News & Events

On 11 december 1906, Senegalese poet and storyteller Birago Diop was born. Diop's work restored general interest in African folktales and promoted him to one of the most outstanding African francophone writers. 

On 4 December the ASCL had the honour of hosting Koert Lindijer, Africa correspondent for NRC and NOS, who delivered the 10th Stephen Ellis Annual Lecture. Based on his experience of 40 years of reporting from Africa, Lindijer gave a compelling lecture on the issues facing African governance today.

In July 2024, the African Library bought 230 books in Dar es Salaam, among which a selection of Tanzanian children’s and youth literature in English and Swahili. This selection is the subject of this month's Library Highlight!

Inspired by the African Literary Metadata Project (ALMEDA), the African Library compiled a web dossier on East African literatures. It showcases literary works in English and Swahili, published in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in the last ten years.

On the occasion of the 10th Stephen Ellis Annual Lecture, delivered by Africa correspondent Koert Lindijer on 4 December, the African Library has compiled a special edition web dossier, connected to the subject of this year’s lecture: Africa in the world today and the issues facing African governance.

The Boom2Dust project, for which Prof. Jan-Bart Gewald has received an NWO Open Competition grant, is up and running with a brand new project website. The project will investigate the environmental history of three industrial mining centres in southern Africa: Kimberley in South Africa, Kabwe in Zambia, and Tsumeb in Namibia.