The January number of Africa (vol. v, no. 1) contained an outline of a new field of anthropological research—African society as it is changing in contact with the forces of western civilization. Such forces can obviously be divided into two main categories: (a) the direct influence on tribal law and custom which is exerted by Government and missionaries through education, or administrative enactment; and (b) the indirect influence of changed economic conditions either in the area affected, or in the world at large—including such factors as the opening up of the country by roads and railways, the introduction of new currencies and standards of economic value, industrial developments such as mining, and lastly the changing world markets for African goods.

Is there a fundamental disparity between Africans and ourselves in modes of thought? Can they assimilate Western civilization, not merely accepting its scientific discoveries and inventions, but making its intellectual assumptions and methods really their own? There is obviously no question of greater theoretical and practical importance for the teacher.

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.

Having received through the generosity of the Rockefeller Foundation additional funds for the extension of research in Africa, the Council of the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures are of opinion that the best use that can be made of the resources at their disposal is to encourage and assist studies directed to a single main objective. The fundamental problem arising from the interpenetration of African life by the ideas and economic forces of European civilization is that of the cohesion of African society. African society is being subjected to a severe strain, and there is a danger lest the powerful forces that are entering the continent may bring about its complete disintegration, the results of which must be calamitous for the individuals who compose it and at the same time render impossible an orderly evolution of the community. It is proposed, therefore, that the inquiries fostered by the Institute should be directed towards bringing about a better understanding of the factors of social cohesion in original African society, the ways in which these are being affected by the new influences, tendencies towards new groupings and the formation of new social bonds, and forms of co-operation between African societies and western civilization.

The following notes on the transfer of property by a man to his bride's father on the occasion of marriage are written as a result of the late Mr. Torday's paper upon this custom. Since the appearance of Mr. Torday's paper, and his suggestion that the word ‘earnest’ be used to designate this property instead of ‘bride-price’, many other people have written on the subject and many other terms have been suggested. It is not my intention to add to the already large list of possible terms, but to examine the custom as it exists in one tribe, the Hehe of Iringa, Tanganyika Territory. Such studies have, of course, been made in many good monographs on African tribes, but certain aspects of the custom, which are of some relevance to the present controversy, have not been emphasized.

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).

The civilization of Dahomey is based upon an agricultural economy. No matter what the rank of a Dahomean or what his trade, he must know how to cultivate the soil, and he will have his fields. As in all West Africa, clearing the land and hoeing it in preparation for the actual planting is the work of men. Planting itself is carried out by both men and women, and after the planting has been finished, the care of the growing crops is in the hands of the women. Women play quite as active a role in the economic life of Dahomey as do men, for it is not only their work to care for and harvest the crops, but in the Dahomean organization of markets, it is they who buy and sell. Since money earned by a woman is her own, and it is possible for those who are successful in the market-place to acquire wealth independently, there exists a class of ‘free’ women whose freedom extends to their economic life, and also to their relations with the male sex. This gives rise to the institution of women who play the role ordinarily assumed by men as heads of families, and who become titular ‘husbands’ to their ‘wives’.

Among the vast range of subjects found in African sculpture, the representations of Janus occupy an important position, primarily for purely artistic reasons. On the whole, African sculptors chiefly excel in their treatment of single figures, be they masks or statues. Each piece of work which is more than one figure is in itself a notable advance on the usual African style. Now there are Janus masks which in their formal structure are chefs-d'œvre of African sculpture and, indeed, of all primitive art. A number of these come from the Cross River district. It is not only, however, because of their artistic form and powerful expression that these masks are interesting. Again and again men have racked their brains in order to solve the problem of their inner meaning, and have risked the most daring hypotheses, as is shown in the book by R. Karutz, Das Rätsel des Janus (1927, Basle): I shall discuss this critically at the end of this article.

Die Stellung und die Machtbefugnisse eines Pedi-Häuptlings sind im wesentlichen die gleichen wie bei den anderen Süd-Bantu. Da hierüber verschiedene Autoren bereits ausführlich berichtet haben, so ist es nicht angebracht in diesem Aufsatz das schon Bekannte in allen Einzelheiten zu wiederholen. Ich begnüge mich deshalb damit, das den Bantustämmen in dieser Beziehung Gemeinsame ganz kurz darzustellen, um dann bisher wenig oder garnicht beachtete Seiten des Häuptlingstums genauer zu beschreiben.

Some apology is due for an article on this subject from the pen of one who has no claim to write with any authority. The impulse to set it forth springs from a deep-seated anxiety about African education that is evidently shared by others. To give expression to it may do a little to assist that focussing of opinion which is so vital a part of any comprehensive plan for bringing education to the African native.

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.

Um weitschweifigen Umschreibungen auszuweichen, wird hier das Nomen ‘Gar’ und das Zeitwort ‘garen’ gebraucht, wofür es kein deutsches Wort gibt. Die Bedeutung der beiden Ausdrücke ergibt sich aus dem Folgenden. Das ‘Gar’ ist die Vornahme der den Nuer kennzeichnenden Stirnschnitte, und damit die Einführung in den Mannesstand.

L'Afrique possède des richesses immenses que les indigènes, pendant des siècles, n'ont pas su exploiter. Cette carence des indigènes a été la principale cause de la venue et de l'installation des blancs en Afrique. Elle est considérée, par beaucoup de sociologues, comme la meilleure justification du fait de la colonisation. Dans l'intérêt des colonisants et aussi, sans doute, des colonisés, il faut exploiter ces richesses. En tout cas, aucune nation ne consentirait des sacrifices considérables d'hommes et d'argent dans un but exclusivement sentimental et humanitaire. D'autre part, l'exploitation industrielle du sol et du sous-sol africain suppose nécessairement la collaboration des indigènes. D'immenses travaux doivent être exécutés pour lesquels il est besoin d'une énorme main-d'œuvre qui ne peut être qu'indigène. Mais ou trouver cette main-d'œuvre et comment l'organiser? Problème difficile qu'on a jusqu'aujourd'hui résolu dans des conditions telles qu'elles inspirent les plus graves inquiétudes à ceux que préoccupe l'avenir des populations africaines.

Articles have appeared from time to time in this journal on the use of vernaculars in African education. The policy of using the vernacular in schools is general in British dependencies, and is in conformity with Memoranda on the subject issued by the Colonial Office Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies. In non-British territories policy varies; in some the vernaculars are the medium of instruction, while in others the use of them in the schools i s discouraged or actually banned.

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.

Among the Akan peoples of the Gold Coast the warrior organization is known as Asafu. This is found in almost every town or village in the Gold Coast in a more or less developed state, but nowhere has the organization been so fully developed or does it play so important a part in the social and political life of the people as among the Fantis of the coast towns. Owing, however, to the fact that its activities in these towns are more often than not rather disturbing to the maintenance of peace and occasionally result in sanguinary riots with fatal consequences, the organization is perhaps quite unjustifiably viewed with suspicion and condemned accordingly. Amidst drumming, dancing, and drinking, it requires only a word or a gesture on the part of any members of one Asafu momentarily carried away by the ecstasies of the dance, which is capable of being interpreted as an affront against another Asafu, to raise the beast in man and to set the whole place ablaze. That aspect of the Asafu would lead any foreigner to conclude, perhaps hastily but not without some justification, that it is an unprofitable institution. And yet the wonder is that even now the organization shows no signs of decay. To understand the institution itself and the sources of its vitality one must endeavour to find out what the organization is and what it stands for: its origin, history, development and scope.

From August 1930 to August 1931 the writer was absent from England on a visit, in his capacity as one of its Secretaries, to the mission areas of the London Missionary Society in Africa and Madagascar. Some seven or eight months of that time were spent in Africa south of the equator, mainly in Bechuanaland, Southern Rhodesia, and Northern Rhodesia, that is to say, in the areas in which the Sechuana, Sindebele, and Chibemba languages are spoken. While the tour was primarily for the purpose of visiting the stations of the London Missionary Society, it afforded opportunities of seeing something of the work of six or seven other societies. This article does not pretend to do anything more than record a few hurried impressions made during a rapid tour upon a mind largely occupied with other matters.

One of the three major divisions of the Luba-speaking people in the Katanga Province in the Southern part of Central Belgian Congo is under the chief Kabongo, in a country well watered, fertile, at an elevation of about 4,000 feet, 8.5° south of the equator.

Game is plentiful, hunted for the most part seasonally, with bow and arrow, after burning the forest to drive out the game.

An agricultural people, without cattle, being cut off from the cattle region by the tsetse-fly belt, they have goats and chickens; though these are not used for food. They are in physique a tall, well-built, vigorous people, alert and intelligent, showing certain distinctions in physiognomy which indicate tribal mixture, although the traditions are unified. Contact with foreigners is occasional, foreign currency is viewed with suspicion, and the unit of exchange for local trade is the woven square of grass-cloth, made in the tribe, barter being still common.

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 family life of an African is primarily based on polygamy and patriarchy. Each family has its own village and the head of the family is elder of the village. As soon as a youth gets married and has children he thinks of establishing his own village in order to obtain sufficient land for cultivation for himself and his children. This is the start of a native village. He calls the village by some name which comes to his fancy. Probably after a few months few people join him at the newly established village; thus the village grows and the founder is called the elder of the village. The next thought of the African after he has acquired a little wealth is to increase the number of his wives to the number that his wealth can provide him. Very often he keeps them in different huts and at different villages which he calls Mtaa, meaning a quarter. He spends days and nights proportionately at each hut, usually three nights at each hut if they are in close proximity or seven days if they are far. He calls it Kugawa ngono, which means the distribution of conjugal rights. Each wife has her own farm which she cultivates with her children, her husband doing the heavy work. The husband has his own farm over which he has authority. Each wife harvests and keeps her own food in her granary in the hut. She has full control over her own food. She feeds and clothes her children from the proceeds of the sale of her crop; and feeds her husband with the same food when he stays with her. The crop from the husband's farm is stored in the senior wife's hut. The senior wife is the first wife in marriage. She keeps all the money of the husband and distributes food to the other wives from the husband's store when the other wives have run short of food.