Library
The library of the African Studies Centre Leiden is a research library, which is also open to the general public. The library consists of a digital and a paper library. The digital library gives access to an unlimited number of publications, the paper library holds 91,000 books about and from Africa, 90,000 journal articles and 1,700 films on DVD.
On 19 June 1932, South African intellectual, journalist, linguist, politician, translator and writer Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje died of pneumonia at Pimville, Johannesburg. Plaatje was a founder member and first General Secretary of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), which became the African National Congress (ANC). The Sol Plaatje Local Municipality, which includes the city of Kimberley, is named after him, as is the Sol Plaatje University in that city, which opened its doors in 2014. Read more
Starting in Tunisia in December 2010, in the first months of 2011 a wave of protest spread across the Arab world. On the 10th anniversary of the “Arab Spring”, the ASCL Library has compiled a web dossier on its history and impact on the African continent. The dossier consists of titles from the ASCL Library Catalogue, complemented by sources available through the broader Leiden University Library collection. The dossier is introduced by Dr Abeer Abazeed. Read the web dossier.
The media have always played an important role in times of protest, struggle, and war. In recent times, social media have even strengthened this impact. This month’s Library Highlight, the volume of essays Guerrilla radios in Southern Africa: broadcasters, technology, propaganda wars, and the armed struggle, edited by Sekibakiba Peter Lekgoathi, Tshepo Moloi, and Alda Romão Saúte Saíde, focuses on the special role of radio as the predominant medium during the struggle for national liberation in Southern Africa. Read the Library Highlight!
On the occasion of the exhibition 'Slavery' at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, opened by King Willem-Alexander on 18 May, the ASCL Library has compiled a web dossier on the Indian Ocean slave trade. The dossier consists of selected titles from the ASCL Library Catalogue, extended with sources available through the broader Leiden University Library collection. The dossier is introduced by Rijksmuseum curator Maria Holtrop. Read the web dossier.
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