This paper discusses the search for hidden post-colonial archives on Africanist research and ways of making these available to scholars and the general public. These are diverse sets of archives:... Show moreThis paper discusses the search for hidden post-colonial archives on Africanist research and ways of making these available to scholars and the general public. These are diverse sets of archives: the personal archives of the scholar that are often hidden in 'trunks' at home, and the institutional archives in libraries in Africa. Modern technologies have also increased the archiving problem by adding hidden digitalized archives, namely the electronic archives on African websites and other electronic storage systems. And finally there are the digital archives of scholars to add to the list too. How can these archives be saved and made accessible to the wider scholarly community? Archiving should be a concern of both librarians and researchers/scholars who are faced with increased data-gathering possibilities and the need to store them electronically. How can we ensure that data is and will remain available in an open way? The practice of archiving will be explored in this paper, using the African Studies Centre in Leiden as an example. It is calling for collaboration between librarians and researchers to create 'living' archives of scholarly research and also of digital material that are 'open access'. Show less
Our intention with this brochure is to illustrate the kind of research we do at the African Studies Centre in Leiden, as well as how we work and what inspires us.
In this farewell lecture on the occasion of his departure as Professor of Development in sub-Saharan Africa at Leiden University and Director of the African Studies Centre (ASC), Leiden, the... Show moreIn this farewell lecture on the occasion of his departure as Professor of Development in sub-Saharan Africa at Leiden University and Director of the African Studies Centre (ASC), Leiden, the author starts with the vuvuzela issue as an illustration of the lack of confidence the world has in South Africa organizing and running the World Cup smoothly. He takes that as a sign that there still exists a stereotype of African incompetence, despite the social and economic progress Africa has witnessed in the last decade. He does not want to argue that African Studies have not been able to offset such a stereotype. What he tries to show is that it is not clear from the wealth of actor-oriented research in African Studies what the main social, political and economic trends in Africa are. He argues that actor-oriented research in African Studies should try to increase its relevance by contributing- through meta-analyses and comparative research-to the discussion on social, political and economic trends in Africa. Special attention should be paid to the possible rise of the developmental state in Africa. In doing so, African Studies may also substantiate its claim that it is able to challenge the universal pretensions of mainstream social science. Show less
This Masters thesis is the winner of the ASC's Africa Thesis Award 2009. It examines the decision-making process of Senegalese men to make use of the dangerous boat journey to the Canary Islands in... Show moreThis Masters thesis is the winner of the ASC's Africa Thesis Award 2009. It examines the decision-making process of Senegalese men to make use of the dangerous boat journey to the Canary Islands in an effort to reach Europe. Moving beyond conventional micro- and macro-theories on migration decision-making, this study focuses at the meso-level by which the embeddedness of migrants' decision-making in ongoing social contacts is considered. The study draws on ethnographic research among unsuccessful boat migrants in Dakar, Senegal. The data collected suggests two models of migration decision-making, revealing variations in social processes that are central to the workings of undocumented migration.Miranda Poeze studied cultural anthropology at the Free University in Amsterdam. She is currently a PhD student at Maastricht University. Show less
Since the early 1980s the majority of countries in sub-Saharan Africa embarked on the implementation of IMF/World Bank designed 'structural adjustment programmes' (SAPs). This paper examines the... Show moreSince the early 1980s the majority of countries in sub-Saharan Africa embarked on the implementation of IMF/World Bank designed 'structural adjustment programmes' (SAPs). This paper examines the theoretical underpinnings of the SAPs. It shows that IMF policies are based on a theoretical framework that goes back to J.J. Polak's analysis of 1957 which adopted a number of assumptions far removed from economic conditions on the African continent. Focusing on the demand side of the economy, the IMF has neglected another important cause of the financial imbalances in African economies, namely the loss of import capacity and the related reduction in output resulting from external shocks. Furthermore, the IMF policy underestimates the fragmentation of markets and the inflexibilities in African economies. The World Bank policies are based on the Revised Minimum Standard Model that can be traced back to the Harrod-Domar model of the 1940s. A serious shortcoming of the model is that foreign exchange flows are assumed to be fully and automatically used in a productive manner in the recipient country. Another critical shortcoming of the model is the absence of distributional concerns. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
This bibliography on Christianity in Ethiopia covers material published from the early 1960s onwards. It focuses on the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, including the Eritrean Orthodox Church, which... Show moreThis bibliography on Christianity in Ethiopia covers material published from the early 1960s onwards. It focuses on the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, including the Eritrean Orthodox Church, which became autonomous in 1993, but references on modern missionary and evangelical Christianity, as well as Catholicism are also included. The focus is on foreign-language studies, but a limited number of works in Ethiopian languages is also included. The entries are arranged in three parts: 1. Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity and missionary churches: historical, political, religious and sociocultural aspects; 2. Christian texts, manuscripts, hagiographies; 3. Ethiopian Christian art and architecture. [ASC Leiden abstract] 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
This paper presents a preliminary genealogy of all Somali 'clans'. Somali kinship is based on patrilineal descent, but there are no equivalents in the Somali language for the words 'clan' and ... Show moreThis paper presents a preliminary genealogy of all Somali 'clans'. Somali kinship is based on patrilineal descent, but there are no equivalents in the Somali language for the words 'clan' and 'lineage'. The Somali terminology for the levels of social segmentation is complex, amongst others because of processes of territorial dispersion and social change. The present author distinguishes the following levels of descent: clan-families, clan moieties or territorial divisions, clans, subclans, lineages, and sublineages. An appendix lists the main political organizations and/or 'warrior' or 'warlord' groups and their dominant (sub)clan in 1999. [PREFERABLY USE THE ENLARGED 2nd EDITION AT http://hdl.handle.net/1887/14007] Show less
In Afrika bezuiden de Sahara heeft de islam een bijzonder complexe en rijke geschiedenis. De auteur schetst deze geschiedenis vanaf 615, wanneer de Profeet een groot deel van zijn volgelingen naar... Show moreIn Afrika bezuiden de Sahara heeft de islam een bijzonder complexe en rijke geschiedenis. De auteur schetst deze geschiedenis vanaf 615, wanneer de Profeet een groot deel van zijn volgelingen naar Ethiopi‰ stuurt, tot de hedendaagse periode van mondialisering, waarin de islam zich manifesteert als bron van religieuze en politieke identiteit tegenover 'het Westen' en de culturele, morele en technologische invloeden die daarmee worden geassocieerd. Hij zet een aantal kenmerken van de islam in Afrika uiteen en schenkt daarbij aandacht aan de spanning tussen het eigen culturele erfgoed en de aanspraken van de islamitische leer. [Samenvatting ASC Leiden] Show less
Ter gelegenheid van het afscheid van G. Grootenhuis als Algemeen Secretaris van het Afrika-Studiecentrum (ASC) te Leiden organiseerden het ASC en de Werkgemeenschap Afrika (WGA) een symposium... Show moreTer gelegenheid van het afscheid van G. Grootenhuis als Algemeen Secretaris van het Afrika-Studiecentrum (ASC) te Leiden organiseerden het ASC en de Werkgemeenschap Afrika (WGA) een symposium onder de titel 'De Nederlandse Afrikanistiek 1967-2000'. Dit stuk is gebaseerd op de voordracht die de auteur bij die gelegenheid hield. Hij geeft eerst een overzicht van de beschikbare hulpbronnen (personeel, fondsen, publikatiemogelijkheden) op dit moment. Vervolgens vergelijkt hij thema's van lopende onderzoeksprojecten met onderzoeksthema's uit 1981 en constateert een aantal blinde vlekken: stedelijke relatiepatronen, niet-statelijke vormen van sociale organisatie en machtsuitoefening, en materiële cultuur. Ook constateert de auteur dat er onder Afrikanisten weinig bereidheid is zich een Afrikaanse taal eigen te maken. Show less
