News & Events

Recently the memoirs of Professor Charles Odidi Okidi, former Dean of the School of Environmental Studies of (then) Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya, were published. Title: In Pursuit of Excellence. From 1991 onwards the Netherlands supported this School. Ton Dietz was the scientific coordinator on the Dutch side. In his memoirs, Prof. Okidi writes: ‘It is desirable that a tracer study be done to find out what has happened to those who went to Amsterdam. Where are they?' Dietz, a pensioner but very actively involved in the Africa Knows! conference, did a deep search on the internet. Read his blog!

Prof. Marleen Dekker has been appointed as the new director of the African Studies Centre Leiden. She will take up her new position on 1 April 2021 for a period of four years. Marleen Dekker is Professor of Inclusive Development in Africa at Leiden University. She will succeed Prof. Jan-Bart Gewald, who will continue as Professor of African History and senior researcher at the ASCL. The Board of the ASCL would like to express its gratitute to Professor Gewald for his huge commitment to the ASCL during his directorship.

Diana Wylie, Professor of History at Boston University, wrote a review of 'The Individual in African History: The Importance of Biography in African Historical Studies' - published in the African Dynamics series and edited by ASCL senior researcher Klaas van Walraven - for H-Net. 'The task of hoisting the complex life of a particular individual onto the level of social significance is indeed difficult', she writes, 'but it lies at the heart of the problem of biography. It is worth doing, as the authors persuasively argue, if we are to make African history familiar and palpable to a wide audience'.

Islam is an essential feature of the area that encompasses northern Nigeria and southern Niger. Today it assumes new forms in terms of discourses, practices, and modes of dissemination. In order to capture their changing complexity and diversity, regional Islamic dynamics need to be observed form both sides of the Niger-Nigeria border, where religious patterns echo each other but also obey different socio-political injunctions. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Niger, Nigeria, France and the United Kingdom was set up to conduct this transnational study.

After an impressive start, early December, the Africa Knows! conference about knowledge production in and on Africa has resumed on 18 January. With fascinating panels on decolonising knowledge, films screened every evening, a conference magazine and a special blog by Prof. Jonathan Jansen of Stellenbosch University. The conference will last until 24 February. Registration is still possible!