African Studies Centre Leiden

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African Studies Centre Leiden

The African Studies Centre Leiden is the only multidisciplinary academic research institute in the Netherlands devoted entirely to the study of Africa. It welcomes African scholars through its visiting fellowship programme, has a monthly seminar programme and an extensive library that is open to the general public. ASCL is an interfaculty institute of Leiden University (NL).

03/09/2026

📢 Final call for the NVAS Conference: Explorations of Water in Africa!

The Nederlandse Vereniging voor Afrika Studies (Netherlands Association of African Studies, NVAS), in partnership with IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, will organise its annual conference in Delft on 11 and 12 September, with an online day on 10 September.

💦 The volatility of climate change is making the presence and absence of water increasingly problematic, leading to floods and droughts, increasing challenges of water management and its politics. This calls for a fresh look at water in connection to Africa.

➡️ Dates: online day: 10 September. In Delft: 11 and 12 September
➡️ Registration deadline: 4 September
➡️ More information: https://afrikastudies.nl/

01/09/2026

A warm welcome to Aba Amandzewaa Anaman, Head Librarian of the Institute of African Studies Library, University of Ghana. Ms Anaman is a visiting fellow at the African Library these weeks, exchanging knowledge on collection development, digitisation, research support, visibility and engaging library users with collections.

‘I have been particularly impressed by the dedication and knowledge of the library staff and by how proactive they are in sourcing materials from different parts of Africa, including materials that may otherwise be difficult to find. I see many opportunities for continued collaboration and knowledge exchange between our institutions.’
Listen to the interview!

31/08/2026

How do rural households navigate life at the intersection of armed conflict, conservation, and land scarcity?

Join us for the upcoming ASCL Seminar with An Ansoms: Pushed to the periphery? Struggles over natural resources in conflict zones in North Kivu, eastern DR Congo.

Drawing on recent qualitative fieldwork in North Kivu, the lecture examines how war becomes embedded in everyday livelihood strategies and how conservation and development interventions may unintentionally deepen local inequalities and land conflicts.

📅 10 September 2026
🕓 16:00–17:30
📍 Herta Mohr Building, Leiden, room 0.31
💻 Online link available for registered participants who cannot travel to Leiden

Register here: https://buff.ly/qev8tcv

27/08/2026

🎉 A special visit from Ghana! Professor Abena Busia visited the African Studies Centre Leiden and the African Library to honour her father, Prof. Kofi Abrefa Busia, a former prime minister of Ghana. Kofi Abrefa was the first to hold the Chair of Sociology and Culture of Africa at the African Studies Centre and the ISS in The Hague, and also the first African to hold that chair.

📸 First photo: Prof. Marleen Dekker and Prof. Busia featuring together in the African Library with a copy of her father's inaugural address from 1960.
📸 Second photo: Prof. Abena Busia with some of her own works; she is also a distinguished poet. These volumes can be found in the collection of the African Library.
📸 Third photo: Prof. Abena Busia with Liesbeth Kanis, head of the African Library.

20/08/2026

🚨Due to unexpected maintenance work, the African Library will be closed on Thursday 20 August and Friday 21 August. The front desk will be available during these works. Regular services will be provided as much as possible.

The Middle Eastern Library will remain open and can be accessed via the University Library (UL) passage.

You are very welcome to visit the African Library again during the weekend and from Monday 24 August onwards. We apologize for any inconvenience and hope to be able to assist you again soon.

Practical information: https://buff.ly/TNzLYsF

17/08/2026

What does it mean when young people set out for a border carrying absolutely nothing?

In a new blog for the ASCL, PhD candidate Chaimaa Radouani reflects on the July 2026 Ceuta crossings, when around 70,000 Moroccans, many of them under eighteen, travelled toward the Spanish exclave of Sebta/Ceuta after a border opening was announced on social media.

Rather than focusing only on numbers, crisis language, or border politics, the blog follows what happened to their bodies before, during, and after the crossing and asks what their movement reveals about the youth's despair, dignity, waithood, and wish to leave.

Read the blog: https://buff.ly/Vqaem38

📸 Credit: Chaimaa Radouani. Men sitting on a boat, northern Morocco, August 2024.

13/08/2026

Mirjam de Bruijn was recently interviewed in the podcast Achter de Frontlinie about the transformation of Mali.

Through her friendship with Amadou, she traces Mali’s transformation from a place of music, research and deep personal ties into a country increasingly shaped by violence and radicalisation.

A moving conversation about friendship, loss, jihadism and the soul of Mali.

Listen here: https://ascleiden.nl/news/mirjam-de-bruijn-podcast-achter-de-frontlinie-malis-transformation

10/08/2026

Still time to submit your brilliant thesis on Africa!

Don’t miss your chance to apply for the Africa Thesis Award 2026 – and win €500 plus publication!

⏳ Deadline: 30 Sept
📍 Details: https://buff.ly/IYPm8bZ

03/08/2026

📢 On Wednesday 23 September Mandipa Ndlovu will defend her dissertation Myth, Memory, and Political Settlements in the City: Compounded Disadvantage and a Path for Plausible Futures at Leiden University.

Ndlovu examines urban disadvantage in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city. Her dissertation argues that the city’s marginalisation cannot be understood only as the result of economic decline or poor governance but is part of a wider “architecture of disadvantage” shaped by colonial legacies, post-independence political settlements, centralised power, militarised governance, spatial inequality, and entrenched myths about the city.

🔗 More information and link to livestream: https://buff.ly/99GYQNL
📅 Date: 23 September
🕒 Time: 13:00-14:00
📍 Address: Academy Building, Rapenburg 73, 2311 GJ Leiden, Great Auditorium

Adres

Witte Singel 27A
Leiden
2311BG

Telefoon

+31715273372

Website

https://www.ascleiden.nl/

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