The study centre of the Africa Institute: Dutch aid, trade policy, and the future of African Studies

Using the Netherlands as a case study and materials partly from Dutch government archives, this paper critiques the development of African Studies after the Second World War and the role the state, business interests, and Official Development Assistance played in this process. It argues that the commercial nature of the Dutch state laid the foundation for the country’s knowledge-driven international expansionist agenda. Although the country traded its last economic stronghold in Africa to the British in 1872, it rekindled its interest in the continent 75 years later through the establishment of the Africa Institute and its study centre (now African Studies Centre Leiden). This was after the loss of its Indonesian colony became imminent. Arguably, because the Dutch had no colonial influence in Africa, it focused on economic competitiveness. The government covertly used Dutch development aid in the pursuit of this objective. The recent public acknowledgement by the Dutch that their aid and trade policies are entwined undermines the altruistic façade of the West, creating opportunities for Africa to be studied in the context of its economic reality.