Inge Brinkman – författare

The Kongo kingdom, which arose in the Atlantic Coast region of West-Central Africa, is a famous emblem of Africa's past yet little is still known of its origins and early history. This book sheds new light on that all important period and goes on to explain the significance of its cosmopolitan culture in the wider world. Bringing together different new strands of historical evidence as well as scholars from disciplines as diverse as anthropology, archaeology, art history, history and linguistics, it is the first book to approach the history of this famous Central African kingdom from a cross-disciplinary perspective. All chapters are written by distinguished and/or upcoming experts of Kongo history with a focus on political space, taking us through processes of centralisation and decentralisation, the historical politics of extraversion and internal dynamics, and the geographical distribution of aspects of material and immaterial Kongo culture.

The Kongo kingdom, which arose in the Atlantic Coast region of West-Central Africa, is a famous emblem of Africa's past yet little is still known of its origins and early history. This book sheds new light on that all important period and goes on to explain the significance of its cosmopolitan culture in the wider world. Bringing together different new strands of historical evidence as well as scholars from disciplines as diverse as anthropology, archaeology, art history, history and linguistics, it is the first book to approach the history of this famous Central African kingdom from a cross-disciplinary perspective. All chapters are written by distinguished and/or upcoming experts of Kongo history with a focus on political space, taking us through processes of centralisation and decentralisation, the historical politics of extraversion and internal dynamics, and the geographical distribution of aspects of material and immaterial Kongo culture.

As a team of upcoming and established scholars from Kenya, Ethiopia and Belgium, we propose this book with oral folktales accompanied by strong visuals. Through performative learning procedures the book invites young people to meaningfully engage with living traditions of oral storytelling. The book aims to:1) (re-)value the educational potential of popular storytelling in dealing with crisis situations;2) (re)connect adolescent audiences with oral literatures;As the interest in oral literatures is on the decline, especially among adolescents in Africa and elsewhere, we see a real need in offering folktales that are attractive and relevant to youthful audiences.The book features 11 oral narratives in 5 languages from Kenya and Ethiopia, accompanied by high-quality images that will speak to young people. Each chapter starts with a full transcription of the story in the original language, followed by a well-written and attractive translation to English. The visual section highlights the narrative’s features in different manners, after which metadata on the narrative are offered, explaining the performance context, background of the narrator and audience. The final section of each chapter consists of a profound analysis with full educational guidelines for teachers/trainers to engage discussion with (African) youth.

The history of development cooperation has attracted very little research to date. This volume offers an innovative interpretation by considering the history of SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, which has been in existence for over forty years now. Through SNV’s history, an analysis emerges of the role of the Netherlands in development cooperation and the attitudes of Dutch society towards it over the last fifty years as well as the changing ideas, practices and policies in development work more generally.The views and expectations of (former) SNV staff and those of local participants who were ultimately to benefit from the development activities were the focus of this historical research. This has resulted in a socio-cultural history ‘from below’ rather than a dry description of the organisation’s administrative changes and formal bureaucratic structures.