News & Events

Two new books out by ASC senior researcher Walter van Beek: Contes Kapsiki du Cameroun (Kapsiki Stories from Cameroon) and Sacred Spaces and Contested Identities: Space and Ritual Dynamics in Europe and Africa. For the first book, Van Beek and Henry Tourneux collected and edited stories from the Kapsiki in Cameroon. Animals, human beings and supernatural beings are the main characters. The second book, edited by Van Beek, Paul Post and Philip Nel, is a volume on the position of sacred space, within the broader context of ritual and religious dynamics. Both books can be borrowed from the Library!

The ASC Library recently acquired this documentary film about two men who work for the Chinese Railway Engineering Company in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The men  represent two different cultures who clash in the dust of the former Belgian colony: Chinese Lao Yang and Congolese Eddy, who speaks Mandarin fluently. An occasionally hilarious report of a less than stable working relationship, which also reflects the unstoppable rise of China. The film is the subject of our latest Acquisition Highlight.

Just a few days left before the Africa Works! conference takes off! The ASC and the NABC are organizing this international conference on 16 & 17 October. 600+ participants have already joined in. In addition to keynotes by e.g. Lilianne Ploumen (Netherlands Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation) and Julia Duncan-Cassell (Liberia Minister of Gender and Development), forty workshops will be held. Check out the conference website www.africaworks.nl for the latest news and - during the conference - films and interviews.

The Africa Works! conference on 16 & 17 October was a big success! More than 700 people joined in the Holiday Inn in Leiden. The conference brought together knowledge institutes, companies, NGOs and policymakers to create new partnerships. Julia Duncan-Cassell, the Liberia Minister of Gender and Development, was guest of honour. Hans Docter, Dutch Special Envoy on Ebola, received a petition that was drawn up during the conference. Lilianne Ploumen, Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, closed the conference. Read on to find some of the keynote speeches and an overview of media coverage. Have a look at the pictures!

ASC researcher Akinyinka Akinyoade and Bisola Adebayo from Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, currently drafted to the Ebola Emergency Operations Centre (EEOC) in Lagos, have written an ASC web article about the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and elsewhere. The article goes beyond giving statistical updates of the spread of the Ebola virus; it highlights medical as well as socio-cultural issues, like the strong advise not to shake hands anymore - 'The social soul is now seen as a possible route of transmission of the dreadful disease' -, patients suffering from other diseases getting rejected at medical facilities, and rising foodstuff prices.

The ASC has produced three brand new thematic maps. One in cooperation with Nuffic: 'Dutch cooperation programmes to strengthen post-secondary education and training in Africa (1996-2013)', one in cooperation with the Rotterdam School of Management: 'The challenge of Dutch sustainable diplomacy', and one in cooperation with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs: 'Composition of financial flows to Sub-Saharan African countries: ten years into the Monterrey Consensus on the Millennium Development Goals'. The maps can be ordered at the ASC, free of charge.

'BerichtenBuitenland', monthly magazine for the Dutch agrarian business sector and issued by the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs, gives extensive attention to the Africa Works! conference in its September issue ('Africa special'). Ton Dietz, director of the African Studies Centre, is quoted as saying that during the first edition of Africa Works! in 2012, mutual trust was built between scholars, entrepreneurs and policy makers, and that during this year's edition, the time is ripe to move ahead and create real partnerships. Africa Works! will be held on 16 and 17 October in Leiden.

The Africa Yearbook 2013 covers major domestic political developments, foreign policy and socio-economic trends in sub-Saharan Africa – all related to developments in the calendar year 2013. The Yearbook contains articles on all sub-Saharan states, each of the four sub-regions (West, Central, Eastern, Southern Africa), an article on continental developments and one on African-European relations. Editors are Andreas Mehler (Institute of African Affairs, Hamburg), Henning Melber (Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Uppsala) and Klaas van Walraven (African Studies Centre, Leiden).

The ASC has launched an information portal on the 2014 outbreak of Ebola (EVD, Ebola Virus Disease) in Africa. On the portal, you will find information from international health organizations like the World Health Organization and Doctors without Borders, government institutions of several (African) countries, news feeds and maps of the outbreak. The information portal will be updated regularly. Also have a look at the list of Frequently Asked Questions.

ASC researcher Klaas van Walraven just published an article in Politique Africaine about the putsch by Seyni Kountché in Niger in 1974, which led to the fall of President Hamani Diori. The French were accused of involvement because Diori had had disagreements with them. During his research in the Paris archives, Van Walraven made a fascinating discovery: not only were the French not involved in the putsch, they actually started up measures for an airborne operation to save President Diori, code-named “Plan Somme”. Read the interview with Van Walraven about his discovery.