details, background illustrations etc.

8 Juni 2004: 'Het kaleidoscopisch karakter van de Afrikaanse sociale werkelijkheid -- beelden van een NGO in Benin', bijdrage van Wim van Binsbergen aan de jaarlijkse studiedag van het Nederlandse Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken, Den Haag, en het Afrika-Studiecentrum, Leiden
klik hier voor een voorlopig voorproefje (nog sterk in te korten) van het beeldmateriaal waaraan de lezing zal worden opgehangen

25-26 May, 2004: participation in the International Conference on Agency in African History, African Studies Centre, Leiden; convenor: Jan-Bart Gewald (click here for an extensive slide show that largely covers the argument)

7-10 May 2004: Invited to participate in the Round Table on Myth, Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University, Boston, USA, with a paper on ‘Long-range mythical continuities across Asia and Africa: Linguistic and iconographic evidence concerning leopard symbolism’ (click here for an extensive slide show that largely covers the argument)

26 April 2004, paper at the Department for the Philosophy of Man and Culture ('Ontology of Mediation), Philosophical Faculty, Rotterdam: 'The underpinning of scientific knowledge systems: Epistemology or hegemonic power? The implications of Sandra Harding’s critique of North Atlantic science for the appreciation of African knowledge systems'.

21 April 2004, lezing: 'Een onderzoek naar spiritualiteit vertrekkend vanuit Otto Duintjers Onuitputtelijk is de Waarheid'. Onderdeel van 'Het andere gezicht van de filosofie: Vijf filosofen met inzichten en vermoedens vanuit een spirituele achtergrond', lezingenreeks in het kader van het tweede lustrum van Filosofie Oost-West in samenwerking met Studium Generale van de Universiteit van Utrecht, Academiegebouw, Domplein 29, Utrecht

publication of the article: van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 2004, 'Atena Nera: La tesi di Bernal ha provocato reazioni in diverse discipline, dalla storiografia all'antropologia e pone ancora problemi di epistemologia multiculturale', Prometeo: Rivista trimestrale di scienze e storia, 22, 85 (March 2004): 102-111

One of the projects currently being finalised is the book Four Tablets: An African divination system through space and time, initiated in the early 1990s, and since then the topic of numerous articles and papers. In the process, a major 1996 paper was revised and prepared for the Web: 'The astrological origin of Islamic geomancy' (paper read at The SSIPS/ SAGP 1996, 15th Annual Conference: ‘Global and Multicultural Dimensions of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy and Social Thought: Africana, Christian, Greek, Islamic, Jewish, Indigenous and Asian Traditions’, Binghamton University, Department of Philosophy/ Center for Medieval and Renaissance studies (CEMERS), October 1996 (PDF))

published: Wim van Binsbergen, 2004, 'Challenges for the sociology of religion in the next fifty years: The case of Africa', Social Compass, 51, 1: 85-98, Spring 2004. (cf. July 2003, below)

Wim van Binsbergen, 1992, Tears of Rain: Ethnicity and history in central Western Zambia, London/ Boston: Kegan Paul International (a Zambian edition published in collaboration with the Zambia Educational Publishing House, Lusaka, 1994) has been available at greatly discounted price for some time now this book has now finally been made available on the web as PDF (pagination slightly different from printed version); open by clicking this link

since long out of print and now finally made available on the web as PDF lya tikitiwile na ba Rev. Johasaphat Malasha Shimunika (author) lya manishiwile na ba Wim van Binsbergen [ Tatashikanda] (editor) Likota lya Bankoya Nkoya edition Leiden: African Studies Centre Research Reports No. 31 B / 1988

1) Publication of volume XVI (1-2) of Quest: An African Journal of Philosophal / Revue Africaine de Philosophie, the first volume of this journal to appear under the editorial responsibility of Wim van Binsbergen; this is a special issue entitled: TRUTH IN POLITICS Rhetorical Approaches to Democratic Deliberation in Africa and beyond Philippe-Joseph Salazar, Sanya Osha, Wim van Binsbergen (Eds.), 278 pp. this includes Wim van Binsbergen's Editorial (Quest: An African Journal of Philosophy, XVI: 5-12) and his paper: Postscript: Aristotle in Africa – Towards a Comparative Africanist reading of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission  (Quest: An African Journal of Philosophy, XVI: 238-272) 2) Organisation of an international Colloquium to celebrate this occasion: The transcultural framework for the construction of African knowledges: Methodological, epistemological, and political considerations   Le cadre transculturel pour la construction des connaissances africaines: Considérations méthodologiques, épistémologiques et politiques   time: Tuesday/mardi 23rd March/mars, 2004, 13.30-17.00 hrs place: African Studies Centre, Pieter de la Court building, Faculty of Social Sciences, Wassenaarseweg 52, Leiden, room: 1A47 Key note speaker: the leading African philosopher Paulin Hountondji (Benin), member of the Quest Advisory Board, to whom the first copy of Quest XVI was officially presented other speakers: Pieter Boele van Hensbroek, Julie Ndaya, René Devisch, Wim van Binsbergen

External examiner, PhD thesis, department of anthropology, University of Cape Town, South Africa

published: Wim van Binsbergen, 2004, 'Aspects of Democracy and Democratization in Zambia and Botswana', in: Tom Young,. ed., Readings in African Politics, International Africa Institute in cooperation with Indiana University Press and James Currey, London etc., 2004: 202-214; reprinted from the Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 1995

15 December 2003: Publication of Wim van Binsbergen & Rijk van Dijk, eds, Situating Globality: African Agency in the Appropriation of Global Culture, Leiden: Brill, African Dynamics series (African Studies Centre Yearbook 2003), 314 pp. (click for details and orders)

1 December 2003: Publication of Wim van Binsbergen, Intercultural Encounters: African and anthropological lessons towards a philosophy of interculturality, Berlin etc.: LIT, 610 pp. (click for details and electronic order form)

Due to the hosting company one2host going totally incommunicado, the domain www.shikanda.net has become inaccessible in the second week of December 2003; a temporary accommodation was meanwhile established at http://ethnicity.bravepages.com ; apologies for the inconvenience

Het gedicht 'Friesland' uit Wim van Binsbergens bundel Vrijgeleide is opgenomen in de gezaghebbende bloemlezing van de Nederlandse poezie van de 19e en 20e eeuw van Gerrit Komrij, te verschijnen 1 februari 2004

Rupture and fusion in the approach to myth (Situating myth analysis between philosophy, poetics, and long-range historical reconstruction, with an application to the ancient and world-wide mythical complex of leopard-skin symbolism) (PDF) paper to be read at the International Conference ‘Myth: Theory and the Disciplines’, 12 December 2003, University of Leiden: Research School CNWS (School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies), IIAS (The International Institute for Asian Studies); and NWO (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) (click for abstract) (click for the full revised article as PDF)

4 December 2003: 'The leopard's unchanging spots: Long range comparitive research as a possible clue to enduring patterns of African agency', PowerPoint-based seminar, core group, theme group on Agency in Africa, African Studies Centre, Leiden, 10:00; click to access the full Internet version of this slide presentation

30 October 2003: 'Mogelijkheden en onmogelijkheden in de dialoog over waarden', key note op de conferentie 'Normen van waarde in onderwijs en opvoeding: Interreligieuze conferentie van het Christelijk College Henegouwen, het Melanchthon College en het Rotterdamse Studentenpastoraat (Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam) over waarden en normen in de verschillende religie'; daarna gespreksleider over het thema 'homosexualiteit, middelbare school en de multiculturele samenleving'.

completed and submitted: 'Genadendal: poem for Vernie February one year after his death' (in Dutch), to be published in a memorial volume for Vernie February, now going to the press

goes to the press: Situating globality: African agency in the appropriation of global culture, edited by Wim van Binsbergen & Rijk van Dijk, Leiden: Brill, African Studies Centre Yearbook 2003; published 15 December 2003 (click for details and orders)

Quest: An African Journal of Philosophy, established by Pieter Boele van Hensbroek and Roni Bwalya at the University of Zambia in 1987, was directed by Pieter Boele van Hensbroek until he found Wim van Binsbergen prepared to succeed him in that responsibility, early 2003. In the meantime Quest has been adopted by the African Studies Centre Leiden, with substantial support also from the Erasmus University Rotterdam. A new Editorial Team has been formed (comprising Sanya Osha, Kirsten Seifikar and Wim van Binsbergen, with one African vacancy), and the intercontinental Advisory Editorial Team consolidated. The structure of peer review has been tightened and made more efficient. The gigantic task of preparing the journal for access online has now largely been completed. The Quest website is fully operational now, and is also beginning to develop into a tool for much more rapid and topical exchange of information and views than the printed form could ever be. However, given the desirability of enduring hard copy, and the patchy and uncertain access to the Internet in Africa, printed issues of the journal will continue to be produced along with the online version. Online access is free, while the printed issues are available detachedly as well as under subscription. Subscriptions may be initiated or renewed electronically from the Quest website; there also any irregularities in subcribers' reception of earlier issues may be reported. The two issues of volume XVI (the first volume of Quest to be published under the new structure), will be published autumn 2003. Authors of articles in the philosophical, academic and general intellectual field are requested to submit their contributions to Quest in the form stipulated in the website. Any mail for Quest: An African Journal of Philosophy may be addressed to: editor@quest-journal.net

9 October 2003: AFRICAN SPIRITS
op het spreekuur: winti, voodoo & witchcraft
Calypso, Mauritsweg 5, Rotterdam
organised by Studium Generale, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (EUR),
with: Djembe by Bawana & DJ UFonaut (music), prof. dr. Wim van Binsbergen (chair of intercultural philosophy, EUR), prof.dr. Carla Risseeuw (chair of anthropology, Leiden University) Gloria Benzane (medical student from Mozambique). Presentator: dr. Otmar Buyne (psychiatrist); TV coverage on the TV Rijnmond Network, 17-18 October 2003, 5 minutes interview with Wim van Binsbergen, repeatedly broadcast at hourly intervals

publication of: van Binsbergen, W.M.J., eds. (with the collaboration of Riekje Pelgrim), The dynamics of power and the rule of law: Essays on Africa and beyond: In honour of Emile Adrian B. van Rouveroy van Nieuwaal, Hamburg/Münster: LIT Verlag, 337 pp. (click for details and electronic order form)

as was long overdue, the site owner's web-based vitae and list of publications were fully updated, and a beginning was made to link this list systematically to all of the author's publications available on the Web

Leeftocht (gedichten, 1977) nu beschikbaar gemaakt op Internet / now made available on the Web

Een buik openen (novel on fieldwork on popular Islam in Tunisia, 1988) nu beschikbaar gemaakt op Internet / now made available on the Web

gepubliceerd in September 2003: van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 2003, ‘Sangoma en filosoof: Eenheid in de praktijk, dilemma in de theorie’, in: Bulhof, I.N., Poorthuis, M., & Bhagwandin, V., eds., Mijn plaats is geen plaats: Ontmoetingen tussen wereldbeschouwingen, Kampen: Klement-Pelckmans, pp. 219-231

door de welwillendheid van de redactie, vertalers en uitgever kon tegelijkertijd afzonderlijk gepubliceerd worden: van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 2003, ‘Sangoma en filosoof: Eenheid in de praktijk, dilemma in de theorie’, in: Humanisme en spiritualiteit, themanummer van Antenne (orgaan van de Unive van Vrijzinnige Verenigingen) (Brussel), 21, 3: 36-43.

in the process, one large section of this book was removed so as to form a book on its own: The leopard’s unchanging spots: Towards a world history of shamanism from the perspective of the Southern African sangoma cult; this unexpected by-product is now in an advanced state of preparation and is hoped to be completed shortly; for a slide presentation selectively covering this book's contents, click here

assessor, on behalf of the United National Educational and Scientific Commission (UNESCO), Paris, of an African country's national proposal towards the UNESCO's Intangible Masterpieces of Mankind programme

'Manchester as a birthplace of agency', paper read at the international conference on 'Agency in Africa: An old theme, a new issue', Erasmus University Rotterdam (chair of intercultural philosophy) and Theme Group on Agency in Africa, African Studies Centre (convenors Rijk van Dijk, Wouter van Beek and Wim van Binsbergen, 16 June 2003

Grenzen en wereldbeschouwingen: Waarom wereldburgerschap ook heden een moeilijke opgave is (PDF): bijdrage aan het symposium ‘Wereldburger tussen culturen in conflict’, ter gelegenheid van het afscheid van Prof.dr U. Libbrecht van de Stichting Filosofie Oost-West, Utrecht, 11 april 2003 (inmiddels verschenen, klik voor details)

(also see ASC website)

van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 2002, ‘’Cultures do not exist’: Exploding self-evidences in the investigation of interculturality’’, Quest—Philosophical Discussions: An International African Journal of Philosophy, 1999: 37-115.

van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 2002, ‘Le culture non esistono: Critica dell’autoevidenza negli studi interculturali’, in: Miltenburg, A.F.M., ed., Incontri di sguardi: Saperi e pratiche dell’intercultura, Padova: Unipress/ Master in Studi Interculturali, Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, Università di Padova, pp. 5-51.

'The underpinning of scientific knowledge systems: Epistemology or hegemonic power? The implications of Sandra Harding’s critique of North Atlantic science for the appreciation of African knowledge systems'. (click for details)