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African Studies Centre Afrika-Studiecentrum 1884 Boekje African Studies def 14-06-2000 09:23 Pagina 1 African Studies Centre Afrika-Studiecentrum Annual Report 1999 1999 1884 Boekje African Studies def 14-06-2000 09:23 Pagina 2 Address Afrika-Studiecentrum/African Studies Centre Address: African Studies Centre PO Box 9555 2300 RB Leiden The Netherlands Visiting address: Pieter de la Courtgebouw Wassenaarseweg 52 2333 AK Leiden The Netherlands Telephone: Office (+31) 71 527 3372/3376 Library (+31) 71 527 3354 Fax: Office (+31) 71 527 3344 Library (+31) 71 527 3350 E-mail: Office: [email protected] Library: [email protected] Website: http://asc.leidenuniv.nl You can also access this annual report via our website. 1884 Boekje African Studies def 14-06-2000 09:23 Pagina 3 Contents 1. Introduction 4 2. Research 6 3. Library and Documentation 15 4.Visiting Fellows Programme 18 5. External Communication 22 Appendix 1: Members of the Governing Body 26 Appendix 2: Personnel 27 Appendix 3: Research Activities 30 Appendix 4: Publications by Staff Members 39 Appendix 5: Publications by the Institute 53 Appendix 6: Seminar and Conference Programme 56 Appendix 7: Networks 60 Colophon 64 1884 Boekje African Studies def 14-06-2000 09:23 Pagina 4 1. Introduction 1999 was a year in which major investments department will be formulated. were made to improve the quality of the ASC as an information provider and employer.The library To our regret, the Chairman of the Board of underwent major changes in the accessibility of Governors, Professor Pieter Kooijmans had to its information sources (see Section 3) and more step down for health reasons in 1999. We deeply attention was paid to training ASC employees in appreciate all the time and effort he put into the areas such as presentation skills. ASC and for the genuine interest he always External relations with NGOs, policy makers showed in our activities and research. We and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were intensified extend to him our best wishes for the future. and in October the ASC organised a meeting for We are delighted that Elizabeth Schmitz, a former the members of the Parliamentary Committee mayor of Haarlem and the former Deputy on Foreign Affairs to discuss issues including Minister of Justice was willing to take over the democratisation, education and health. chairmanship and we look forward to working with her as we enter the new millennium. The management structure of the ASC became more transparent through the introduction of We trust that this Annual Report for 1999 gives new procedures and the working environment an impression of the many and varied activities improved because of, amongst other things, the taking place at the African Studies Centre. introduction of exhibitions of African paintings and photographs in the ASC corridors (see Box in Section 5). Round-table discussions with the theme groups, library and documentation department, and the supporting staff were organised to discuss bottlenecks and ways of improving the functioning of the ASC. Investments in quality will continue to take place in the year 2000. Major plans concern the restructuring of the ASC website and the refurbishing of the library. Internal debates about the ASC's future research profile started in 1999 and we are now on our way to introducing new research themes. In the year 2000 external advice will be sought and by the end of the year the new research profile will be defined. The new theme groups will start functioning the following year. Alongside the formation of these theme groups,policies regarding the external relations of both the library and documentation department, and the research 4 1884 Boekje African Studies def 14-06-2000 09:23 Pagina 5 Malinese Citizens Interrogate extensive and all the proceedings were broadcast their Government live on television to ensure maximum coverage of the event.After the recommendations of last On 10 December I participated in the annual year's jury, we visited two prisons and the jury 'Espace d'Interpellation Democratique' in Mali, an members were asked to give their view on the unusual but very positive system of population conditions under which prisoners were held. participation. In 1994, the President of Mali, I realise that the prisons were cleaned and tidied Alpha Oumar Konaré, wanted to focus attention for our visit but we had the opportunity to talk on human rights in the country. He chose 10 to individual prisoners and were provided with December, the day the International Declaration figures about the number of inmates (1,000) and of Human Rights was signed, to give his people the number the building was supposed to house the opportunity to discuss the human rights (400). situation in Mali with the government face to To invite an international jury to offer a govern- face.This year an independent committee selected ment advice on a topic as emotive as human rights 38 letters of complaint from the people about is an unusually brave step to take. The 'Espace issues such as the judicial system, access to land d'Interpellation Democratique' is unique and I and housing, child abuse, violence against women, doubt whether we will see such participatory and infrastructure problems. democracy in any other African country in the On the day itself, the international jury, of which near future. Mali provides a good example of I was a member, listened to the letters being how democracy can become rooted in African read out by their authors in the presence of all society.And who knows ... maybe, one day, other government ministers.The ministers responded African and non-African governments will follow and the jury came up with suggestions on how their example. to improve the situation. Media attention was Gerti Hesseling Some of the members of the international jury in Mali 5 1884 Boekje African Studies def 14-06-2000 09:23 Pagina 6 2. Research In 1999 three theme groups were in operation Appendix 7) and other also spend considerable at the ASC: amounts of time supervising PhD and Master • Conflict, Conciliation and Control in Africa, students. • Globalisation and Sociocultural Transformation in Africa, and Conflict, Conciliation and • Society and Resources in Africa: Resource Control in Africa Management and Social Security in a Changing Natural Environment. Dr Jan Abbink, anthropologist Dr Deborah Bryceson, economic geographer This chapter elaborates upon the work of each Dr Rob Buijtenhuijs, anthropologist and group and detailed descriptions of the research political scientist activities of individual theme-group members Dr Stephen Ellis, historian are listed in Appendix 3. Dr Piet Konings, sociologist of development More information about the research themes Dr Ineke van Kessel, historian and theme groups is provided in Trends in Dr Klaas van Walraven, political scientist Africanist Research at the ASC which is available from the ASC secretariat. The research theme group Control, Conciliation and Conflict in Africa was set up in 1997 as a Research at the ASC is funded by the regular framework for research into political and social ASC budget and through external projects.The developments in Africa after 1989-90, a time of regular budget is provided by the Netherlands emerging movements of mass protest and political Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands reform in (Sub-Saharan) Africa and at the end of Ministry of Education and the Netherlands the Cold War. At this juncture, we saw the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. In 1999, 39 rise of new political and social dynamics which per cent of the ASC's funding came from raised the hopes of the African people living external sponsors such as the Netherlands under authoritarian and violent regimes and, at a Israeli Research Programme (NIRP), the Special very different level, those of donor countries and Programme on Research of the Netherlands financial institutions for economic and political Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NUFFIC, and the liberalisation and for overall development. The WOTRO Foundation. wave of high expectations has passed and crisis on the continent persists, often taking on new forms, The ASC further contributes to the teaching such as the restoration of (new) authoritarian of African studies through guest lectures at governments, violent trans-border conflicts, universities, research institutes and NGOs. The ethno-regional tensions, and the deepening institute does not run its own courses but economic crisis. makes regular contributions to other course The theme group addressed these problems in programmes, for example in the Department of general studies on political restructuring and in Cultural Anthropology at the University of case studies in several crucial regions such as Leiden. Some ASC staff members held teaching West Africa, East Africa and countries like South posts at Dutch and African Universities (see Africa, Chad, Ethiopia and Cameroon. 6 1884 Boekje African Studies def 14-06-2000 09:23 Pagina 7 As well as dealing with theoretical questions 'conciliation', perhaps due to the fact that there about the interpretation of political and social are, as yet, few successful examples of mediation processes in Africa, an informed empirical and lasting reconciliation. In this respect, it is description of what is actually happening is remarkable that the efforts (or the interference) sought in the work of the theme-group members. of the international community have not had a This involves dealing with specific processes, more positive impact on peace and conciliation in institutions and persons on the African political African conflicts. scene but also looking at locally expressed This is again borne out in the Great Lakes crisis forms of 'political action'. as well as in the Ethiopian-Eritrean war (where the UN and Western powers have apparently The group has devoted more attention to the failed to recognise and even-handedly deal with two themes of 'control' and 'conflict' than to a relatively clear-cut case of armed aggression).
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