This book presents new empirically based and theoretically informed studies on the contemporary social and economic dynamics of Africa, dealing with developments in the arenas of politics,... Show moreThis book presents new empirically based and theoretically informed studies on the contemporary social and economic dynamics of Africa, dealing with developments in the arenas of politics, economics and cultural struggle. These domains are closely interlinked. In their widest definition, culture and politics intermingle and recombine in surprising and sometimes disturbing ways. They always have a definite economic logic as well, informing value commitments and behaviour in the broader sense. Politics and economic life in Africa have, perhaps more visibly than elsewhere, influential and cultural aspects and referents, such as religion and ethnicity, which often play a constitutive role. 'Culture' and its symbolism are used instrumentally in the political, economic and social struggles in today's Africa, marked by a preoccupation with 'development'. The studies in this book underline the interplay of new hegemomic struggles of a material but also ideological nature. Show less
This article describes the origins, the development as well as the current situation of African Studies in the Netherlands. Despite the interesting though limited corpus of travel writing,... Show moreThis article describes the origins, the development as well as the current situation of African Studies in the Netherlands. Despite the interesting though limited corpus of travel writing, colonial ethnography, and missionary testimony in Dutch, the scholarly study of Africa really took off only in the post-1945 period. Several chairs in African studies/anthropology were established at some universities (in Amsterdam, Leiden and Utrecht), and a growing interest in field research in Africa emerged. After World War Two a group of business people founded the Africa Institute in Rotterdam to explore the economic opportunities in Africa, an area of expected new markets. In fact, this institute had two legs. One was the business institute, the other a documentation centre established in Leiden which grew into a full-fleged interuniversity research institute in 1963. The African Studies Centre (ASC) is probably still the hub of Africanist research in the Netherlands. In the last ten to fifteen years, African Studies in the Netherlands has expanded and diversified. The rate of publications has markedly increased. There is also a growing public demand for knowledge and scholarly advice on Africa from various ministries and public agencies. Current problems of African Studies in the Netherlands are shaky funding, changing academic and political fashions, which tend to urge scholarship sometimes into superficiality and short-term concerns, and the lack of job opportunities in academia for fresh PhD holders. The article is based on a paper originally published in 'Africa Forum' on H-Africa, 13 March 2001. Notes, ref Show less
