News & Events

Klaas de Jonge died on 5 May 2023. Klaas worked as a senior researcher at the African Studies Centre from 1968-1980. He became front page news in 1985 when he was holed up in the Dutch embassy in Pretoria, as a fugitive from the South African police. Read the In Memoriam written by Ineke van Kessel.

On 24 April 2016, Congolese singer and musician Jules Shungu Wembadio Pene Kikumba, known professionally as Papa Wemba died at the age of 66 after collapsing on stage in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, during the FEMUA urban music festival. Dubbed the 'King of Rumba Rock', he was one of the most popular musicians of his time in Africa and played an important role in world music. 

In many Muslim contexts across West Africa, the Hausa concept of 'boko' has come to mean a Western style of education, in contrast with 'adini', or Islamic religiosity. In this co-organised LUCIS/ASCL lecture on 11 May, Abdoulaye Sounaye will discuss the relationship between boko and adini in the light of contemporary Islamic dynamics in West Africa.

AEGIS, the network of Europe-based institutions with a focus on research and education on Africa and African Studies, has launched a brand-new website. The site has been enlivened and restructured, important information updated, and a number of new features added.

Every year, April 17 is observed as World Hemophilia Day. It is an international awareness day for hemophilia and other bleeding disorders . The theme of the event this year is 'Access for All: Prevention of bleeds as the global standard of care'.

The project 'Almeda', African Literary Metadata, convened by Professor Ashleigh Harris of Uppsala University, has received an ERC grant for five years. Ursula Oberst of the ASCL Library will take part in it and contribute to Almeda with her metadata expertise. The project will produce new metadata about African literature.

Robert Okello, winner of the Africa Thesis Award 2022, will be handed over his award during a ceremony on 20 April which you can follow online. Robert wrote his thesis on rural women’s legal empowerment through digital technology in Northern Uganda. He will give a presentation about his thesis before receiving the prize from the chair of the jury, Prof. Margriet van der Waal.