Gerbert van der Aa (Esch, 1968) is a historian and journalist specialising in North and West Africa.
He works as a freelance journalist. His articles have appeared in Elsevier and NRC. He is also a regular 'Africa expert' on radio and television. He has written four books - Nigerian States, Crossing Sudan, Gaddafi's Desert, Back to Timbuktu - and has twice been nominated for the Bob den Uyl Prize for travel writing. His first book in English, In Search of the Tuareg, was published in 2018.
He lives in the Netherlands. About three times a year he travels around Africa for a month. Sometimes he travels by plane and public transport, sometimes in an old car that he drives from the Netherlands across the Sahara to West Africa to sell. It is a relic of an old hobby he started 35 years ago when he was a history student at the University of Amsterdam. If all goes well, which is not always the case, he has a free trip.
After graduating in 1994, he worked as a teletext editor at RTL News. He has also worked on the editorial boards of Elsevier and Our World. But he still prefers the free freelance life, writing about subjects he finds important and interesting; as an editor he too often had to produce stories he personally would not read.
He doesn't believe in development aid, because in the 35 years he's been travelling in Africa, he's never felt that aid has made much of a difference.
