Lucy Philip Mair was born in London in 1901 and died in London on 1 April 1986. She was a social anthropologist of international reputation and known particularly for her work on Africa.

This article concerns the effects of globalization on Islam in the Bamum kingdom, Cameroon. Since its introduction into the kingdom at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Islam has been closely intertwined with ethnicity and the local political system has been consensual. Politically, Bamum royalty – as the secular arm of central power – has had the unconditional support of Islam. For a long period, ‘Bamum Islam’, with its origins in the Tijaniya tariqa, withdrew in on itself, unlike other parts of Africa where sufism is dominant. But since the start of the 1990s, both political liberalization and Isalmic modernity have had their effects in Bamum through what is called in Foumban the ‘Wahhabite’ infiltration, namely, all those who have studied in Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The politico-religious foundation on which were based both the legitimacy of the royal household and the unity of the Bamum people has been undermined and disabled, provoking a crisis of identity. This crisis is evidenced, on the one hand, by the politicization of the Tijaniya on behalf of one opposition party, reforms and the destabilization of the dominant position of the Tijaniya, and, on the other hand, by a Tijaniya insurrection, open defiance and the weakening of the position of the Sultan-King of Bamum.

The great mass of Zulu literature is still unwritten. It has been handed down by X word of mouth from generation to generation, and is still preserved by the people —an indestructible possession of story, legend, and song.

There are first of all the great national legends; for instance, the legend of the origin of the race. uMvelingqangi, the first man, came out of the reeds as did Moses, and he had a wife with him. These two were the Father and Mother of the race. It is not unlikely that this tradition originated from the fact that the Bantu came from the north, following the Nile to its source at the great lakes, then down the tributaries of the Zambezi, and finally reached this southern part of Africa. Colour is given to this by the tradition which says, Sehla ngesilulu (‘we came down on rafts’), thus indicating how many crossings they had to make.

By the courtesy of the author and of the editor of Africa I was able to see the proofs of the above-mentioned article in order that I might prepare a reply. As Greenberg deals mainly with the subject-matter of my article ‘Comparative Masai Word List’ (Africa, xxvi. 3, pp. 281-7), I feel that I should make some brief comments on his argument and his criticisms. I shall first examine the specific points of his criticism, and shall then discuss the more important questions and facts concerning the relations of Masai (and Nilo-Hamitic) to Hamito-Semitic.

Lunsar is a town of some 10,000 people which has grown up since 1930 beside an open-cast iron-ore mine worked by the Sierra Leone Development Corporation (Delco) in the Marampa Chiefdom of the Northern Province, about sixty miles from Freetown. In the early days large numbers of unskilled workers were employed, but now the mine is highly mechanized. The ore is excavated and removed by mechanical scrapers and transported on a conveyor belt to a mill where most of the waste material is separated. It is then taken by conveyor belt to stockpiles and from there is mechanically loaded on to wagons.

The relationship between Islam and State has been a problematic feature of Sudanese politics both before independence and after. To a certain extent this is the result of the very nature of Islam in which the unity of ‘Church and State’ is taken for granted. However, the history of the Sudan has been affected by several other sociopolitical factors which complicated matters even further.