This paper first seeks to show how far the actual forms of the Konkomba family and household coincide with their forms as conceived by the people themselves. The second part (which will appear in a later number of this journal) analyses some of the functions of these units of organization. By function, I mean the relation of the household to certain aspects of Konkomba life: namely, the household as a unit of production and consumption, as a unit of social control, as a ritual unit, and so on. The term ‘household’ refers to the total group of persons living together in one compound (letʃeni), which is a cluster of round houses distributed about a central space and linked by a low wall (see Fig. I). The head of a household (letʃendaa) is the senior man, the husband and the father of the family that is the nucleus of the household. This may be an elementary or a polygynous family; or it may be an expanded family consisting of a number of brothers and their wives, sons, and unmarried daughters; or it may be an extended family, consisting of a man, his wives, their sons, sons' wives and children, and their unmarried daughters. To this nucleus other kin are added and it will be shown that these additional members are always either members of the minor lineage group of the household head or wives or widows of members.

The Oron, who call themselves ɔrɔ, number approximately 50,000 individuals, and inhabit 90 villages in Calabar Province, Nigeria. Lexicon and morphology establish the affiliation of Oron with the Ibibio-Efik dialect cluster recognized by Westermann and Bryan, and with Efik in the Central Branch (Cross River languages) of Greenberg's Niger-Congo family.

The material is based on the speech of Mr. Okon Ukam of Eweme village. Since the informant did not speak English the writer communicated with him through Mr. Dimo Udoh Eyo, an Ibibio from Etobodom, Uyo District, who became conversant with the Oron language in his youth. Between March and May 1953, 10,000 words of text and a vocabulary list of approximately 1,700 morphemes were transcribed. Although it is not assumed that all possible tenses or tone permutations have been obtained, it is believed that most of the tenses are described. The writer acknowledges his indebtedness to Ward's study of Efik, and Lounsbury's study of Oneida verb morphology since each has served as a model for the presentation of certain aspects of Oron morphology.

A good deal of ethnographic and sociological research has recently been undertaken, or is planned or currently in progress, in the four East African Territories of Uganda, Tanganyika, Kenya, and Zanzibar. This research is being and has been carried out under a number of different auspices. These include, as well as the East African Institute of Social Research at Kampala (which has organized and directed a large part of the research so far undertaken), universities and other sponsoring bodies in England and the United States (such as the Colonial Social Science Research Council, the ‘Scarbrough’ Committee, and the Goldsmiths' Company in England, and the Ford, Fulbright, and Carnegie foundations in America), Makerere College, the East African Statistical Department, and the territorial Governments themselves.

A l'encontre de nombreuses entreprises groupées sous l'appellation d'Artisanat indigène où les modèles sont plus ou moins imposés, où les artistes, éloignés de leur milieu originel, se livrent souvent à des activités réservées à des catégories sociales différentes de celles auxquelles ils appartiennent, où l'influence européenne est déterminante, l'École des Peintres de Poto-Poto constitue une expérience rare. Créée à Brazzaville en 1951 sur l'initiative du peintre Pierre Lods, elle fonctionne depuis cette date avec l'appui du Haut-Commissariat de la République en Afrique Équatoriale Française.

The classification of Masai and the Nilo-Hamitic languages with the Hamitic and JL Semitic language groups is a problem which is engaging the attention of linguists at the present time. In 1948 M. A. Bryan and A. N. Tucker, of London, published a short linguistic survey: Distribution of the Nilotic and Nilo-Hamitic Languages of Africa In this survey the generally accepted view was put forward that the Nilo-Hamitic and Nilotic languages, though they have a number of common features, show considerable differences. This theory is attacked by J. H. Greenberg of Columbia University, New York. In his opinion the relationship of the Nilotic and the ‘Great Lakes’ languages is so close that he combines both groups in the ‘Southern Branch’, i.e. one of the seven sub-groups of his ‘Eastern Sudanic’ language family; he rejects the term ‘Nilo-Hamitic’. In Volume III of the Handbook of African Languages, Tucker and Bryan refute the criticism of Greenberg, and put forward arguments to justify the distinction between ‘Nilotic’ and ‘Nilo-Hamitic’ and the retention of the term ‘Hamitic’ in the second title. A quite different approach to the problem in question may be found in the publications of A. Drexel and L. Homburger.

For the first time since 193O the Institute's Executive Council held its annual meeting in Rome. None of the fourteen members of the Council who attended the meeting in 1930 participated on the present occasion, though two of them—Professor *Westermann and General Derendinger—are life members of the Council, and three others—Dr. J. Oldham, Dr. E. W. Smith and Professor Labouret—still maintain their interest in African studies and in the fortunes of the Institute.

The meeting this year, though perhaps less formal than its predecessor, must have been an equally memorable experience, especially for those who were visiting Rome for the first time. This is not the place—even if it were possible—to attempt to put into words the impact of Rome, which a modern English poet has described: