdam for giving four boxes of very interesting material on Abyssinia and Ethiopia, including the oldest publication the library has ever had in its collection: “Hieronymus Lobo op fyn voyagie” dated 1707.
  4. Ineke van Kessel, an ASC staff member, has kindly donated to the library her archival material on the police in South Africa in the post-apartheid period.
  5. Mr J. Lingbeek from Poortugaal near Rotterdam has left his beautiful collection of mainly antiquarian books about Ethiopia to the ASC library in his will. He was very interested in Haile Selassie and his collection focuses in particular on the period of the Italian invasion and conquest of 1935-1941. The collection also includes a number of newspaper articles that could be of interest to anyone doing research on this period of the country’s history.
  6. Hans Barvelink has very kindly given the African Studies Centre library his wonderful collection of books about Africa. Several hundred books, including some antiquarian ones, are now waiting to be included in the catalogue. The books cover fields that in the past were not deemed to be particularly important areas for academics, such as art and photography, but together with his books on anthropology and history, they make up a beautiful and very valuable collection which we are delighted to be able to have in the ASC library.
  7. When Tom Draisma was working on development issues at the University of Leiden he put together an archive of newspaper clippings on development-related issues. The Africa Studies Centre is delighted to have been given the part concerning Africa to add to its collection.
  8. Our former colleague Juul Rijnsdorp (drs Ulrica Rijnsdorp), who died on 28 July 2004, very kindly left her archive material to the African Studies Centre. She worked in Bo in Sierra Leone from 1971-1972 where she did research in the field of family law. She also donated her books on Africa to the ASC library.
  9. A donation by the former head of the library, Koos van der Meulen, of the latest travel books and guides on Africa has helped to update the library's collection and we are very grateful to him for them.

Gifts in 2004

  1. From the late Guinean economist Amadou Oury Barry, the library has received a number of French-language books, mostly on economics. His wife has also kindly donated a set of video tapes about the 1991-1992 sessions of the 'Conférence Nationale Souveraine' in Zaïre (presently the Democratic Republic of Congo).
  2. The ASC has received a great deal of archival material from Professor Sjoerd Hofstra, related to his well-known research among the Mende in Sierra Leone in the 1930s. Hofstra was appointed Professor of African Anthropology at the University of Leiden in 1947. From his archives the ASC has selected a total of 67 publications, which have since been incorporated in our collection.
  3. From the library of the former CESO (Centrum voor de Studie van het Onderwijs in Ontwikkelingslanden) the ASC has acquired 25 boxes of materials about education in Africa. More than 400 titels have been included in the collection.
  4. Dr R. Corbey has kindly donated a manuscript about the White Fathers in Burundi entitled 'Kroniek van een missiepost van Witte Paters, gelegen aan het Victoriameer in Burundi'. The approximately 2000 pages, some of which are handwritten and some typed, were copied from the original by biologist/writer Tijs Goldschmidt. They provide unique information about life at a mission post in the period from about 1882 to 1930.
  5. Following the death of G.J. Verbeek, the ASC has received a number of books and some archival material from his own personal collection. Gershon Verbeek worked as a development economist in Nairobi, among other places, and was attached to the Kenyan Ministry of Housing and Planning after independence.
  6. Dr Gerti Hesseling, the director of the ASC, has donated more than 100 documents about constitutional matters, urbanization, and social and economic development in Africa from her own archives.

Gifts in 2003

  1. The VENA library on women and autonomy that was recently integrated into the library of the sociology department has kindly donated 14 of their publications to the ASC library.
  2. The journalist Frits Eissenloeffel, who died in 2001, was particularly interested in the decolonization process and the liberation struggle in Africa. He had an extensive archive of newspaper cuttings, brochures and other materials that his wife generously donated to the ASC library.
  3. The ISS library in The Hague has given us books, journals and other publications. We are particularly happy to have the journal 'Uganda News'1963-1974.
  4. The Juridisch Documentatie Centrum in Leiden has sent us two boxes full of interesting materials.
  5. The KITLV in Leiden has very kindly sent us 57 books, mainly on South Africa - some of which are valuable old editions.
  6. Dr Herman Obdeijn, a specialist on the Maghreb, is retiring and has very kindly donated several boxes full of interesting archive materials to the ASC library, which have already been incorporated into our collection.
  7. We have also recently received a lot of extra material on armed conflicts, and peace and security issues in Africa from Stephen Ellis. These too have been included in our collection and are available for public inspection.
  8. Via Peter Pels we have received a series of five publications on traditional house-building in Sub-Saharan Africa. They are an important addition to the collection.

Gifts in 2002

  1. Dr. Wouter van Beek has kindly donated a number of back issues of 'Africa', the journal published by the International African Institute in London. Ten of the issues were particularly welcome as they fill a gap in the collection and the others will be used to replace damaged copies.

From the estate of Prof. Dr. K.H. Voous, a zoologist who used to be affiliated with the University of Amsterdam, we have received 23 books mainly on eastern and southern Africa.

Recent gifts (of the past three years)

Posted on 7 May 2012, last modified on 7 November 2024