News & Events

The African Studies Centre Leiden is very sad to report that in the morning of 28 March Dr Harrie Leyten passed away, 87 years of age. With his demise we lose a dear friend and an Africanist who has inspired countless people about Africa, its peoples and its art. Harrie defended his PhD in 2015. Read the 'In Memoriam' written by his friend and former promotor Wouter van Beek.

On 31 March 2021, Angolan poet and scholar Arlindo Barbeitos, in full Arlindo do Carmo Pires Barbeitos, died in Luanda at the age of 80. 

Indy Koster, student of the Research Master African Studies, collaborates with REEFolution for her thesis research. This NGO in Shimoni, a coastal village in south eastern Kenya, aims to restore the degraded coral reefs. Indy collects data both under water, to analyse the condition of the reef, and on land, interviewing female stakeholders.

The African Studies Centre Leiden is deeply saddened by the news that its former colleague and board member of the Netherlands Association of African Studies (NVAS) Karin Willemse passed away in Leiden on 18 March 2023. Karin was a driving force in propagating African Studies in the Netherlands. 

On 25 March 2019, Nigerian poet and novelist Gabriel Imomotimi Okara died at the age of 97 in Yenagoa, Nigeria. The first modernist poet of Anglophone Africa, he is best known for his early experimental novel, The Voice (1964), and his award-winning poetry, published in The Fisherman's Invocation (1978).

Registration for the two Leiden-Delft-Erasmus (LDE) minors that the ASCL co-organises will open on 3 April! It concerns the minor African Dynamics and the minor Frugal Innovation for Sustainable Global Development. The minors are accessible for third-year bachelor students from the three universities.

On 17 March 2015, Nigerien filmmaker and educator Moustapha Alassane died at the age of 73 in Ouagadougou. He was not only a pioneer of Nigerien and African cinema but also the first African to direct animated films.

Scatterlings: a novel tells the story of a multiracial family in South Africa at the time when the Immorality Act of 1927 is passed. In the end the family is torn apart, culminating in one of the protagonists doing something terrible. Scatterlings is Rešoketšwe Manenzhe's debut novel. 

Air pollution is the second largest cause of death in Africa and air pollution-related costs are high. Vulnerable groups face higher risks and environmental injustice hampers achievement of inclusive development. Marleen Dekker and Agnieszka Kazimierczuk participated in a workshop on a pilot design for air quality in Africa. 

Studium Generale en het ASCL bieden in april en mei lezingen aan die inzicht geven in ontwikkelingen in Afrika. Thema's zijn o.a. migratie, de diversiteit van de islam, Afrikaanse talen en literatuur, de mogelijke relatie tussen diamantwinning en het uitsterven van soorten, en de link tussen Afrika en Noord-Korea.