Each century has its dominant themes, which invest with particular significance all the varied events and situations which are chronicled as history. As “Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité” dominated the eighteenth century, and slavery, abolition and emancipation agitated the nineteenth, so the liberation movement or decolonization is one of the outstanding phenomena of the twentieth century. Save for the great issues of communism versus capitalism, and the geopolitical and ethical considerations surrounding nuclear weapons and rocketry, no other issue has so captured men's imaginations and allegiance or wrought such dramatic transformation in the status and condition of peoples. The remarkable effect of this phenomenon can be demonstrated by reference to the continent of Africa alone, although the full significance and effect can be grasped only by appreciating similar transformations in Asia, in the Caribbean, and miscellaneous other places in the world.

For many decades prior to 1957, there had been only two independent states in the whole of Africa. The continent which had been the cradle of human civilization and enriched the cultures of many other distant lands and nations had seen its lights of freedom snuffed out one by one. My own country, in which the oldest surviving evidences of early human society exist, struggled valiantly but vainly to resist the tide of European imperialism which flowed irresistibly over Africa -- indeed over most of the world -- and was at its full flood during the latter half of the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century. Only Ethiopia, with its proud dynasty tracing its lineage backward through two thousands of years, and Liberia -- a symbol of the brave efforts of the emancipation movement -- survived the blandishments and violence of the imperialist forces. Those forces had signified their ascendancy in the Berlin Treaty of 1885, and for another three-quarters of a century the eclipse of freedom in this part of the world justified its description as “the Dark Continent.”

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) with its headquarters at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was established in 1958 under resolution 67aA (XXV) of the Economic and Social Council.

It is one of the four regional commissions of the United Nations, the other three, which were established much earlier, being the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) with headquarters in Geneva, the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) with Bangkok, Thailand, as its headquarters and the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) at Santiago de Chili.

The establishment of these regional commissions was a result of the need and desirability to decentralize United Nations activities, not only on a functional but also on a geographical basis.

The sixth annual meeting of the African Studies Association was held at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in San Francisco. The opening plenary session included three papers concerned with North African affairs. Benjamin Rivlin of Brooklyn College, considering “The Maghreb and Pan-Arabism,” began with a series of questions. Were the aspirations of the Maghreb states for Arab unity incompatible with their African vocation? Ought the Maghreb to be considered as a part of Africa, or was this precluded by the region's commitment to the Arab East? What was the extent of this commitment, and what identity did the Maghreb seek?

As Professor Carter has already told you, it was only a few weeks ago, actually a few days ago, really, that I finally agreed to come to talk to you, so that I'm sure you will not expect an academic discourse from me. I have already tried to tell Professor McKay that I'm not an academician like he is. He asked me if I was going to read a paper before you, and I said, “No, far from it, I will not read a paper; I will read from a paper, but those will be only very cursory notes.” I recognize that I'm speaking to a group of experts on African affairs, and I myself am far from being an expert on African affairs. I'm only an African. I also recognize that as experts you come from various strongholds of learning in this country, and you may be quite prepared to weigh me in the balance. If you do so, I only want to remind you that we're meeting in Washington and that I have some very powerful supporters here because Washington is Harvard territory, and I come from Harvard!

Africa for the last few years has gradually come closer and closer to the center of attraction for people who are interested in the world as a whole. It is because of this process of looking in on Africa that we have increasingly the kind of academic interest in the continent which has led to the rapid development of departments of African affairs and special projects of African studies in your universities and colleges, which has led to the excellent programs such as Dr. Jim Robinson's Operations Crossroads (most useful to us in Africa), which has led to President Kennedy's Peace Corps taking such deep roots so quickly on the African continent, which has led to an increasing amount of space in the journals and news media, of not only this country but of other western countries which deal with Africa. And this looking in on Africa is something which we as Africans of course are delighted about, because for a long time we have felt that we have been the forgotten continent.

This listing of recent African atlases is supplementary to that published in this Bulletin, October 1962. As in that article, atlases have been grouped according to major areas covered, and contents classified. Subject headings are: historical (hist.), physical and terrain (phys.), geology (geol.), climate (dim.), vegetation (veg.), soils, hydrography and irrigation (hydro.), political and administrative (pol.), agriculture and land use (agric.), forestry (for.), minerals and mining (min.), transportation (trans.), communications (commo.), miscellaneous economic (misc. econ.), population (pop.), tribes and races (trib.), languages (lang.), religious (relig.), health and diseases (health), African regions (regional), city and vicinity (city), other African subjects (other sub.), and non-African or extra-regional areas (other areas).

This analysis is based mainly upon atlases examined at the Map Division in the Library of Congress, the American Geographical Society in New York, and the University of California, Los Angeles. This article is part of a research project supported by the African Studies Center at UCLA. The authors welcome comments on errors or omissions.

Le nombre de publications s'intérressant à l'Afrique est de plus en plus grand et il est de plus en plus difficile de couvir l'ensemble de la documentation concernant l'Afrique noire.

Dans cet article, nous ne donnerons qu'un bref aperçu de l'ensemble des publications. Nous n'envisagerons ici que l'Afrique noire à l'exclusion de Madagascar, encore que de nombreuses revues citees concernent egalement la grand ile.

Une remarque préliminaire s'impose, c'est, le domaine des sciences naturelles excepte, l'absence de spécialisation veritable des revues qui concernent soit l'ancien domaine colonial, soit ce que nous appelons maintenant le Tiers Monde.

A cette absence de spécialisation des revues, correspond bien souvent une absence de spécialisation des articles, tel article sur une tribu du Centre-Afrique ou du Nord-Dahomey faisant intervenir simultanément la géographie, l'histoire, l'ethnologie, la religion, le développement économique etc.

During the spring of 1962, the Africa Liaison Committee of the American Council on Education authorized me to secure information on the status of African studies and training in Germany. Toward this end, I visited on two occasions in the late summer and early fall of 1962 a number of German organizations, institutes, and universities. My work in Germany was facilitated by the cooperation of the German Foreign Office, which arranged for my itinerary while in the Bonn area, and by the encouragement of President Heinrich Luebke of the German Federal Republic. In this brief report, I list and describe the work of the most important agencies and organizations which were engaged in 1962 in research on Africa, particularly south of the Sahara, and in the training of Africans. Special consideration will be given to some of the developments and problems in the universities.

The African-American Institute quietly rounds its first decade this year, as vastly transformed within during this eventful period as Africa has been without. The Institute's anniversary marks a significant milestone in the history of contemporary U.S. - African relations. The event is perhaps no less noteworthy for the history of area-oriented private American organizations.

The early work of the Institute addressed itself mainly to assisting African students and visitors in this country, and to informing an American public still largely unaware of Africa's growing ferment. It was in 1956, for instance, that AFRICA REPORT began publication, quickly gaining for itself an influential place as America's leading publication on contemporary African affairs.

Canadian scholars involved in African research have recently formed the Committeé on African Studies in Canada (Le Comite des Etudes Africaines au Canada). The founding meeting was held on November 30 and December 1, 1962, at McGill University. The conference decided to create a permanent bilingual organization. Professor Ronald Cohen of the Sociology Department at McGill University and Professor Donald C. Savage of the Department of History at Loyola College in Montreal were chosen provisional officers of the Committee. It was agreed to meet in six months' time for the formal adoption of a constitution.

The Committee undertook three major tasks. The first was to provide a forum for the exchange of information among Canadian Africanists. The Executive is exploring the possibility of an annual meeting at which members of the Committee and others could contribute papers. It was also decided to distribute the report of the conference as widely as possible and then to publish an annual newsletter. The newsletter will list new appointments in the field of African studies, new courses, major additions to libraries plus any other information of relevance to African research in Canada. It was also agreed that one of the first tasks of the editor of the newsletter would be to publish a list of the holding of African periodicals in Canadian university libraries. All inquiries concerning the newsletter should be directed to Professor Donald Wiedner, Department of History, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta. The newsletter will appear in both English and French.

The United States Joint Publications Research Service, an organization established to service the foreign language needs of the various federal government agencies, has translated a number of items on African affairs. The following list of JPRS translations on Africa south of the Sahara was compiled in the Government Publication Section, Serial Division, Library of Congress. It includes translations of material originally published in various foreign language journals, primarily those of the Soviet Union and Communist China. A large percentage of the articles is devoted to politics and propaganda, setting forth the current policies of the two major Communist nations toward Africa. But there is also a considerable body of material — much of it translated from French publications — on anthropology, ethnology, economic development, labor movements and mining activity.

The Ford Foundation has announced a grant of $90,000 to the African Studies Association for a three-year program to facilitate the acquisition and use of research materials on Africa. The three main projects included in the grant are: 1) compilation of a guide to Africa-related materials in U. S. archives, in cooperation with an international program to locate unpublished materials on Africa; 2) provision of inventories of materials in the United States for study of African art and humanities; and 3) United States participation in an Oxford University project to collect personal papers of British ex-colonial administrators and to collect and photograph administrative archives in Kenya.

The program will be administered by the Archives Committee of the Association. It is anticipated that microfilm copies of certain materials collected by the project at Oxford University will be made available to American scholars under the program. Further details of the program will be announced in a later issue of the Bulletin.

The second meeting of the Canadian Committee on African Studies was held in conjunction with the annual assembly of the Canadian Political Science Association and the Learned Societies at l'Université Laval, Quebec City, during June 1963. There were two programs of research papers -- the first in Canada devoted wholly to Africa -- and a business session. Professor Ronald Cohen of McGill University, who is leaving Canada, resigned as chairman and was replaced by Professor Donald Wiedner (Alberta). Professor Clare Hopen (New Brunswick) was appointed chairman of the program committee for the third meeting of the Committee, which will be held at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in June 1964.

A special committee with broad powers was appointed to investigate the problems and possibilities of establishing an African Research and Study Centre for Canada. A major part of its responsibility will be to recommend a specific location and to negotiate for support by as many universities and institutions as possible within the country. The special committee, composed of Professors Edgar Efrat (British Columbia), Albert Trouwborst (Montreal), Wiedner (Alberta - chairman), and D. M. Young (New Brunswick), envisions encouragement of undergraduate interest in Africa in all universities which will focus upon a coordinated, advanced program in the proposed Centre.

After more than two years of preliminary planning, the First International Congress of Africanists convened at the University of Ghana, Legon, on December 11, 1962. More than 600 scholars and observers attended the sessions, and both the size of the Congress and its organizational problems make an adequate report difficult. This brief summary by the editor of the Bulletin has been compiled with the assistance of other ASA members present in Accra; it attempts to convey a sense of the conference atmosphere as well as record its formal sessions. The proceedings of the Conference will be published by UNESCO.

The conference opened with an address by President Nkrumah in which he stressed the importance of African studies in revitalizing Africa's cultural heritage, and in developing a sense of nationality and Africanness. He considered in detail the development of African studies as a serious academic study, the coming of age of African intellectuals, and the necessity of utilizing a subject such as sociology in planning for an African future, contrasting this with anthropology which he felt had little to offer modern Africa. His speech helped to establish a tone for the conference; in addition to academic matters strictly defined the conference participants found themselves concerned with such questions as the role of African and non-African Africanists, differing viewpoints of English and French speakers, and geographic and disciplinary boundary lines. Perhaps naturally at a first international conference, there were many preliminary problems to sort out before serious scholarly discussion could take place.

The International African Institute is organising a seminar on the Emergence of New Social Classes and the Roles of Elites in Contemporary Africa, to be held from Tuesday, July 14, to Thursday, July 23, 1964, at the University of Ibadan by courtesy of the Vice-Chancellor, Professor K. O. Dike.

This will be the second in a new series of international African seminars arranged with the aid of a grant from the Ford Foundation; it follows the completion of a first series of four seminars in the years 1959-1961. The seminars are devoted to research problems of significance for further social, economic and educational development in Africa. An important aim is to provide opportunities for research workers and other scholars holding posts in various parts of Africa to establish closer contact with each other and with their colleagues overseas, and to exchange views on problems and methods of research.