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Exploring Africa

Vak
2026-2027

Admission requirements

Open to students who have enrolled in the 2026-27 African Dynamics LDE minor.

Take note: The course includes a self-funded field study in Kenya. This six-week immersive experience requires adaptability, openness, and a willingness to live and work closely with others.
Students are responsible for arranging their own travel and other preparations, including a return flight to Nairobi, visa, insurance, vaccinations, and other personal expenses. In addition, participants must cover their in-country accommodation, meals and travel costs, which are organised collectively and are expected to be approximately €65 per day.
Detailed information on financial and travel arrangements will be shared with enrolled students during an online meeting on Monday 6 July at 12:00.
Please ensure you complete the Background and Commitment Form in order to receive an invitation to this mandatory session.

Description

Exploring Africa invites students to experience Kenya beyond the classroom. The course focuses on sustainability from multiple perspectives, offering first-hand insight into African realities while connecting these experiences to key global and continental frameworks, including the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the United Nations’ Agenda 2030.

This immersive field study goes far beyond a typical field course. Students set up and maintain team camps while travelling through Kenya’s diverse landscapes - from semi-arid rangelands to highland farms and coastal wetlands, together with a close-knit community of LDE and Kenyan university students. The programme is designed for curious and motivated students who are eager to engage with different cultures and explore alternative perspectives. By sharing daily life, students collaborate intensively and engage directly with local communities in both urban and rural contexts. This requires resilience, flexibility, and adaptability. In return, students gain a transformative learning experience, building meaningful connections both academically and personally.

Course objectives

Upon successful completion of this course students will have:

1 Foundational knowledge and understanding of the:

  • relevance and feasibility of the AU and UN development agendas in various African livelihood systems;

  • role history, culture and artefacts play in the relationship between humans and their world;

  • interconnected dimensions and disciplinary interlinkages shaping future realities;

  • engagement between diverse actors, human and material agents in geographical setting;

  • local, regional, and global perspectives steering socio- economic development.

2 Developed skills and competencies to:

  • integrate approaches that address development in a multidisciplinary way;

  • distinguish innovative approaches to address ‘wicked’ challenges;

  • academically discuss narratives and cross-cutting issues that impact African realities;

  • apply reflective and ethical research practices, including sensitivity to positionality and reciprocity in fieldwork;

  • produce field-based analyses and multimedia outputs for academic and public audiences.

Mode of instruction

Students travel together whilst working in small teams that link theory and practice through structured field activities and assignments. Applying experiential learning methods, they develop their skills in critical reflection, qualitative research, and cross-cultural collaboration.
Teaching is co-delivered by LDE and Kenyan academics and researchers, alongside local leaders and community members, integrating both academic and lived forms of knowledge.
Two cross-cutting themes - frugality and climate change, provide an analytical lens for all activities. Within this framework, student teams select a thematic focus area and conduct participatory research with communities, strengthening their skills in stakeholder engagement.
The programme concludes with a synthesis and reflection week in Nairobi, where students integrate individual experiences with theory and articulate key insights on sustainability challenges.

Assessment method

Assessment and Weighing

  • Individual journal and contextualisation exercise: 25%

  • Podcast or video assignment: 25%.

  • Team focus theme presentation & report: 50%.

The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average. To pass the course, the average mark of the partial grades must be 5.5 or higher.

Resit

If the final mark - established by determining the weighted average is insufficient, any of the graded assessments can be resubmitted in an agreed timeframe.

Inspection and feedback

How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organized.

Reading list

Prescribed reading available in the syllabus (Strive to mostly use library and open source online publications).

Registration

Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory (only applies to LEI students).
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Guest students from TUD and EUR will be helped with their course enrollment.

Contact

Remarks

Leiden University Brightspace platform will be used for:

  • Announcements

  • Timetable

  • Course information

  • Documents

  • Discussions

  • Pitch2Peer

  • Grades

  • Calendar

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