This fifth edition of Historical Dictionary of Niger, written by Rahmane Idrissa, has over 700 entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. The book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Niger. For centuries Niger remained the largely uncontrolled periphery of the large empires of the western Sudan and the market cities of the central Sudan. In these two ways, the land forged a very distinctive identity, a fluid blend of diverse communities which make up a nation of marginal cosmopolitans; a paradox illuminated in this book.
On the occasion of the 'Africa 2020' workshop about The Nile on 20-21 February, Germa Seuren of the ASCL Library and PhD candidate Abeer Abazeed (co-organiser of the workshop) have compiled a web dossier about The Nile's governance and the distribution of its waters. It includes titles from the ASCL Library collection, the broader Leiden University Library collection, and the library of IHE Delft Institute for Water Education. Read the web dossier!
In the 19th century Abirè Goro, singer-prophet in Central Mali, gained a huge reputation that still reverberates among the Dogon. His main legacy, a cycle of songs called the baja ni, is still sung as part of the funeral rituals, a performance during the night lasting seven hours. Wouter van Beek and colleagues have for the first time transcribed, translated and put into print these songs. The book is in French and contains a CD.
The research of historian Duncan Money focuses on the mining industry, and he has closely examined the many thousands of white mineworkers who came to the Copperbelt in Zambia in the 20th century. These mineworkers, he argues, constituted a highly mobile migrant working force, moving between mines and industrial centres around the world. Read the interview we did with him!
Annachiara Raia entered Mahmoud Mau’s library on Lamu island, 350 km from Mombasa, Kenya, for the first time in 2014. He became her primary informant as well as a fatherly figure. With his knowledge, she embarked on reading and deciphering nineteenth-century Swahili Islamic manuscript poems, which flourished in the Lamu archipelago. She gradually realized the value of Mahmoud Mau’s library as a living archive. Read Annachiara's post for the ASCL Africanist Blog!
