Namibia, formerly South-West Africa, continues from the point of view ofinternational law to represent the symbol of violated right. Even though the United Nations has been seized of the matter for many years and the International Court of Justice has been given the opportunity to adjudicate, the problem appears to be as intractable as ever. South Africa has established her administrative and military presence and means to defend what she considers to be her right with all the forces at her command. The country does not lack friends whose direct or indirect support it counts upon. Yet the fundamental issue remains: Are the people of Namibia entitled to self-determination and how may they exercise that right? It will be necessary to refer back to the history of Namibia from the time of the mandate.

Numerous writers—ethnologists, linguists, educators, and lately literary critics and African creative writers themselves—have called attention to the problems of communication either from African to European or vice versa. The problems range from purely linguistic inequivalence in literal translations to the inequivalence between words and their referents in the cultures described, and further to the manifold difficulties of educators or writers wishing to develop successful communication between themselves and their audiences.

We cannot do better than Marcello Cecco's (1984: 1) concise definition of an international gold standard: it exists ‘when gold is the effective numeraire in most countries, and/or when the other means of payment used as monetary numeraire in those countries are readily redeemable in gold at their bearers' request’. Such a standard existed from the mid-1890s to 1914, even though Britain went on the gold standard much earlier than that, in 1816, and Germany a little over a half century later, in 1871. The Latin Union in Europe (France, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy) did not join effectively until 1900 (Mertens 1994). Many claims were, and are still made for the system: that it facilitated international trade by providing a uniform standard of value; and as an automatic adjustment system, it freed markets from the (nationalistic) interference of public authorities while it created price equalisation in traded goods and ensured, over a protracted period, price stability.

The ‘Gold Standard’ in the title of this talk refers to the ‘academic gold standard’ invoked by Lord Ashby (1964; see also Austin 1980), one time Master of Clare College, Cambridge, a British educationist who was deeply involved with the development of universities in the later years of colonial rule in British West Africa. Although the University of the Witwatersrand and the city of Johannesburg owe a great deal to the gold industry, my talk is not about money or the metal's place in it. It is about the metaphorical ‘academic gold standard’.

Constitutions in Africa are often considered fragile. Mali is an example of both constitutional crisis and constitutional durability. While Mali was upheld as a democratic model, the 2012 military coup might lead one to argue that Mali's recent history reflects constitutional weakness. However, the swift reinstatement of the constitution, popular commitment to its preservation, and attempts to pursue the post-coup transition in a constitutional manner all illustrate the domestic and international legitimacy of Mali's 1992 constitution. This article analyses the process of the proposed Malian constitutional referendum that, though constitutional in itself, contributed to the March 2012 overthrow of President Touré. It argues that the history of participatory constitutionalism in Mali contributed to the movement against the referendum. Constitutional reform is a necessity for an enduring constitution and this article sheds light on constitutional reform in states with weak legislatures, and illustrates the process of reform and the political divide that surrounded it in Mali. It provides a unique analysis of the crisis in Mali while at the same time making a contribution to our understanding of constitutionalism and constitutional reform in Africa.