Lecture
10th Stephen Ellis Annual Lecture: Season of Rains, Africa in the World Today
- Date
- Wednesday 4 December 2024
- Time
- Address
-
Pieter de la Court
Wassenaarseweg 52
2333 AK Leiden - Room
- 1A.20
On 4 December 2024, the 10th edition of the Stephen Ellis Annual Lecture will be celebrated with a special programme. Koert Lindijer, well-known journalist and author of African affairs, and Africa correspondent for the Dutch news platforms NRC and NOS, will be this year’s keynote speaker.
On the occasion of the tenth edition of the Stephen Ellis Annual Lecture, this year’s lecture will revolve around a reflection on Stephen Ellis’ book Season of Rains: Africa in the World (2011). In this book Stephen Ellis maintained that many emerging features of Africa’s new place in the world are neither surprising nor alarming, and that Africa is heading neither to perdition nor to redemption. Today, thirteen years after publication, twists and turns in the trajectory of democratic governance in Africa appear to give little room for optimism, judging by media reports.
Based on his experience of 40 years of reporting from Africa, Koert Lindijer will present a keynote speech on the issues facing African governance today. In his view, African leaders walk with their heads in the clouds. Political and economic indicators have turned negative. A huge debt burden has built up. The many military coups in the Sahel raise the spectre of a serious democratic setback. Civilian rule has led to bad governance. The ready-made solution of military rule is once more attractive to some. Elections do not offer a solution for development problems.
Stephen Ellis (1953-2015), historian, was a renowned researcher at the African Studies Center Leiden. He had a keen interest in how politics affects people's lives, and a fascination with the role of religion and morality. With the Stephen Ellis Annual Lecture, the ASCL wants to honour Stephen Ellis and encourage other researchers to work in his spirit.
Preliminary programme:
16:00 Opening by Marleen Dekker, Director of the ASCL.
16:05 Introduction by Akinyinka Akinyoade, Chair of the ASCL Researcher's Assembly.
16:10 Keynote speech by Koert Lindijer.
16:45 Reflections by Rahmane Idrissa (ASCL), Jelte van Wieren (Director DAF/BZ) and Mandipa Ndlovu (ASCL).
17:15 Q&A.
18:00 Drinks.
Register for the lecture via the ASCL website.
Note that the Stephen Ellis Annual Lecture will be held in the former location of the ASCL: Pieter de la Court Building, first floor, room 1A.20!
About the speaker
Koert Lindijer is journalist, author, and Africa correspondent for NRC and NOS. In 2023 his book Een wolkenkrabber op de savanne. Veertig jaar correspondentschap in Afrika, about forty years of reporting from Africa, was published by Atlas Contact.