The African Studies Centre Leiden is the only multidisciplinary academic knowledge institute in the Netherlands devoted entirely to the study of Africa. It has an excellent library that is open to the general public. The ASCL is an interfaculty institute of Leiden University.
Mirjam Tjassing geeft op 20 augustus 16.00 uur een presentatie van haar nieuwe boek 'Mali, een kaartenhuis. Getuigenis van een crisis'. Zij bracht als (voormalig) diplomaat 11 jaar door in Afrika. Zij schetst de ontwikkelingen vanaf 2012. Hoe konden rebellie en een staatsgreep plaatsvinden in een land dat bekend stond als hét voorbeeld van democratie en stabiliteit? En de kans op escalatie neemt toe. Dit persoonlijke verslag van de crisis en de achtergronden ervan helpt de huidige ontwikkelingen in Mali beter te begrijpen.
In May the ASCL’s research project 'Being young in times of duress in the Central African Republic', was closed with an end conference in Bangui. The research project, a collaboration with UNICEF, dealt with the relationship between youth and armed groups in CAR. Read the short report of the end conference. (Photo: Sjoerd Sijsma).
On 22 March, the Museum of Ethnography in Leiden was the venue for the International conference ‘Destination Africa: Contemporary Africa as a Global Meeting Point’. Interestingly, in the museum the collections of Asia, Oceania, North America, South America and Africa each have their own separate section. Yet upon a closer look, one is able to discover all kinds of connections between the different collections. During the two day conference economic, political, social and cultural global encounters in Africa were discussed. Read the latest contribution to the ASCL Africanist Blog by Mayke Kaag!
This volume, edited by Prof. Mirjam de Bruijn, has appeared in French. The English version will follow later this year. Radicalisation has become a word depicting our world in negative colours. This book tries to understand what radicalisation means in the Sahel and in the Netherlands. Is it only negative? What diversity of social and political processes is behind this concept? Is there basically a desire for social change?
This volume, edited by Prof. Jon Abbink, discusses the problems and challenges of environmental–ecological conditions in Africa, amidst the current craze of economic growth and ‘development’. Africa’s significant economic dynamics and growth trajectories are marked by neglect of the environment, reinforcing ecological crises. Unless environmental–ecological and population growth problems are addressed as an integral part of developmental strategies and growth models, the crises will accelerate and lead to huge costs in later years.
