Notes on Hygiene Books used in Africa

Extract

The Institute has always placed the question of the provision of suitable text-books both in the vernacular and in the language of the European power in the different territories in the forefront of its subjects of study as being one of the most urgent needs in Africa to-day. Numerous discussions and inquiries have shown that adequate instruction in hygiene and the inculcation of simple health rules is one of the most pressing needs, and that work done in one area is often unknown in others. In consequence the Executive Council in 1929 devoted special attention to the question of what action could be taken which would assist in the solution of this problem. The general opinion was that the information at the disposal of the Institute showed the need of a survey of books in actual use. This would, it was hoped, provide material which would be useful in the preparation of model texts in which particular attention would be devoted to the method of presenting the subject to Africans. The Council decided that the survey should be divided into two parts, one of books published in English or in a vernacular used in British territories and another of books published in French or languages used in French-speaking areas, and that the information collected should form the basis of articles to be published in Africa.