Cameroon

Akinyinka Akinyoade is a Hydrologist turned Demographer. He obtained a Doctoral degree in Development Studies with emphasis on Population and Rural Development at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), The Hague. Akinyinka’s research activities are on population health and development, with special attention on fertility dynamics and family planning in West Africa; migration (human trafficking and forced labour in Nigeria); decentralisation (public service delivery in education and health sectors of Nigeria, Cameroon, Tanzania and Indonesia).

His work experience spans Nigeria (Population Statistician at the National Population Commission); Ghana (Lectured at the Department of Sociology, University of Cape Coast, and provided professional assistance as an Editor in the 5-year multi-round survey of the Demography Unit of the UCC); and Country Coordinator Nigeria for the Tracking Development project that compared development trajectories of Nigeria and Indonesia.

A Senior Researcher at the ASCL, Akinyinka gives lectures on Quantitative Research Methodology; his latest research activities are on migration, food and water security (scenarios for Africa 2020-2050), and agricultural value chains. He is a member of the collaborative research group Governance, entrepreneurship and inclusive development, and the convenor of the collaborative research group Pioneering futures of health and well-being: actors, technologies and social engineering.

Dr Akinyoade is the Chair of the Researchers' Assembly of the African Studies Centre Leiden.

Keywords: Africa, demographics, population health, fertility dynamics in West Africa, migration, decentralization, food security, water security, agricultural value chains.

First name initials:

Full name:

Akinyinka Akinyoade

Room number:

3.A01a

Phone number:

+31 (0)71 527 6701

Email:

a.akinyoade@asc.leidenuniv.nl

PPN:

307896226

Academic title:

Dr.

First name:

Akinyinka

Last name:

Akinyoade

ASC staff member:

Research staff

Research function:

Senior researcher

ASC director:

Governor board:

Akinyinka-Akinyoade

West Africa

Nigeria

Ghana

Cameroon

Kenya

Tanzania

Short description:

Akinyinka Akinyoade's research activities are on population health and development, with special attention on fertility dynamics in West Africa.

Computed picture:

/sites/default/files/pictures/akinyinka_0.jpg

Google scholar link:

https://scholar.google.nl/citations?user=dmiIkREAAAAJ

Leiden Universiteit profile link:

https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/akinyinka-akinyoade

Wouter van Beek

Most of his academic career Wouter van Beek worked at the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University, as one of the Africanists at that institution. In 2001 his research became part of the African Studies Centre Leiden.

North Cameroon has been the place of study for his PhD work, from 1972. The ethnography of the Mandara Mountains, in particular the Kapsiki/Higi, forms a permanent element in his work. He recently published his 7th book on the Kapsiki, a collection of folktales (Contes nouveaux des Kapsiki). His main books are on Kapsiki religion (The Dancing Dead), blacksmiths (The Forge and the Funeral) and the dynamics of orality (The Transmission of Kapsiki Folktales).

From 1979 onwards the Dogon of Central Mali form his second focus of research: their religion, including their masquerades, and their cultural heritage have resulted in a number of publications and co-produced films. At present a huge song cycle at the heart of the Dogon funeral rites, forms the pivot of a project called DigiDogon, part of the Joint Program on digitalization of cultural heritage (JPICH). This project entails new research in the Dogon area by four junior researchers, three of which are Dogon themselves. The first book publication, Chanter le baja ni. Abirè le Voyant Dogon is out.

From 1996 onwards Wouter van Beek became involved with Southern Africa, both with Namibia and South Africa. Participation in academic cooperation between the Netherlands and South Africa resulted in tutoring South African PhD candidates, and in two projects, on witchcraft accusations and on Holy Places, together with Tilburg University, as well as in a series of publications.

In 2007 Wouter became Professor of Anthropology of Religion at Tilburg University (part time), where he taught various courses till his emeritate in 2015.

He is a regular teacher for the HOVO (Higher Education for Seniors) at the universities of Leiden, Utrecht and Tilburg, in a variety of lecture courses.

Keywords: Kapsiki-Higi, Dogon, religion, anthropology of religion, tourism, cultural heritage, African masks, performance, cultural ecology, folk tales, oral history.

First name initials:

W.E.A.

Full name:

Wouter van Beek

Room number:

3.A11a

Phone number:

+31 (0)71 527 6641

Email:

w.e.a.van.beek@asc.leidenuniv.nl

PPN:

069051534

Academic title:

Prof.

Dr.

First name:

Wouter

Last name:

Beek

Preposition:

van

ASC staff member:

Research staff

Research function:

Retired research fellow

ASC director:

Governor board:

Wouter-van-Beek

Cameroon

Mali

Namibia

South Africa

Southern Africa

Short description:

Wouter van Beek is an anthropologist whose main thematic interests are religion, cultural ecology and tourism.

Computed picture:

/sites/default/files/pictures/wouter-van-beek.jpg

Google scholar link:

https://scholar.google.nl/citations?user=4FTutBkAAAAJ

Leiden Universiteit profile link:

https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/w.e.a.-van-beek

Mirjam de Bruijn

Mirjam de Bruijn is Professor of Citizenship and Identities in Africa at the African Studies Centre Leiden as of 1 September 2017. She is an anthropologist whose work has a clearly interdisciplinary character, with a preference for contemporary history and cultural studies. She focuses on the interrelationship between agency, marginality, mobility, communication and technology. She is an Africanist with a focus on West and Central Africa. She has done extensive (qualitative) fieldwork in Cameroon, Chad and Mali. Her specific fields of interest are: nomadism, youth and children, social (in)security, poverty, marginality/social and economic exclusion, violence, human rights, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).

In Mali she has worked in the Mopti area with the Fulbe (Peul) and in Menaka with the Tamacheck (Tuareg). In Chad she has worked in N’Djamena (the capital) and in Central Chad with Hadjerai and Arab groups. In Cameroon she works in the Grassfields and the North. Her recent research focuses on urban youth and artists and their role in political movements.

From 2008 to 2013 Mirjam coordinated the research programme ‘Mobile Africa Revisited’, a comparative study of the interrelationship between Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), agency, marginality and mobility patterns in Africa. In 2012 Mirjam was awarded a Vici grant (NWO) for the research programme ‘Connecting in times of duress: understanding communication and conflict in Middle Africa’s mobile margins’. Since 2013 she has developed the project ‘Voice4Thought’ (V4T), which is an example of valorization of research. Recently she received funding from the World Bank for a project on Mobile Money (2015-2016) in Africa and from UNICEF (2016-2018) to develop a project on child soldiers in the Central African Republic.

Mirjam de Bruijn was appointed Professor of Contemporary History and Anthropology of Africa at the Faculty of Humanities at Leiden University on 15 June 2007. She gave her inaugural lecture on 5 September 2008.

Read the text of the inaugural lecture (Dutch)

Read the text of the inaugural lecture (English)

Read the text of the VICI project grant application ‘Connecting times of duress'

Read Mirjam de Bruijn's blog Counter Voices in Africa

First name initials:

M.E.

Full name:

Mirjam de Bruijn

Room number:

3.B55

Phone number:

+31 (0)71 527 3360

Email:

m.e.de.bruijn@asc.leidenuniv.nl

PPN:

140170847

Academic title:

Prof.

Dr.

First name:

Mirjam

Last name:

Bruijn

Preposition:

ASC staff member:

Research staff

Research function:

Senior researcher

ASC director:

Governor board:

Mirjam-de-Bruijn

Cameroon

Central African Republic

Chad

Mali

Sahel

West Africa

Short description:

Mirjam de Bruijn is an anthropologist whose work has a clearly interdisciplinary character. She has done fieldwork in Cameroon, Chad and Mali and an important theme throughout is how people manage risk (drought, war, etc.) in both rural and urban areas.

Computed picture:

/sites/default/files/pictures/People/mirjam_de_bruijn-ul-klein.jpg

Google scholar link:

https://scholar.google.nl/citations?user=-VvmgAMAAAAJ

Leiden Universiteit profile link:

https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/mirjam-de-bruijn