Development cooperation is not only assessed by what it delivers. It is assessed by how it is experienced and interpreted within wider narratives about power, history and global economic relations. A large study by INCLUDE with research teams across Africa examines these perceptions. 

On 23 August, poets, scholars and cultural practitioners from Kenya, Tanzania and Pemba Island gathered to honour Ustadh Mau for his contribution to Kiswahili poetry and Swahili literary heritage. Annachiara Raia, who co-led the digitisation of Mau’s archive with Mau himself, reflects on his significance to African literature.

The ASCL and the Netherlands Defence Academy are constituting parts of the Knowledge Hub Africa, which seeks to develop a research agenda on ‘African Peace and Security’. The Knowledge Hub Africa aims to highlight the agency of governmental organisations, non-state armed groups, and citizens in matters of war and peace.

Submit your Africa-related master’s thesis for the Africa Thesis Award 2026, have it published and win € 500! The Africa Thesis Award is an annual initiative by the African Studies Centre Leiden and Brill that recognises outstanding master’s theses.

Late July 2026, seventy thousand Moroccans, many of them under eighteen, travelled hundreds of kilometres toward the Spanish exclave of Ceuta. Within days almost all of them were back. A new blog by Chaimaa Radouani follows what happened to their bodies before, during and after that crossing.

On 2 June, Martin Luther Darko, Kauthar Khamis and Rashida Adum-Atta successfully defended their PhD theses at Leiden University within the Madina Project. Mare interviewed the three new doctors, alongside Madina Project alumnus Joseph Fosu-Ankrah.