The volume is dedicated to the ‘supporting characters’ in the history of Egyptology who are not often in the limelight. This is not intended to work to the detriment of the lead actors, nor is the... Show moreThe volume is dedicated to the ‘supporting characters’ in the history of Egyptology who are not often in the limelight. This is not intended to work to the detriment of the lead actors, nor is the intention to politicize disciplinary history. Rather, it is meant as an appreciation and recognition of the range of agents involved, and relationships within their networks. Rendering disciplinary history more inclusive is a long process. The case-studies assembled in this volume do not aspire to represent the complete range of possible stakeholders. Instead, it is intended to open-out the discourse, and to demonstrate various modes in which individuals have advanced research into ancient Egypt. To cite but two ‘marginalized’ groups, women have often been presented as subservient spirits, assisting their Egyptologist-husbands, with perhaps the concession that ‘behind every great man there has to be a great woman’. For a long time all-but-excluded from academia, such individuals’ contributions have been disregarded. Second, exclusion from academia was also the fate of most early Egyptian Egyptologists. Within the frame of post-colonial studies, they have only recently garnered serious attention. Yet, even then, the paradigm of ‘Western’ disciplinary history has been replicated, concentrating on the outstanding figures and lead players in the field, often to the detriment of lesser-known scholars, officials, and local actors such as the Quftis and workmen. This volume is thus not meant to criticise previous endeavours in the recent development of disciplinary history but, rather, as a constructive contribution or complement to these. We cannot make amends for past implicit slights, or restore a person’s role in the history of Egyptology to its ‘rightful place’, but the aim is to broaden the perspective of the history of Egyptology, while at the same time paying more attention to its diversity. Show less
In Empire's Violent End, Thijs Brocades Zaalberg and Bart Luttikhuis, along with expert contributors, present comparative research focused specifically on excessive violence in Indonesia, Algeria,...Show moreIn Empire's Violent End, Thijs Brocades Zaalberg and Bart Luttikhuis, along with expert contributors, present comparative research focused specifically on excessive violence in Indonesia, Algeria, Vietnam, Malaysia, Kenya, and other areas during the wars of decolonization. In the last two decades, there have been heated public and scholarly debates in France, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands on the violent end of empire. Nevertheless, the broader comparative investigations into colonial counterinsurgency tend to leave atrocities such as torture, execution, and rape in the margins. The editors describe how such comparisons mostly focus on the differences by engaging in "guilt ranking." Moreover, the dramas that have unfolded in Algeria and Kenya tend to overshadow similar violent events in Indonesia, the very first nation to declare independence directly after World War II.Empire's Violent End is the first book to place the Dutch-Indonesian case at the heart of a comparison with focused, thematic analysis on a diverse range of topics to demonstrate that despite variation in scale, combat intensity, and international dynamics, there were more similarities than differences in the ways colonial powers used extreme forms of violence. By delving into the causes and nature of the abuse, Brocades Zaalberg and Luttikhuis conclude that all cases involved some form of institutionalized impunity, which enabled the type of situation in which the forces in the service of the colonial rulers were able to use extreme violence. Show less
The bulk of the book is based on papers presented during two virtual conferences hosted by the University of Leiden (Netherlands) in 2021. At the Africa Knows! Conference, a panel was devoted to ... Show moreThe bulk of the book is based on papers presented during two virtual conferences hosted by the University of Leiden (Netherlands) in 2021. At the Africa Knows! Conference, a panel was devoted to ‘The language issue and knowledge communication in Africa.’ It was initiated by the Universities of Ilorin (Nigeria) and Chemnitz (Germany). The papers by Eleshin, Oloruntoba-Oju, Sanon-Ouattara, Van Pinxteren, and Zatolokina were all first presented at this panel, before being peer-reviewed for this volume. The central theme of the conference was the decolonization of Africa’s knowledge production and related processes. The second conference was the 10th World Congress on African Languages and Linguistics (WOCAL) in June, where a workshop took place under the auspices of the Edinburgh Circle on the Promotion of African Languages, entitled ‘Let’s turn to policy.’ The papers by Alfredo, Dissake, and Nguere and Smith were also first presented during this workshop before being peer-reviewed for this volume. In general, the position taken by the editors is that using indigenous languages in education can make an important contribution to national development as well as to personal empowerment. Africa is characterised in part by its continued use of former colonial languages in education. However, sixty years after independence, it seems high time to question this colonial heritage. In the context of global and digital communication today, old African values of multilingualism and culture-specific communicative strategies should not be neglected, but revalued and revived in new ways. We do not deny the importance of a good command of international languages. However, this should not be at the expense of indigenous languages. The introduction to the book argues that a transition towards increased use of African languages in formal domains will not only be necessary and practically possible, it will become inevitable. Show less
In the present day young musicians who start their professional musical studies have a mission. Their choice for a labour-intensive education that offers few guarantees at obtaining a steady job... Show moreIn the present day young musicians who start their professional musical studies have a mission. Their choice for a labour-intensive education that offers few guarantees at obtaining a steady job requires a lot of courage and faith. Both faith in their own potential, as well as in that of music for the world of tomorrow.This publication asks how music today can be promising, and also how conservatories can help to fulfil that promise.Students, teachers and researchers affiliated to the Royal Conservatoire The Hague have contributed to this book. Show less