Africa

Netherlands

Assistant Professor in Development Studies

University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

B.M.Oomen@uva.nl

Amsterdam Research Institute for
Global Issues and Development Studies
Faculteit der Maatschappij-En Gedragswetenschappen
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130
1018 VZ
Amsterdam
The Netherlands

phone: 071-31-20-5254085/4062
fax: 071-31-20-5254051

http://www2.fmg.uva.nl/agids/cv/oomen.html

South Africa

Ph.D., L.L.M., M.Sc.

Researcher in general issues of law, governance and development in Africa.

Her most recent project concerns a comparison of the various institutional
responses to the 1994 Rwanda genocide and their legitimacy in the eyes of
the population.

Ph.D. thesis, "Chiefs! Law, Power and Culture in Contemporary South
Africa." (Leiden University, 2002) dealt with the position of traditional
leadership and customary law in post-Apartheid South Africa. She has also
been involved in a legal development cooperation programme with Mali, on
issues of decentralisation and land.

Teaches courses on South African law, legal anthropology and
socio-legal research methods. During 2002-2003, she was Assistant
Professor at the Van Vollenhoven Institute for Law, Governance and
Development at Leiden University and taught a course on "Introduction to
law, governance and development in Africa".

2004. Forthcoming: Chiefs! Law, power and culture in contemporary
South Africa. [Ph.D.: Leiden University] thesis to be published with
James Currey Ltd: Oxford, UK.

2003. "Legal syncretism in Sekhukhune: Local law and the power of
traditional leaders in northern South Africa", in van Binsbergen, W.M.J.,
in collaboration with Riekje Pelgrim, ed., The dynamics of power and
the rule of law: Essays on Africa and beyond in honour of Emile Adriaan
van Rouveroy van Nieuwaal, Berlin/Muenster: LIT Verlag, pp. 167-196.

2001. Hesseling, Gerti, and B. Oomen. Le droit dans la réforme de
l'état. In L'Afrique politique: réformes des états
Africains, edited by D. Darbon. Bordeaux: Karthala, 50-75.

2001. Sociale cohesie, multiculturaliteit en het recht: zeven Afrikaanse
lessen (Social cohesion, multiculturalism and the law). In
Multiculturalisme, cultuurrelativisme en sociale cohesie, edited by P. B.
Cliteur and V. Van den Eeckhout. Den Haag: Boom Juridische Uitgevers, 512
- 534

2000. "Traditional Woman-to-Woman Marriages and the Recognition of
Customary Marriages Act." Tijdskrif vir Hedendaagse Rooms-Hollandse Reg
63, no. 2, 274-82 p.

2000. Tradition on the Move: Chiefs, Democracy and Change in Rural South
Africa. Edited by Madeleine Maurick and Marlene Cornelis. Vol. 6,
Niza-Cahiers. Amsterdam: Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa.

2000. Tradition on the move: chiefs, democracy and change in rural South
Africa. Amsterdam: Netherlands Institute for Southern Africa, 71 p.

2000. 'We must now go back to our history: retraditionalization
in a Northern Province chieftaincy', African Studies, 59, 1, 71-95.

1999, 'Group Rights in post-Apartheid South Africa: the case of
the traditional leaders', Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law,
44, 73-103.

1999. Oomen, B. & S. Tempelman, 'The Power of Definition'. In: Y.
Donders e.a. (eds) Law and Cultural Diversity, SIM-special no 25, p. 7-26.

1998. Inleiding Recht en Bestuur in Zuid-Afrika. Leiden: CNWS
publicatiereeks, 1998, 120 p.

1997. Oomen, B. & I. van Kessel, 'One Chief, One Vote: the revival of
traditional authorities in post-Apartheid South Africa', African Affairs,
96, 561-585 (with I. van Kessel).

Collaborates with:

* South African Universities (University of the North, University of Cape
Town, University of the Western Cape, University of the North West,
Potchefstroom University for CHE, University of Natal--Pietermaritzburg,
& University of Zululand)

* Faculté des Sciences Juridiques et Economiques, Bamako, Mali
(project on the strengthening of socio-legal research and teaching
capacity, together with the Dutch Centre for International Legal
Cooperation and the African Studies Centre)

Some publications:

Oomen, B, 1998, Inleiding Recht en Bestuur in Zuid-Afrika. Leiden:
CNWS/Van Vollenhoven Instituut, 116 p. (Introduction to South African Law
and Administration, in Dutch)

Van Kessel & B. Oomen, One Chief, One Vote: the revival of traditional
authorities in post-apartheid South African affairs, 1997, 96, 561-585

Traditional Leadership in Africa Programme: a collaborative research
venture between five South African Universities (University of the North,
University of the North West, Potchefstroom University for CHE, University
of Natal--Pietermaritzburg, & University of Zululand) and the University
of Leiden, Netherlands, Volume II: "Theoretical framework: The
administrative and legal position of traditional authorities in South
Africa and their contribution to the implementation of the Reconstruction
and Development Programme." (pp 125-165)

law ; governance ; chieftaincy ; culture ; conflicts ; ...