News & Events

The media have always played an important role in times of protest, struggle, and war. In recent times, social media have even strengthened this impact. This month’s Library Highlight, the volume of essays Guerrilla radios in Southern Africa: broadcasters, technology, propaganda wars, and the armed struggle, edited by Sekibakiba Peter Lekgoathi, Tshepo Moloi, and Alda Romão Saúte Saíde, focuses on the special role of radio as the predominant medium during the struggle for national liberation in Southern Africa. Read the Library Highlight!

Starting in Tunisia in December 2010, in the first months of 2011 a wave of protest spread across the Arab world. On the 10th anniversary of the “Arab Spring”, the ASCL Library has compiled a web dossier on its history and impact on the African continent. The dossier consists of titles from the ASCL Library Catalogue, complemented by sources available through the broader Leiden University Library collection. The dossier is introduced by Dr Abeer Abazeed. Read the web dossier.

Western media have never really been interested in the severe environmental damage caused by huge mining projects in Sierra Leone, many of them Western. So why is there suddenly so much attention for the ‘catastrophic Chinese support’ for building a fisheries harbour in Sierra Leone, near the paradisiacal Black Johnson Beach? Read Ton Dietz's latest blog.

On 1 July, Anika Altaf will become the new coordinator of the Knowledge Platform INCLUDE. The Platform's current coordinator, Marleen Dekker, has held this position since its establishment in 2014. Marleen Dekker has started a new function as director of the African Studies Centre Leiden on 1 April. Anika Altaf, who joined the INCLUDE Secretariat in 2020, has over a decade of experience in the field of international development with a strong focus on Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia. Her area of expertise is inclusive development and human wellbeing, specifically of the most marginalised people.