Events

About every four years, the Jahn Library organises an International Janheinz Jahn Symposium, focusing on a central issue in African literary studies (e.g., creative writing in African languages in 2004 and African crime fiction in 2008). The 10th Janheinz Jahn Symposium will focus on "The Violated City: Urban Dystopias in 21st-Century African Literature" (10-12 October 2012). These symposia are meant to provide a platform for international scholars of African literatures and to enhance dialogue between them. Guests and speakers regularly include African writers.

Irregularly, the Jahn library also organises smaller workshops and lectures as well as readings featuring African writers. In November 2011 the publication of a new research bibliography of Zambian literature by Ranka Primorac (Southampton) on the homepage of the Jahn Library was celebrated with a talk by the author herself, followed by a reading with Zambian writer Namwali Serpell (Berkeley).

The Jahn Library has repeatedly organised exhibitions at the Department of Anthropology and African Studies and other institutions. Furthermore, treasures from the collection are displayed in a showcase at the entrance to the Jahn library, often in relation to special events. In October 2009, a series of displays on "African Literature in the 21st Century" was launched, which will continue through 2011.