In his book on the Arusha, the agricultural Masai of Mount Meru, Professor Gulliver concludes with a general theoretical statement in which he suggests a way of classifying processes of dispute settlement. Gulliver says that there are ‘two polar types of process—judicial and political—between which there is a graduated scale where, ideally, particular systems could be placed according as to whether they were more judicial or more political in their nature’ (Gulliver, 1963, p. 297).

The northern States of Nigeria have in the past 200 years experienced two great reform movements; both were accompanied by conquest by a distinct minority, and both sought to impose an external, universal culture with its set of written laws and distinct administration. The ideals, and their application by the two groups of reformers, have been strikingly similar, as has been the dissenting response of the disillusioned.

This paper reports briefly on some oral traditions collected from Yoruba musicians in western Nigeria in 1964-6. These relate mainly to the origins of their musical instruments. The research sought to answer these questions: Do Yoruba musicians have an established body of traditional beliefs with respect to their instruments? If so, how can these beliefs best be collected for collation and comparative study?

I Mean by the Ashanti northern trade Ashanti market exchanges with Hausa, Mande, and Mossi caravan traders at the town of Bonduku (eastern Ivory Coast), Salaga (northern Ghana) before 1874, and at Kintampo (Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana) 1874-92. The main facts relating to this trade are well known to students of Ashanti. This paper attempts (i) to establish the basis of the Ashanti trading relationship with the northern peoples; (ii) to make distinctions between types of Ashanti traders, the scale and results of their operations, and to describe the production and distribution of kola from Ashanti; and (iii) finally to draw attention to those features of the nineteenth-century trade which contribute towards the understanding of what Tordoff(1965: 187) has called ‘the emergence and phenomenal growth of the cocoa industry’ in the early years of this century.