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Almost ten years ago to the day I gave a talk at SCOLMA's 1992 annual general meeting on African documentation in the Netherlands, and possibilities for European cooperation. My talk focused on the Afrika-Studiecentrum (ASC) in Leiden and the work of the Library and...

This essay argues that historians need to engage with the history of contemporary Africa both as a way of throwing new light on Africa's more remote past and as a way of understanding the present. It considers how a new generation of works on Africa's contemporary...

This article concerns an extended campaign of witch-hunting in Madagascar. For the purpose of the article, the suppression of alleged witches - that is, people accused of being the human agents of a mystical force that the persecutors suppose to exist - is analysed as a form...

This chapter discusses the dynamics of interaction between the Ethiopan political centre and the Surma or Suri people, a small group of independent agro-pastoralists located in the Maji border area of South-West Ethiopia, from 1974 to 1998. In this period the Suri provide an...

This article summarizes some findings of research on plant names and plant use of the Suri people (more widely known by outsiders as "Surma"), a relatively isolated group of agro-pastoralists in the border area of Southwest Ethiopia and Sudan. The research was...

Alcohol can be used as a theme to belittle, patronize and differentiate people. This happens especially when different kinds of beverages are accorded a different status across social and ethnic groups in society. The case study presented in this chapter highlights cultural...

In this article a comparative study is presented of the Indian and the Ethiopian Jews in Israel, immigrant communities that went through similar experiences of integration and accommodation in Israel, despite the time lag in their arrival. Elements of their history and...

The only research and documentation centre in the Netherlands devoted exclusively to Africa is the Afrika-Studiecentrum (ASC) in Leiden. In this article the author gives a review of the work of this centre, also talking about its library and acquistions policy and about such...

Press Corporation, a large diversified Malawian company, was the personal property of Kamuzu Banda who ruled Malawi as a dictator for thirty years from independence in 1964. The history of Press is analysed in order to generate insights into the relationship between politics...