News & Events

Are you exploring your options for a master’s programme, and are you interested in Africa? Join us for the presentations on African Studies during the Master's Open Day on 16 March at Leiden University. Presentations on the African Studies master's as well as the research master's programmes will be given, and the differences between the two courses will be clarified. Meanwhile, read more about the motivations of two of our current research master's students, Mariam de Haan and Felix Kram!

The African Studies Centre Leiden has started a new blog: the ASCL Africanist Blog. The ASCL Professors, members of the Collaborative Research Groups and project researchers will blog about their research, fieldwork, new publications, conferences and teaching experiences. They may also share their view on a development in society from an Africanist perspective. Prof. Jan-Bart Gewald, director of the ASCL and Professor of African History, kicks off the blog: Paper libraries in the digital age?

The current exhibition at the ASCL, The Black Dutch project, will be opened on Thursday 8 March at 16:00. The Black Dutch project is an artistic venture by impresario Yangambi and photographer Guy Basabose. A series of artistic portraits of inspirational Dutch men and women of African descent, the project aims to challenge the audience to go beyond stereotypes. Many of the portayed people will be present at the opening. You are very welcome, please register!

Jamie Monson, Professor of History and Director of the African Studies Center, Michigan State University, will give the keynote speech during the 'Destination Africa' conference on 22 March. Prof. Monson will take the experience of railway porters on the Tanzania-Zambia Railway as a starting point, which allows a ‘view from the platform’ of transformations in local and regional economies that are taking place as investment, settlement and markets shift. The speech is open to the general public, but please register. 

Activist and main actor Silas Siakor as well as film maker Anjali Nayar will be present at this screening in The Hague on 28 March. The Liberian environmental activist Silas Siakor puts his heart and soul into fighting for community rights and exposing corruption. Growing up during the rule of Charles Taylor, Siakor saw valuable raw materials leave his country as weapons entered. The change promised by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf failed to come.

The footprints of the North Korean influence can be found all over Africa, most clearly in the form of monuments, museums and government buildings constructed by forced labourers. Such projects are symbols of African nationalism while simultaneously adopting the socialist realist style of Pyongyang. Less visible is the forced labour that precedes the joyful opening of a new monument. This is a chapter written by Tycho van der Hoog in the preliminary report People For Profit, North Korean Forced Labour On A Global Scale, edited by Remco Breuker & Imke van Gardingen.

Following the historical developments in November 2017, Mugabe’s 37 year long rule in Zimbabwe ended with his resignation. Since his installation as Mugabe’s successor, President Mnangagwa has raised hopes for the ‘new Zimbabwe’ by advocating for policy reforms that should address Zimbabwe’s economic crisis. To better understand the current transition, leading Zimbabwean political scientist Eldred Masunungure will outline the recent developments, provide an assessment of the changes, and consider the outlook for the elections later this year.