News & Events

On 20 September 1967, Nigerian poet, teacher, and librarian Christopher Ifekandu Okigbo died fighting for the independence of Biafra. He is today widely acknowledged as an outstanding postcolonial English-language poet and one of the major modernist writers of the 20th century.

John Kegel has been awarded a Kiem seed grant from Leiden University for the project 'The re-enchantment of infrastructure in Africa: Comparing Colonial and Contemporary Coastal Corridors'. The Kiem grant is an initiative from the university to stimulate new interdisciplinary, interfaculty research partnerships and encounters.

Aqeeqa is a play written by Assad Bhuglah, an economist who served as a trade expert for the government of Mauritius from 1981-2016. He produced several books on historical figures as well as fictional works. Aqeeqa is his first work with an explicit religious theme. It deals with the Islamic birth ritual consisting of naming, hair shaving and animal sacrifice.

The ASCL proudly presents the kick-off of the iAfrica Film Festival 2023. On Thursday 12 October the film Money, Freedom, a Story of the CFA Franc (2022), by Katy Léna Ndiaye, will be screened in Leiden.

We are thrilled that the Stephen Ellis Annual Lecture 2023 will be given by Dr Mercy Iroaganachi, University Librarian of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Her lecture on 7 December deals with the place of archives in modern African Studies and puts a searchlight on the patronage of the National Archives of Nigeria, Ibadan.