Welcome to the discussion platform ‘Africa; still a silver lining?’. This platform is meant to provoke discussion based on the farewell lecture by Professor Ton Dietz, former director of the African Studies Centre. The lecture – with this same title, but without the question mark – was delivered on Monday 25 September, in attendance of some 300 people at the Academy Building in Leiden. In it, Ton Dietz questions himself whether he was right to highlight Africa’s positive performance during the first decade of the century during his inaugural address in 2011. Based on statistics, he predicts future trends that need to be taken into account by academic and non-academic colleagues, particularly about the fact that more development will produce more intercontinental migration, also to Europe, and Europe better gets used to it.
Click here to read or download Ton Dietz’ valedictory lecture ‘Africa; still a silver lining’ (PDF, 500 Kb, opens in new tab).
“By the way: it is very wrong to only talk about refugees or calamity migrants on the one hand and economic migrants on the other. Many young migrants also want to explore, to see the world, to fall in love. They want to escape from conditions at home that restrict their creativity or that feel like a prison of old customs that they want to escape, at least temporarily.”
Reference material
Click the links to read or download (PDF, will open in a new tab). Infosheet: Africa in the 21st century / map: migration in Africa / map: International trade in Africa / map: no go areas in Africa 2017 / map: education in Africa / inaugural address Ton Dietz 2011
Voice4Thought invites everybody to join the discussion with constructive comments. Comments will be moderated, and if conceivable reacted to by Ton Dietz. Inappropriate content will be blocked by the moderators.
