Klaas van Walraven learnt of the existence of a burial ground for Dutchmen in Brazzaville, dating from the late 1880s. Congo-Brazzaville was never a Dutch possession. So why does it boast a Dutch cemetery? And who are the young men lying there? Read his latest contribution to the ASCL Africanist Blog!
The Africa Knows! conference will be the closing activity of the special 'Africa 2020' year. It wll take place from 2-4 December 2020 at the The Hague University of Applied Sciences/De Haagse Hogeschool. The main issues that will be addressed are: is Africa preparing itself for leapfrogging to innovations? What will the nascent multi-polar world of the 21st century mean for Africa’s role in knowledge and innovation? How do we finally decolonize the minds and change attitudes towards real co-creation? Deadline: 31 March.
On the occasion of the special 'Africa 2020' year, the ASCL and its Library have made several knowledge products relating to 60 years of independence: a thematic map 'Africa at 60'; a web dossier on African Leaders of Independence; an overview of the 17 countries that gained independence in 1960, offering web resources and selected open access publications; and infosheets about the countries that became independent in 1960. The infosheets kick off with Cameroon.
The ASCL is deeply saddened to report that one of its senior researchers, Dr Marcel Rutten, passed away in his home in Nijmegen on the morning of 12 January 2020. Marcel, born on 1 December 1957, was a highly respected and well-liked colleague who will be particularly remembered for his solid research on land, access to land and land rights in Kenya. Throughout his career Marcel’s work focused on pastoralists and everything associated with pastoralism in Kenya: land, water, people, cattle and the state. His love of Kenya, integrity and insistence on working on an equal basis with his Kenyan partners, will be remembered both in Kenya as well as in the Netherlands.
This conference will bring together some of today’s most influential thinkers on African affairs. Independence from colonial rule, to many, was a turning point in African history, but what has changed, and what has persisted? Confirmed speakers: Lungisile Ntsebeza (African Studies, University of Cape Town), Birgit Meyer (Religious Studies, Utrecht University), Carolyn Hamilton (Archive and Public Culture, UCT) and Jan Abbink (ASCL, Leiden University).
