News & Events

The African Studies Centre Leiden has developed an app for the AfricaBib database. AfricaBib gives bibliographical information on more than 220,000 African studies publications. It is the culmination of over forty years of Africana research.

The journal African Affairs has awarded the inaugural Stephen Ellis prize to Justin Hastings & Sarah Phillips from the University of Sydney for their article 'Maritime piracy business networks and institutions in Africa'. The prize was awarded during the ASAUK conference in Cambridge on 8 September. Stephen Ellis (1953-2015) was a greatly respected editor of African Affairs and one of the ASCL's most prominent researchers.

Lesage Munyemana fled the war in DR Congo. He is now a biology student at Leiden University and gave one of the speeches during the offical opening of the Academic Year on 5 September. He is also the founder of the new university Meeting Point. This will be a friendly and informal place located in the Plexus student centre, where refugee students can go for help and advice. 

We are delighted that this year’s Stephen Ellis Annual Lecture will be given by Muna Ndulo, Professor of Law at Cornell University, USA. In his lecture Prof. Ndulo will contend that a poorly designed constitution can hinder inclusiveness and promote ethnic grievances and conflicts. He will identify key issues that must be addressed in the constitution making process to promote inclusiveness and a sense of citizenship and ownership of the political process in a diverse nation state. The lecture takes place on 17 November at 18.30.

During the ASAUK conference in Cambridge, 7-9 September, African Affairs will present the new Stephen Ellis prize and announce its inaugural winner. The Stephen Ellis prize is awarded for the most innovative article in African Affairs in the previous two year period, and is intended to highlight and promote the kind of thought provoking, politically engaged and pathbreaking analysis that Stephen Ellis pioneered throughout his hugely influential career.

The scoping study on regional trade & investment in West Africa conducted by the ASCL in cooperation with LEI Wageningen UR and the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) has now been finalized and has generated a number of written outputs.

ASCL's Director Ton Dietz presented a paper at the 33rd International Geographical Congress in Beijing that took place from 21-25 August. The paper examines the evidence in Africa regarding the intentions of municipalities and their leadership to develop more sustainable cities, and to mobilise business and popular support for more sustainable futures in a continent that is likely to have the fastest urbanization trends in the decades ahead. Read the paper.

In this seminar Vincent Hiribarren (King's College London) will analyse the history of the borders in the region of Borno (Nigeria). By focusing on borderlands known for harbouring Boko Haram terrorists, this seminar will bring a historical dimension to contemporary security issues in the Lake Chad region. It will be argued that British imperialism did not always destroy nineteenth-century African polities but, as in the case of Borno, favoured the reconstruction of a nineteenth-century territory within the Nigerian colony. 

The third edition of Africa Works! will take place on 10 & 11 November in Amsterdam. With over 500 participants, Africa Works! Innovation in Finance is expected to be the largest conference in Western Europe which focuses on doing business in Africa. Among the keynote speakers are Klaas Knot (Dutch Central Bank) and Amine Bouabid (Bank of Africa). Dr Chibuike Uche, senior researcher at the ASCL, will host the workshop 'Opportunities for Lease financing in Africa' on day 1.

In 2013, two thirds of Africans were reckoned to live in countries suffering from state fragility. The fragility of African states is regarded as a major explanation for the failure of countries to translate strong economic growth into sustained social and economic development. During this seminar Em. Professor Dele Olowu (Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria) will discuss approaches that would result in a change from state fragility to state resilience, based on lessons learnt from selected states in Eastern and Southern Africa.