News & Events

According to colleague writers, Zimbabwean author Irene Ropa Rinopfuka Mahamba stands out as one of the local writers representing a true, Zimbabwean perspective on the liberation struggle in this country. Mahamba is the subject of the latest Library Highlight!

On 19 October 2004, Seychellois poet Antoine Abel died in Mahé at the age of 69. He is considered the father of Seychelles literature. 

The NVAS (Netherlands Association for African Studies) will dedicate its 25th anniversary conference on 9 and 10 December to Africa’s most widely acknowledged contribution to the heritage of mankind: spoken mediation. Students and NVAS members register for free!

Students of the LDE minor African Dynamics interviewed African academics working at Leiden University, Delft University of Technology and Erasmus University. In the interviews they focus on these academics' role in strengthening knowledge transfer and capacity building in their home country.

Africa needs a new narrative. One that is consistent with developments that are taking place all around the continent, in which the talented youth, creative tech hubs, and leapfrogging play a role. That was the main message of Ahunna Eziakonwa, UNDP Director Africa, during a meeting on 30 September.

On 8 October 2013, Senegalese writer and filmmaker Khady Sylla died in Dakar at the age of 50. In 2005, she won an award for her film ‘An Open Window’ at the International Documentary Festival (FID) in Marseille. She is featured in our latest Library Weekly.

Ton Dietz wrote a new blog about Russia's relationships with African countries. The divide in Africa between pro-Russian and pro-Western countries partly follows the earlier Cold War fault lines.

On 29 September 1914, Afrikaans poet Diederik (or Dirk) Johannes Opperman, commonly referred to as D.J. Opperman was born in Dundee, South Africa. He is considered to be one of the best known Afrikaans poets of the twentieth century. Read the Library Weekly!

On 21 September 2011, Kenyan novelist, pediatrician, and human rights advocate Margaret Atieno Ogola died in Nairobi at the age of 53.  Her literary debut 'The River and the Source' has been on the KCSE syllabus for many years. The novel won the 1995 Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature and the 1995 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, Africa Region. Read the Library Weekly!

Slam poetry, which combines poetry and performance, is gaining increasing momentum among Africa’s youth as a means of expressing opinions and emotions. In particular, the library’s French-language literature section has seen interesting additions in recent months.