News & Events

On 1 July 1960 Somalia became an independent state. Organised in the framework of 'Africa 2020', the ASCL, its Library and LeidenASA will pay attention to this complex region of the Horn of Africa, praised for its (oral) literature, marked by its civil war and voiced by its diaspora. During the (online) 'Somali Day' on 29 June, the country will be addressed from a historical-cultural perspective by reconsidering Somali culture and governance through the lens of its literature and diaspora.

This fifth edition of Historical Dictionary of Niger, written by Rahmane Idrissa, has over 700 entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. The book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Niger. For centuries Niger remained the largely uncontrolled periphery of the large empires of the western Sudan and the market cities of the central Sudan. In these two ways, the land forged a very distinctive identity, a fluid blend of diverse communities which make up a nation of marginal cosmopolitans; a paradox illuminated in this book. 

The research of historian Duncan Money focuses on the mining industry, and he has closely examined the many thousands of white mineworkers who came to the Copperbelt in Zambia in the 20th century. These mineworkers, he argues, constituted a highly mobile migrant working force, moving between mines and industrial centres around the world. Read the interview we did with him!

Annachiara Raia entered Mahmoud Mau’s library on Lamu island, 350 km from Mombasa, Kenya, for the first time in 2014. He became her primary informant as well as a fatherly figure. With his knowledge, she embarked on reading and deciphering nineteenth-century Swahili Islamic manuscript poems, which flourished in the Lamu archipelago. She gradually realized the value of Mahmoud Mau’s library as a living archive. Read Annachiara's post for the ASCL Africanist Blog!