In line with university measures, ASCL staff will work from home until further notice. They can be reached by email. The office is closed, but general questions can be sent to asc@asc.leidenuniv.nl. All events until 1 September have been cancelled. The library has reopened, reservation compulsory.
On the occasion of the Africa 2020 year, the ASCL has created Infosheets about the countries that became independent in 1960. Of the seventeen colonies gaining independence in that year, Congo (earlier known as Zaire, nowadays called the Democratic Republic of the Congo) was the fifth one: on 30 June. Congo had been a Belgian colony from 1908 until 1960, after having been a ‘Free State’ under a company owned by the Belgian King Leopold II from 1884.
Rahmane Idrissa published a new article in the London Review of Books Diary, travelling to Djenné to discover more about the history of the Songhay Empire. Songhay was one of the largest states ever established in Sub-Saharan Africa; for much of the 15th and most of the 16th century, it ruled over what is now Mali, as well as parts of Senegal, Mauritania and Niger, northern Benin and north-western Nigeria.
ASCL researchers and members of the ASCL Community have started to write blogs about the spread of COVID-19 through Africa, and the impact of the pandemic. ASCL researcher Lidewyde Berckmoes wrote a blog about the uncertainty and rumours after Burundi president Nkurunziza died unexpectly, a death feeding rumours that he died of COVID-19.
In 1960, seventeen countries in Africa declared independence. Hence, the year became known as the 'Year of Africa'. Sixty years later, the New York Times has made a special online production in which images tell the story of independence: 'Reflections on 1960, the Year of Africa'. Each of the seventeen countries that gained independence in 1960 is represented in photographs. In addition, there are images from other countries that became independent just after or before 1960.
The legacy of the independence wave in 1960 has had an impact on Africa for a long time, but the current political instability and mismanagement are no longer due to the break with the colonial past. In his contribution for the Clingendael Spectator series 'Afrika: 60 jaar onafhankelijkheid' ('Africa: 60 years of independence'), Jon Abbink distinguishes seven factors that determine the political prospects in Africa and the opportunities for good governance.
