African Studies Centre Leiden

📢 Join us for the ASCL seminar "Cape Town: The Making of a Colonial City" by Wayne Dooling @soasuni.bsky.social to explore 19th-century Cape Town within Africa’s wider urban history.

🗓 Thursday 5 March
🕐 16:00 - 17:30 CET
📍 Room 0.31 Herta Mohr Building
🎙️ Wayne Dooling
🔗 buff.ly/MCDakR7

On 28 January, researcher Annachiara Raia hosted a pilot roundtable at the Lamu Fort Library (Kenya), bringing together local custodians of Swahili literary and musical traditions to explore collaborative ways of safeguarding heritage through digital and open-access platforms.

Read: buff.ly/ljYVe2K

📢 Join us for the ASCL seminar "Cape Town: The Making of a Colonial City" by Wayne Dooling @soasuni.bsky.social to explore 19th-century Cape Town within Africa’s wider urban history.

🗓 Thursday 5 March
🕐 16:00 - 17:30 CET
📍 Room 0.31 Herta Mohr Building
🎙️ Wayne Dooling
🔗 buff.ly/MCDakR7

In a new episode of Africa Knows, Rahmane Idrissa discusses topics ranging from the impact of 9/11 on his academic journey to the rise and fall of the Songhai Empire, West African social structures, and today’s security crises in the Sahel.

🎙️ Listen here: buff.ly/DY0Z3GJ

📢 New blog by Chaimaa Radouani on #AFCON 2025 ⚽️ in Morocco.
AFCON was born in 1957. It provided recognition and a stage to imagine the continent differently. However, those ideals were tested almost immediately. The tension between unity and division has not disappeared over time.
🔗 buff.ly/3UMTgcF

📢 Join us for the ASCL seminar "Cape Town: The Making of a Colonial City" by Wayne Dooling @soasuni.bsky.social to explore 19th-century Cape Town within Africa’s wider urban history.

🗓 Thursday 5 March
🕐 16:00 - 17:30 CET
📍 Room 0.31 Herta Mohr Building
🎙️ Wayne Dooling
🔗 buff.ly/MCDakR7

Our latest archival collection is now available for consultation in the #AfricanLibrary

👉 The research collection of Ton Dietz - former ASCL Director - on his favourite spot in Africa: #Pokot, in #Kenya. Explore the Ton Dietz Archive here: buff.ly/UcICQuO

🎉 Congrats to Dr Gitty Petit, who successfully defended her PhD dissertation 'Unbefitting healing objects? Relations to health and protection among young middle class adults, indigenous healers and religious leaders in Dodoma, Tanzania' on 12 February at @unileiden.bsky.social!
📸 Joost Kuggeleijn

🌐 Live interpretation will be provided in Portuguese and Spanish.

🗓️ 3 March 2026
📌 NUST Hotel School, Windhoek, Namibia

👉 Registration (in-person only): buff.ly/vjwtyNC
5/5

Green Hydrogen South-South Dialogue from Below | African Studies Centre Leiden The Green Hydrogen South-South Dialogue from Below, on 3 March is a full‑day event dedicated to fostering transnational exchange on the rapidly expanding green hydrogen agenda across the Global…

The event will reflect on lived realities, grassroots strategies, and the broader political, social, and environmental implications of the green hydrogen boom.
Organisers:
@eric-cezne.bsky.social in collaboration with the INCLUDE Knowledge Platform
4/5

Green Hydrogen South-South Dialogue from Below | African Studies Centre Leiden The Green Hydrogen South-South Dialogue from Below, on 3 March is a full‑day event dedicated to fostering transnational exchange on the rapidly expanding green hydrogen agenda across the Global…

This transnational exchange explores how experiences in Namibia resonate with and differ from those in Brazil, Colombia, South Africa, and Chile — countries increasingly central to Global North import strategies.
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Green Hydrogen South-South Dialogue from Below | African Studies Centre Leiden The Green Hydrogen South-South Dialogue from Below, on 3 March is a full‑day event dedicated to fostering transnational exchange on the rapidly expanding green hydrogen agenda across the Global…

The Green Hydrogen South–South Dialogue from Below brings together community representatives, civil society actors, activists, and researchers for a full-day, in-person dialogue in Windhoek, Namibia.
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🌍 Green Hydrogen South–South Dialogue from Below | 3 March 2026 | Namibia

As the green hydrogen agenda rapidly expands across the Global South, it’s critical to centre the voices of those living with its impacts.
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Het artikel fileert de nog altijd paternalistische houding in ontwikkelingssamenwerking, plaatst kritische kanttekeningen bij het crisisdenken over Afrika en pleit voor coproductie van kennis ipv eenzijdige overdracht van ‘expertise’.
Lees meer: buff.ly/OmhUnFG 📷️ Eryxson Fonseca on Unsplash
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Van zaaddiversiteit en bodemgezondheid tot waterbeheer en biodiversiteit: lokale gemeenschappen bouwen al generaties lang kennis op die cruciaal is voor klimaatadaptatie, maar die in westerse ontwikkelings- en klimaatprojecten nog te vaak wordt genegeerd.
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Onderzoek in onder andere Ethiopië, Madagaskar en Kameroen laat zien hoe traditionele ecologische kennis vaak veerkrachtiger is dan top-down, technocratische oplossingen.
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🍃 Hoe kunnen we omgaan met klimaatverandering zonder oude koloniale denkpatronen te herhalen?
📰 In Trouw benadrukken Dr Sara de Wit (Afrika-Studiecentrum Leiden en @leidenhumanities.bsky.social) en promovendus Asrat Asegie het belang van inheemse kennis. 1/4

CRG Seminar: Intergovernmental coordination for Public E-Service Delivery in West Africa with special focus on Ghana | African Studies Centre Leiden The exponential rate of urbanisation in West Africa necessitates commensurate improvement in service delivery from governments. But huge dissatisfaction is commonly reported on the relatively poor…

The seminar examines how ECOWAS e-governance protocols are domesticated at national and municipal levels, where they align, and where adaptation or deviation occurs in practice.

🗓 18 Feb 2026
🕐 15:00 - 17:00
📍 Room 0.31 Herta Mohr Building, Witte Singel 27a, Leiden
🔗 Link: buff.ly/PqMqxsh
3/3

CRG Seminar: Intergovernmental coordination for Public E-Service Delivery in West Africa with special focus on Ghana | African Studies Centre Leiden The exponential rate of urbanisation in West Africa necessitates commensurate improvement in service delivery from governments. But huge dissatisfaction is commonly reported on the relatively poor…

🗣 Join our seminar organised by the CRG Governance, Entrepreneurship, and Inclusive Development, where visiting fellow Dr. Richard Abankwa Agyepong explores how intergovernmental coordination shapes public e-service delivery in Ghana, with broader lessons for the West African sub-region.
2/3

Rapid urbanisation in West Africa is putting growing pressure on governments to deliver inclusive, efficient public services. Yet dissatisfaction with public service delivery remains widespread. Why?
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Thinking with #water provides several new orientations for regional studies, including those focusing on #Africa and its global connections.
Read more about the call for contributions: afrikastudies.nl

𝗡𝗩𝗔𝗦 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲: 𝗕𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗹𝘂𝗲. 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝗳 💦 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮
The Netherlands Association of African Studies (NVAS) & IHE Delft Institute for Water Education will organise a conference in Delft on 11 and 12 September. The organisers invite contributions! 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: 𝟮𝟬 𝗙𝗲𝗯

Exploring sustainable business models of African-based start-up companies In this podcast series, the 2025-2026 LDE minor African Dynamics students explored sustainable business models of four African-based start-up companies. Their podcasts were created under the guidance

The result is a series of thoughtful, student-produced podcasts that combine academic insight with real-world entrepreneurial perspectives.

🎙️ Curious to listen and learn from the next generation of African studies scholars?
👉 soundcloud.com/user-8279333...
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Exploring sustainable business models of African-based start-up companies In this podcast series, the 2025-2026 LDE minor African Dynamics students explored sustainable business models of four African-based start-up companies. Their podcasts were created under the guidance

The podcasts were created under the guidance of Taslim Alade, Senior Lecturer at the Business–Society Management Department (Rotterdam School of Management, @rsmerasmus.bsky.social), and Thomas Vorisek, video coordinator at the Digital Humanities Lab @unileiden.bsky.social.
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How do African-based start-ups build sustainable business models in complex and dynamic contexts?

In a new podcast series, students from the 2025–2026 LDE minor African Dynamics dive into this question by exploring four innovative African start-up companies.
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📢 ASCL Seminar Reminder
“The politics of net zero in Africa. Insights from ongoing work”. What politics are shaping engagement with net zero in African countries?
🗓 5 February
🕐 16:00 - 17:30
📍 Room 0.31 Herta Mohr Building
🎙️ Jessica Omukuti @oxfordnetzero.bsky.social
🔗 ascleiden.nl/news/ascl-se...

#mining #mininghistory #mineralextraction #climatecrisis #history #multispecies #flora #fauna #southernafrica #africanstudies #ASCL

The volume has been published in the renowned African Dynamics series by @Degruyterbrill.bsky.social and the African Studies Centre of @UniLeiden.bsky.social

📢 Just published! Gaping Holes: Towards Multispecies Histories and Ethnographies of Mining in Southern Africa 🦓 This new volume contains histories and ethnographies of mining in southern Africa focusing on animals and plants in relation to mining.
Open Access! 👉 ascleiden.nl/news/gaping-...

Happening at @ascleiden.bsky.social on 5 Feb: a seminar by ONZ Fellow Dr Jessica Omukuti on "The politics of net zero in Africa: Insights from ongoing work". Join in person or online. 16:00–17:30 CET. Read more & sign up: ascleiden.nl/news/ascl-se... @unileiden.bsky.social @smithschool.ox.ac.uk