“Why do you draw us like pigs?”        “Because I draw what I see” (The latter is Jonathan Shapiro’s answer to the question of investigators at the detention centre after he was arrested one time) Today was a slightly more ‘cultural’ day at the Africa Conference in Leipzig, and also the last day. The most exciting thing was that cartoonist, Jonathan Shapiro (artist name Zapiro) personally opened an exhibition of his cartoons today. For those not familiar with Zapiro’s work,...   read more >>

Today was a day filled with numerous interesting panels, in perhaps slightly less traditional research areas, but certainly in ‘up and coming’ fields. One was themed ‘Navigating Urban Space’, where the speakers introduced interesting ideas about the urban space. One of the main lines of thought was the question whether there is this specific aspect that the ‘urban’ creates. Are certain things only possible in the urban space? Although urban environments can be very segregated environments,...   read more >>

The one programme-item that has been on my conference schedule from the very beginning was the book launch today of Patrick Chabal’s most recent book, Africa: The politics of suffering and smiling (London: Zed Press, 2009). After today I almost hesitate to say that I was a real fan of his (and co-author Jean-Pascal Daloz) book Africa Works: disorder as political instrument (Oxford: James Currey, 1999). However I think more people must have been fascinated with Chabal’s work, otherwise the r...   read more >>

After I helped a small group of African scholars with some directions in Leipzig yesterday I realised that the African Studies Conference had truly started. I was happy to see today (and now I need to be very careful with how I phrase this) that African scholars, in proportion to European/Western scholars, are not badly represented at this conference. This is important because terms such as ‘eurocentrism’ and ‘neo-imperialism’ are often in the back of the mind of those working and studying...   read more >>

Two things are important for me when it comes to ECAS 3. Firstly, when we revived AEGIS around 2000 we considered a number of activities, to improve networking and to enhance international visibility. Among other things, the biennial AEGIS Summer Schools for doctoral researchers from AEGIS member centres were introduced (always held in the nice town of Cortona, Italy) - and the biennial European Conference on African Studies. The first one was held in 2005 in London, the second one two y...   read more >>

Welcome everyone, to this blog about the third European Conference on African Studies taking place in Leipzig, Germany, from the 4th until the 7th of June this year. My name is Marieke Hounjet and I will report and debate on this special event here in Leipzig. Blogs have become a tool to perhaps not bridge the worlds of academics and policy-makers, but more a tool to broker between the two, because they provide an opportunity to inform and communicate ideas. I hope this blog will live u...   read more >>