The ‘Five Year Plan of Research’ of the Institute described in this Journal, vol. v, no. 1, aims at a scientific study of the change in the cultural life of African peoples which, like an inevitable destiny, takes place under the influence of Western civilization. The object of the study is to provide a sound basis for dealing with practical questions of administration and education. Such an investigation must be based on an intensive knowledge of the original culture of the people to be studied; it must ascertain the foreign influences effecting the change, as well as the way in which they affect the culture of the people; and it has to study the changes being brought about by them in the culture. In order to start with concrete phenomena the investigation should, in the first instance, be confined to the changes that are being brought about by world economic conditions in the traditional social order of selected African communities, and in particular to the changes in the economic organization of native society. The study of changes in economic conditions must, however, inevitably lead to an examination of the way in which these affect the family, tribal organization, religious beliefs and sanctions, and the whole social organization. Regarded from the scientific point of view, this is a task which touches upon the most important problems of culture. Ethnology, as the most comprehensive and the most fundamental of the culturesciences, is to an especially high degree interested in this problem and in this investigation. Being myself a student of ethnology as a culturescience, I am venturing to discuss here the questions of principle involved, especially since the principles of culture-science underlying the ‘five year plan’ coincide to a large extent with my own conceptions.

In past times, when the Bari tribes, untouched as yet by foreign civilization, were still following their tribal customs, the relation between the people and their chiefs was fostered by various subsidiary customs, such as the erection of shrines to the chief's (Kɔ mɔnyε kak) ancestors, and purification ceremonies, ordered and presided over by the same. To these we might add the tribal hunting-parties and the magic ritual connected with cattle-breeding in the large kraals of the upland pastures (kurumi-et).

Many uncritical generalizations have been made on this subject, both by those who believe that in African cultures women hold a position of complete inferiority, and also by those who incline to the view that, while the status of women is different from that of men, it is by no means different to the extent of being inferior. It is easy for the observer to generalize for the particular tribe with which he is familiar. Superficially he sees women engaged on certain occupations and comporting themselves in such a way as to create a definite impression in the observer's mind: but this is not enough. Even if that impression is correct, it is valid only for that one tribe. But it is quite as likely to prove incorrect on analysis, as such a general appraisement must of necessity be subjective and be coloured by the cultural predilections of the observer. The barbarities associated with clitoridectomy, for instance, are frequently urged in proof of woman's low status, and even such trivial facts as the customary precedence given to a man by his wife when walking along a path are taken to be symptoms of the same social inferiority. As well might it be urged that among those tribes in which a woman is accustomed to precede a man she occupies a correspondingly exalted position: whereas the truth is that customs such as these have no bearing on status at all, but are incidents in major aspects of social and economic life and are determined by them. A woman may thus follow her husband in one tribe, because it is the latter's duty to defend her and he has to lead the way in case of an enemy's attack, while in another tribe, where danger is not so omnipresent, the man will possibly bring up the rear because he has less faith in the integrity of his women and likes to see what they are about. In the same way the observer might be tempted to assume that, because a woman is seen to be exercising high religious or magical prerogatives, therefore the general status of women in the community is equally high: but that might be just as fallacious a way of looking at it, since the exercise of particular prerogatives by specific women is no index to general status.

The following preliminary notes on some Fulani tribes were compiled as the result of a series of tours carried out in 1928 among the Fulani of the Bornu Emirate Division of Bornu Province in the northern provinces of Nigeria, and it is to the Fulani of that area only that the notes refer.

Leprosy is the curse of Africa. Four thousand years ago Egyptian documents tell us about the occurrence of leprosy among Sudanese slaves, and it is highly probable that tropical Africa is the real home of the disease whence it has been transported all over the world.

The teaching of agriculture in West Africa is difficult compared with other more literary subjects, first, because it is impossible to rely so much on a text-book, and, secondly, because the outdoor practical work is so difficult to arrange, if the students' continued interest and enthusiasm are to be kept. The main reasons why agriculture and gardening as taught in schools are not more effective can be understood by a closer study of the motives of the methods adopted.

The following notes on text-books on nature study and agriculture used in Africa have been prepared in accordance with the decision of the Executive Council of the Institute to compile surveys of text-books in actual use, with a view to providing material which will help in the preparation of new model books. Reviews of current books for use in Africa appear in various journals, but there seems also to be a need for notes of this kind, which bring together information about books on a particular subject for a number of different areas. The first subject dealt with in this way was Hygiene (Africa, iii. 4, and v. 1). The notes on nature study and agricultural text-books which follow are incomplete and should be regarded as a first step only.