News & Events

On 26 December 2009, South African activist, educator, journalist and poet Dennis Vincent Brutus died in Cape Town at the age of 85. He was best known for his campaign to have South Africa banned from the Olympic Games.

Megan Vaughan, Professor of African History and Health at University College London, gave the Stephen Ellis Annual Lecture on 1 December. She spoke about Africa in the time of Coronavirus, and explored the differing experiences in different parts of the continent. You can now watch the video!

The Leiden African Studies Assembly (LeidenASA) held its Annual Meeting on 12 December. LeidenASA is the network of Leiden based Africa-researchers. It has more than 170 scholars who work on Africa-related research and education. Fifteen researchers gave pitches on their projects, and sketches of Leiden University's Africa strategy were outlined.

On [31?] December 1949, Bissau-Guinean film director Flora Gomes was born in Cadique. Gomes's 'Mortu Nega' (Death Denied; 1988) won the prestigious Oumarou Ganda Prize at FESPACO 1989.

PhD candidate Loes Oudenhuijsen has been awarded the 2022 Queer African Studies Association Prize for the Best Published Scholarly Essay by a Graduate Student. She won the prize for her article ‘Quietly Queer(ing): the Normative Value of Sutura and Its Potential for Young Women in Urban Senegal’, published in Africa in 2021. Congratulations Loes!

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary conference of the NVAS (Netherlands Association for African Studies) on 9 and 10 December, the ASCL Library compiled a web dossier on language, conciliation and conflict in Africa. 

On 8 December 1961, Santomean poet and journalist, Maria da Conceição de Deus Lima, also known as Conceição Lima, was born in Santana on São Tomé. According to Santomean literary critic Inocência Mata, Conceição Lima's poetry is a conscious voice that addresses Europe with an accusation of the suffering that has occurred for centuries in Santomean society.

After a bloody war of independence in the 1950s and 1960s, Algeria became independent from France in 1962. Read about the country's recent history, demographic and social-economic developments, urbanisation, agricultural developments, and regional inequality. 

On 30 November 2015, Moroccan feminist writer and sociologist Fatema Mernissi died in Rabat at the age of 75. Her legacy can be greatly attributed to her scholarly and literary contributions to the early Islamic feminist movement. She tackled issues such as Eurocentrism, intersectionality, transnationalism and global feminism in her publications and public lectures. 

The ASCL is deeply saddened by the news that its former colleague Marieke van Winden passed away on 23 November. Marieke was the ASCL’s communications officer until she retired in June 2019, and still after that, she co-organised the Africa Knows conference. Marieke will be missed tremendously by her former colleagues.