📢 On 23 September, Mandipa Ndlovu will defend her dissertation Myth, Memory, and Political Settlements in the City at Leiden University. Her research examines urban disadvantage, memory, survival, and possible futures in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. 🔗 More info + livestream: buff.ly/99GYQNL

Registration is open for Beyond the Blue: Interdisciplinary Explorations of Water in Africa, organised by NVAS with IHE Delft. 📅 11-12 Sept 2026 📍 Delft + online ⏳ Register by 1 Sept Register: buff.ly/Zhl5pW7

How do rural households navigate armed conflict, conservation, and land scarcity? Join the ASCL Seminar with An Ansoms on natural resource struggles in North Kivu, eastern DR Congo. 📅 10 Sept 2026 🕓 16:00–17:30 📍 Leiden + online for registered participants Register: buff.ly/m88dfWO

Fred van der Kraaij’s new book Liberia in the 19th Century: From American Colony to African Republic has been reviewed in FrontPageAfrica. 🔗 Read the review: buff.ly/lEk5x3O 📕 Read the book Open Access or buy it in the ASCL webshop: buff.ly/3UGF4PV

➡️ 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: ‘𝐋𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟏𝟗𝐭𝐡 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐲: 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜’ This new book by Fred van der Kraaij explores Liberia’s origins, from colonisation by Black American settlers to the first independent African republic. 📕Read Open Access or buy the book: buff.ly/3UGF4PV

How do artisanal cobalt mining communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo respond to exploitation, environmental damage, and unequal resource governance? Find out in a new article by PhD candidate Jeleel Abiola Balyaminu and co-authors. 🔗 Read the full article open access: buff.ly/tlILOB2

What does peace look like when violence has ended, but historical trauma remains? In a new book chapter 'Uneasy Peace', Mandipa Ndlovu explores Bulawayo’s fragile coexistence, shaped by silence, intergenerational trauma and the unresolved legacy of Gukurahundi. 🔗 www.ascleiden.nl/news/uneasy-...

📢 Call for Papers: Meat and Mining The conference Meat and Mining invites papers on the animals hunted, farmed, transported and killed to feed mineworkers, with animals placed at the centre of the analysis. 📅 Conference: 1–4 Sep 2027 📍 Leiden ⏳ Abstract deadline: 1 Oct 2026 🔗 buff.ly/ckFIovX

How can #music serve as an archive? On 9 July @kitlv.bsky.social, the Frequency of Freedom brings together South African practitioners & Dutch-based youth to explore Cape slave memorial traditions through 'Nederlandse liedjies' & the 'Tweede Nuwe Jaar parade' @ascleiden.bsky.social

Talk & live performance | The Frequency of Freedom: A Capetonian Quintet reintroduces the Holland...

KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies

kitlv.nl

Did you write a master’s thesis on Africa? Here’s why you should submit it to the Africa Thesis Award 👇 The Africa Thesis Award 2026 is open now – and it could open doors for your future too! 📅 Deadline 30 September 2026 ℹ️ www.ascleiden.nl/content/afri...

How do sign languages emerge, spread, and change? Join the kick-off symposium for the Vici project 'Through the Hands of Signers' featuring a keynote by Dr. Sam Lutalo-Kiingi (Kampala). 📍 Lipsius 0.11 🕘 09:00–18:00 📅 10 July 2026 🕘 09:00–18:00 📍 Lipsius, room 0.11, Leiden 🔗 buff.ly/jN24WhM

Wat leert voetbal ons over Afrika? De Africast onderzoekt het. In de nieuwste WK-aflevering van De Africast bespreken Jos Hummelen en Mustapha Esadik de paradox van het Senegalese voetbal. Met een column van Cheikh Niang. Beluister de aflevering hier of sla hem op voor later. 👉 pod.link/1553857543

📢 South Africa witnesses nationwide anti-immigration protests, demanding the deportation of undocumented foreign nationals. Beneath their grievances lies a dangerous political habit of turning migrants into convenient scapegoats, writes Tinashe Chimbidzikai. Blog: 🔗 ascleiden.nl/content/ascl...

Beyond 'illegal foreigners': Why South Africa must rethink migration, legality and belonging | African Studies Centre Leiden

South Africa witnesses nationwide anti-immigration protests led by the group March and March, demanding the deportation of undocumented foreign nationals. Framed as a campaign to defend jobs,…

ascleiden.nl

Last week, we had the pleasure of hosting the ELIAS (European Librarians in African Studies) 2026 meeting in Leiden. Thank you to everyone who joined us and contributed to making this a memorable day! #AfricanLibrary #ELIAS2026 #AfricanStudies 👉️ www.ascleiden.nl/news/elias-m...

Join us for a seminar by Professor Sonwabile Mnwana, who examines how the rapid expansion of platinum mining in rural South Africa is reshaping land, livelihoods, and local politics. 📅 25 June 2026 🕒 15:00–17:00 📍 Herta Mohr Building 💻 buff.ly/MFMwU44

Join us for a seminar by Neil Maheve, who explores life in Kanyemba, northern Zimbabwe, where people live alongside elephants, lions, buffalos, and hippos not by choice but through kugarisana (living together, enduring together). 📅 25 June 2026 🕐 13:00–15:00 📍Herta Mohr Building 🔗 buff.ly/2kkPKPp

Join us on 24 June for a seminar by Dr. Hubert Amu, who will present findings from a continent-wide systematic review examining the health impacts of climate change and ecosystem degradation across Africa. 📅 24 June 2026 🕒 15:30–17:00 CEST 📍 Herta Mohr Building + online 🔗 buff.ly/7nBab5g

Join us for the conference Trade, Tariffs, and Development in Africa to discuss the continent's place in a changing global trading system and the impact of trade policy on development. 📅 18–19 June 2026 📍 Herta Mohr Building, Leiden, The Netherlands 🔗 buff.ly/voZok75 📸: Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Join us for the launch of Orchards of Privilege: Water, Oranges, and Race in the Gamtoos Valley of South Africa, 1700–2023, by Robert Ross, Professor Emeritus of African History at Leiden University. 📅 11 June 2026 🕒 15:00–17:00 📍 Herta Mohr Building, Leiden University + online 🔗 buff.ly/qaGhDAF

Did you write a master’s thesis on Africa? Here’s why you should submit it to the Africa Thesis Award! ✔️ Have your work published by Brill ✔️ Win € 500 ✔️ Boost your research career 🗓️ Deadline: 30 September 2026 ℹ️ All submission details: buff.ly/iYlZuCh

🎉 Congratulations to Martin Luther Darko, Kauthar Khamis and Rashida Adum-Atta, who successfully defended their PhD dissertations on 2 June at @unileiden.bsky.social. Read the feature story in Mare about this remarkable day! buff.ly/wJwQouD (in Dutch) #Ghana #ReligiousCoexistence

How do global power shifts affect workers’ lives? Join visiting fellow Robel Mulat Asmammaw for a seminar on labour, development, and geopolitics in Ethiopia’s Hawassa Special Economic Zone. 📅 10 June, 13:30–15:00 📍 Leiden University 💻 buff.ly/YTKMgOI #Ethiopia #ChinaAfricaRelations 📸 Ermias Abebe

Leiden University will host 3 consecutive PhD defences connected to the Madina Project. The dissertations by Martin Luther Darko, Kauthar Khamis, and Rashida Adum-Atta each explore forms of religious coexistence in Madina, Accra (Ghana), focusing on healthcare, beauty practices, and food exchange.

🌟 On the occasion of Jon Abbink's emeritus status, the volume 'Ethnography, History, and the Politics of Knowledge in Africa' has been created in his honour. The Festschrift celebrates Abbink's wide-ranging career covering culture and politics in Ethiopia and Africa in general. 1/2

Museum de Fundatie recently restituted a Benin Bronze to Nigeria and marked the occasion with Back to Benin, an exhibition featuring reflections by 10 contemporary Nigerian artists. The African Library has acquired the catalogue. 👉️ Read our Highlight on cultural heritage restitution: buff.ly/oyZvnoW

🎙️Het ASCL en podcast De Africast gaan samenwerken! De Africast is een podcast over de geschiedenis, geopolitiek en het ondernemersklimaat in Afrika. Door de samenwerking komen academische kennis en storytelling samen. Lees meer: ascleiden.nl/news/samenwe...

LAST CALL What does it mean to choose hope amid conflict, climate breakdown, and inequality, without naive optimism or cynicism? Irene Guijt explores hope as a deliberate practice that fuels agency and leadership. 📅 07 May 🕓 16:00–17:30 📍 Herta Mohr Building, Leiden (Room 0.31) 🔗 buff.ly/lpW2rRY

How do smartphones reshape the dynamics of war? A new open-access article in African Affairs, by Mirjam de Bruijn and Boukary Sangaré, explores the evolving “war ecology” of Mali, where conflict and digital technologies have grown side by side since 2012. 📖Read the article: doi.org/10.1093/afra...

THE SMARTPHONE CONNECTS IN VIOLENT CONFLICTS: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF MALI’S NEW WAR ECOLOGY

Abstract. The Mali conflict that erupted in 2012 has developed simultaneously with the advancement of new information and communication technologies (ICTs)

doi.org

🎉 Congratulations to Antonio Frank, who successfully defended his PhD dissertation 'Policing the Periphery: Party-anchored hybrid policing in Luanda, Angola' on 28 April at @unileiden.bsky.social. #Angola #Luanda #policing #PhDdefence #ASCL

What does it mean to choose hope amid conflict, climate breakdown, and inequality, without naive optimism or cynicism? Irene Guijt explores hope as a deliberate practice that fuels agency and leadership. 📅 07 May 🕓 16:00–17:30 📍 Herta Mohr Building, Leiden (Room 0.31) 🔗 Register: buff.ly/lpW2rRY