Videos of the Africa Knows opening days online!

Hosts of the conference: Jan-Bart Gewald (Director ASCL) and David Ehrhardt (associate professor Leiden University).

The online Africa Knows! conference kicked off on 2-4 December, with words of welcome to all participants by Carel Stolker (Rector Magnificus of Leiden University), Rajash Rawal (Vice President of The Hague University of Applied Science), and Tijmen Rooseboom (Ambassador for Youth at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs). (See photos of all speakers at the bottom of this page.) 

Watch the stream of opening speeches:

Impressive keynote speeches were given by Freddy Weima (Director-General of Nuffic), Etienne Ehouan Ehile (Secretary General of the Association of African Universities), Mustapha Mekideche (former Chair of the African Peer Review Mechanism of the AU), Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni (Chair of Epistemologies of the Global South with Emphasis on Africa at the University of Bayreuth), Chika Ezeanya Esiobu (founder African Child Press and honorary professor University of Rwanda), and Erika Kraemer-Mbula (photo, Professor of Economics, University of Johannesburg). These covered the wide range of themes of the conference, from deconstructing and reconstructing mindsets, to rethinking partnerships and funding, and local innovations for transformative change. 

Watch all keynote speeches here.

The side programme consisted of a powerful performance by kora player Layba Diawara, a presentation on Wikipedia & Africa research by Jos Damen and Ursula Oberst (ASCL Library) and a presentation of Africa's universities, students and staff in pictures. Also take a look at the Country Profiles that show the developments in education, universities and other knowledge institutes in each of Africa's countries (work in progress).

During the closing session, Amanda Hammar (President of AEGIS, the European Association of African Studies) gave her reflections on the opening days of this AEGIS Thematic Conference, followed by words of thanks from the organisers, Ton Dietz and Marieke van Winden.

The panel sessions that were held during the opening days have been recorded and made accessible to conference participants. See the conference website. All future panels will be recorded as well.

The conference will be resumed on 18 January and will last until 24 February. Registration is still possible!

We wish all participants a fruitful continuation of the conference!