Wikipedia:GLAM/African Studies Centre Leiden

Nederlandse versie tot 2021 - Read in Dutch

The African Studies Centre Leiden (ASCL) of Leiden University is an academic institute for research and education on Africa. The activities of the ASCL library include collecting and distributing free images and supplying textual information on African studies and Africa via Wikimedia websites. By 2024, ASCL had uploaded some 6500 of its own and donors' images to Wikimedia Commons. Wikidata, the Wikimedia knowledge base, is used to illustrate the Web dossiers of the ASCL, for example the web dossier on Southern African women writers. For further overviews of the ASCL photo collections please refer to Commons:Collections of the African Studies Centre (Leiden). ASCL contributed 100+ new articles about Africa on various language Wikipedias.


 * Wikipedian in residence project 2019 - 2024.

The Top 5 of Most-Viewed ASCL Photographs in May 2023
Images from the African Study Center Leiden appear on various Wikipedia websites, especially on the English and French language Wikipedias. Using a tally how often those page weblinks are clicked on in a month time as a proxy for the readers' interest, we can tentatively establish a Top 5 of most-viewed images in May 2023. It is shown here with links to the English Wikipedia articles the photographs appear on, the number of article page views and the ASCL photo source collections:

> Top 5 Photos for previous years

The ASCL photo collections on Wikimedia Commons include:

Hofstra collection Sierra Leone 1934-1936
Sociologist and anthropologist Sjoerd Hofstra (1898-1983) photographed people and situations in Sierra Leone during 1934-1936. His daughter Marijke Gijswijt-Hofstra graciously donated glass plate lantern slides. A sample:

Koopman collection of postcards of African libraries, 1950s-1960s
Sjoerd Koopman kindly gave historical photographs of libraries in Africa, mainly from the 1950s and 1960s:

Coutinho collection Guinea-Bissau and Senegal 1973-1974
Dutch medical doctor and professor Roel Coutinho in 2015 donated a photo collection of his medical work in Guinea-Bissau and Senegal during 1973-1974 to the ASC and Wikimedia Commons. Its 752 images were captured in the last year of the War of independence of the PAIGC against the colonising power Portugal and are largely made in the liberated areas of Guinea-Bissau, featuring medical interventions, open air schools and hospitals, but also socialist people's open air shops, daily life and parties.

Collection list continued below...

Project Wikipedians in special residence 2013 - 2015
In 2013 ASC initiated the project Wikipedians in special residence to foster the collaboration of national cultural institutions with Wikimedia. Two Wikipedians visited twelve large museums, libraries and government agencies which donated image collections to Wikimedia Commons and contributed expertise to the Wikipedia encyclopedias. ASC itself and its staff members donated hundreds of photographs and maps to Wikimedia Commons.

Van Beek collection Cameroon and Mali 1970s
Dutch anthropologist Wouter van Beek donated 132 photographs of Mali and Cameroon. Here some images of markets, agriculture and daily life of the Dogons in Mali.

Rietveld collection Robben Island, South Africa 2015
Aart Rietveld, a teacher of (art) history, donated various image collections of Africa to the ASC, including 57 of Robben Island in 2015.

Collection list continued below...

Results
The African Studies Centre Leiden (ASC) scanned 6000+ photographic slides of Africa created and donated by pensioned Africanists and others, and published them on Wikimedia Commons in a Wikipedian in residence project. The focus then shifted to supplying missing Wikipedia articles on for example African cinema, African writers, Second Boer War Boer generals and Africanists, and uploading De Rouveroy short and feature films on Africa. Project leader is ASC head librarian Jos Damen, while Hans Muller (User:Hansmuller) is the Wikipedian in residence. (A previous similar project was Wikipedians in Special Residence 2013-2014.)

Results include:


 * Curation, multilingual description and upload of those 6000+ scanned older and recent photographs of Africa by Dutch Africanists to Collections of the African Studies Centre (Leiden) on Wikimedia Commons. Occasionally, Public Domain images from other sources were uploaded to Wikimedia Commons, and fair use copyrighted images to the English-language Wikipedia as well.
 * Videos : converting and uploading 11 videos of Africa to Wikimedia Commons by Dutch filmmakers Emile and Maarten de Rouveroy van Nieuwaal, for instance:
 * Bonnet Rouge, où vas-tu? (Red hat, where are you going?) on the Mossi leaders of Burkina Faso, 2000, 47 minutes. Voice-over with subtitles in English.
 * 111 new Wikipedia articles :
 * on Afrikaans-language Wikipedia : Johan Hendrik Breytenbach, South African official government historian of the Second Boer War.
 * on Dutch-language Wikipedia, e.g., Capulana, Patrick Chabal, Kanga (kleding), Kitenge (textiel), Shweshwe.
 * on English-language Wikipedia :
 * African authors : Gaëlle Bélem
 * African cinema :
 * directors: Januário Afonso, Licínio Azevedo, Moussa Bathily, Mehdi Ben Attia, Malek Bensmaïl, Clarence Thomas Delgado, Gahité Fofana, Joseph Gaï Ramaka, Mama Keïta, Nina Khada, Anis Lassoued, Karim Moussaoui, Moustapha Ndoye, Laza Razanajatovo, Pierre Rouamba, Ababacar Samb Makharam, Blaise Senghor, Bouna Medoune Seye, Thierno Faty Sow
 * cinema by country: Cinema of Mozambique
 * film festivals in (and near) Africa: Festival International du Film Amateur de Kélibia, Île Courts International Short Film Festival (Mauritius)
 * related: Festival cinémas d’Afrique Lausanne, Festival des Cinémas d'Afrique du pays d'Apt, War on Screen
 * African studies journals : Africa: Rivista trimestrale di studi e documentazione, Anthropology Southern Africa, Journal of African Media Studies and Social Dynamics: A Journal of African Studies.
 * African studies organisations : Associazione per gli Studi Africani in Italia (ASAI, Italy), Institut des mondes africains (IMAF, France) and Les Afriques dans le monde (LAM, France).
 * biographies of Africanists : Boubacar Barry (historian), Adams Bodomo, Johan Hendrik Breytenbach, Jan Broekhuijse, Christopher Clapham (Africanist), Carli Coetzee, Mark Dingemanse, Stephen Ellis (historian), Peter Geschiere, Bogumil Jewsiewicki, Richard Hodder-Williams, Kenneth King (academic), Martin A. Klein, Robin Law, John Lonsdale (historian), Nici Nelson, Insa Nolte, Samuel Obeng (linguist), Martha Qorro, Douglas Rimmer, Thilo C. Schadeberg, Alessandro Triulzi, Franz von Benda-Beckmann, Gavin Williams (sociologist), and Tunde Zack-Williams.
 * biography of an African muslim scholar : Sheikh Aliy Hemed Abdallah al-Buhriy
 * biography of a Dutch abolitionist : Frits Moquette.
 * biography of a Leiden professor : Frans de Liagre Böhl.
 * biographies of Second Boer War Boer generals and a commander : Chris Botha, Philip Botha, Ben Bouwer, Jan Celliers, Andries Petrus Cronjé (1833-1916), Andries Petrus Johannes Cronjé, Jonathan Crowther (1853-1926), Daniel Jacobus Elardus Erasmus, Sarel du Toit, Piet de Wet, Naas Ferreira, Christiaan Ernst Fourie, Joachim Christoffel Fourie, Piet Fourie, Petrus Johannes Liebenberg, Chris Muller, Sarel Oosthuizen, Frederik Jacobus Potgieter, Ferdinandus Jacobus Potgieter, Hendrik Frederik Prinsloo (1861–1900), Marthinus Prinsloo, Paul Hendrik Roux, Tobias Smuts and Wessel Jacobus Wessels.
 * related: Battle of Helvetia, National Scouts.
 * Dutch cultural policy : Boekman Foundation
 * geography of South Africa : Brandwater Basin.
 * settlements in Africa : Banankoni; Bani, Bani; Tireli, Mali.
 * geography of South Africa : Brandwater Basin.
 * settlements in Africa : Banankoni; Bani, Bani; Tireli, Mali.


 * on French-language Wikipedia new articles on w:fr:Africa: Rivista semestrale di studi e ricerche, Afrika-Studiecentrum Leiden (African Studies Centre Leiden), Dabo kolo (food), Laza Razanajatovo, Patrick Chabal (Africanist), Herta Mohr (Holocaust victim egyptologist and namesake of the African Studies Centre Leiden building), Nina Khada, Tireli (Mali) (town).
 * on German-language Wikipedia new article on Africanist Patrick Chabal.
 * on Italian-language Wikipedia new articles Africa, Rivista trimestriale di studi e documentazione, an academic journal, Associazione per gli Studi Africani in Italia, the African Studies Association in Italy, and Patrick Chabal, Africanist.
 * on Portuguese-language Wikipedia : new article on Africanist Patrick Chabal.
 * Updating and enhancing of existing Africa-related Wikipedia articles in various languages, even Laatbloeier (Late bloomer) for botany, the South African lily, Kapsiki people, Ousseina Alidou, etcetera.
 * New book : Dutch medical professor Roel Countinho, who donated 760 photographs of Guinea-Bissau and Senegal (1973-1974) was prompted by us to write a related autobiographical account on the liberation movement PAIGC. In 2022 he published his book in Dutch De vrijheidsstrijd van Guinee-Bissau door de ogen van een jonge dokter, Roel Countinho (translated title: The struggle for independence in Guinea-Bissau, seen through the eyes of a young doctor, Roel Coutinho), with the African Studies Centre Leiden.
 * Instruction of students, the communications officer and other staff members on various Wikimedia matters, such as uploading images using Pattypan, and writing Wikipedia articles.
 * Wikimedia Workshop on Wikimedia Commons and Wikidata, Leiden University, 2 December 2019.
 * Communications :
 * GLAM/Newsletter This Month in GLAM, October 2019, April 2020, July 2020, August 2021, August 2022, June 2023, and July 2023.
 * tweets by ASC head librarian Jos Damen, Wikipedian in Residence, first uploads, Images from Africa 1980-2007 from the Achterberg Collection, 2019.
 * in Dutch Newsletter Nieuwsbrief 87 (November 2019) and 98 (Donation African collections, January 2021) of the Dutch Wikimedia chapter Vereniging Wikimedia Nederland.
 * message at the Village Pump of the Dutch Wikipedia, August 2019.
 * message at the Village Pump of the Dutch Wikipedia, August 2019.


 * Wikidata : please refer to the contributions by ASCL colleague User:Walkuraxx on how to ingest bibliographic data into Wikidata, the Wikimedia knowledge database (Wikimedia GLAM Newsletter December 2020). (In the present Wikipedian-in-residence projects relevant Wikidata items were occasionally created and expanded.)


 * Independent usage of uploaded photos in other media, for instance
 * a Fred van der Kraaij Burkina Faso cotton market photograph at the webpage by, or
 * an Aart Rietveld Nigeria polygamy photo on a book cover at.


 * }

Stamps of East Africa, 19th century
Professor Ton Dietz of the African Studies Centre collected stamps and related images of East-Africa, 1865-1900.

NSAG collection North Africa 1961-1962
Medical professor L.A. van Es and Mr. M.U.U. van Dis donated 1400-odd black and white and colour photographs of their expedition with the Dutch Student Africa Group (NSAG) mainly through the north of Africa in 1961-1962, visiting various universities. Some images:

Rietveld collection Nigeria 1970-1973
Aart Rietveld also donated 99 slides of his work in Nigeria as a history teacher at Toro Teachers College (1970-1973).

Van der Kraaij collection Burkina Faso, Liberia, Mali, Morocco and Senegal 1972-1987
Dutch economist Fred van der Kraaij lived for many years in Liberia where his activities included teaching at the university in Monrovia. He kindly allowed ASC to scan his large collection of slides. Here we show images from his first series, mainly concerning the mines at Yekepa and the Firestone rubber factory in Harbel, both in Liberia.

Rietveld collection East Africa 1975
Aart Rietveld also donated slides of this journey through Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe in 1975. Streets and buildings in Nairobi and Mombasa, locals in their landscape and at school, the ruins of Great Zimbabwe and the Victoria Falls in de Zambezi. Identification of the countries is welcome!

Van Achterberg collection Algeria, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mali, Morocco, Mauretania, Namibia, Niger and Tunesia 1985, 1996 - 1997
Dutch cultural anthropologist Angeline van Achterberg widely travelled through Northwest Africa as a researcher, visited women's organisations and wrote books about the region. Some images from the scanned slides she donated:

Van de Bruinhorst collection Somaliland 2019
Dr. Gerard van de Bruinhorst, Afrikanist at ASC, donated photographs and videos of his trip to the Hargeysa 12th International Book Fair 20-25 July 2019 in Somaliland. Because of copyright some beautiful book covers have to be omitted here.

Kigali, Rwanda 2021
In 2021 Gerard van de Bruinhorst and Elvire Eijkman, both from the African Studies Centre Leiden, visited Rwanda Children's Book Fair 2021 in Kigali, Rwanda and donated some photographs and videos taken there.

Top 5 of Most-Viewed Photographs, September 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022
(Please click here for the September 2022 Top 5.)

September 2022
Top 5 of most-clicked images from ASCL for September 2022.

September 2021
Top 5 of most-clicked images from ASCL for September 2021.

September 2020
Top 5 of most-clicked images from ASCL for September 2020.

September 2019
Top 5 of most-clicked images from ASCL for September 2019, when for the first time since the start of the counts in 2014, the threshold of two million views (clicks, peeks) per month was crossed.