Race relations have become one of the most sensitive of international issues. They have been transformed from the domestic concern of single countries to a matter of world concern. The story of this transformation is almost too well-known for comment. It grew from a massive revulsion against fascist racialism, the decline of white dominance, the emergence of new states from colonial empires, and the growing dependence of developed countries on the raw materials of the less developed. The United Nations Organisation has, in addition, given the non-white majority a forum from which they can condemn countries maintaining racial stratification. It is clear, therefore, that a breakdown in racial prejudice would not only ease some world tensions, but is a desirable end in itself.

This article examines the attempt of Kenya and Tanzania to deal with the universal problem of how to reconcile inequalities in the distribution of rewards with a concern for equality. It argues that in both countries the mainspring of educational policy is a desire to alleviate the potentially disruptive consequences of inequality, although for different purposes and by different means. The broad purpose of the article is to compare contrasting educational practice in Kenya and Tanzania from this perspective as a way of illuminating two distinctive modes of development. More specifically, it attempts to identify some of the contradictions and dilemmas inherent in their particular use of education. Finally, it uses this analysis to make a speculative assessment of how each is faring in the task of building a relatively integrated polity.

The concern with the impact of industrial property legislation and practices on the developing countries, at both the national and international levels, has so far been confined almost entirely to patents and patent-related transactions. This focus on the protection of knowledge concerning production processes reflects, on the one hand, a preoccupation with the terms and conditions which owners of technology may be able to obtain for its sale or lease, when their proprietary position is reinforced by legal instruments; and on the other hand, a recognition that unless the developing countries can themselves control the generation of a significant proportion of the technology they employ, it is unlikely either that appropriate technology will be produced, or that good use will be made of what is already available and relevant.

In a speech to the South African Senate on 23 October Prime Minister Vorster declared that the situation in Southern Africa had reached a point at which a choice had to be made between peaceful negotiation on the one hand, or escalating strife on the other. He offered Africa ‘the way of peace’. Within three days President Kaunda responded favourably. In a graduation day speech at the University of Zambia, he described Vorster's overture as ‘the voice of reason for which Africa and the world have been waiting for many years’. Without hesitation policy-makers and the press in South Africa fastened upon the term détente, hoisted it from another context, and applied it to describe both the atmosphere and substance of ensuing interstate relations in Southern Africa.

The phenomenon of increasing centralisation of governmental authority is often discussed in the development literature, yet there has been little specific, quantitative research in this area. In this short article I hope to make an analysis of the centralisation phenomenon in Nigeria's development, based on such research, using the evolution of the federal fiscal arrangements as a case-study.

Violence has been a recurring feature of political life in provincial Sierra Leone for a long time. In 1898, two years after the establishment of colonial rule, a mass rebellion, commonly known as the Hut Tax War, and directed against British political authority, took place over a large part of the Protectorate. Thereafter, the violence which periodically disrupted the chiefdoms of the hinterland, during both the colonial and post-colonial periods, resulted predominantly from conflicts amongst the indigenous peoples themselves. This article is concerned with the various disturbances that flared up in the Sierra Leone chiefdoms since the late 1940s.

Nigeria has for long had an open economy exporting mainly primary commodities to industrial countries and importing their manufactured products. Exports are the main source of the foreign exchange needed to purchase the machinery and capital equipment that are indispensable for the growth of the economy, while the bulk of government revenue is derived from the taxation of imports and exports. There is little doubt that the dynamism and growth of the Nigerian economy will continue to depend largely on international trade – hence the vigorous pursuit of policies aimed at expanding traditional and opening-up new trade links. In this article, we shall look closely at the changing relationship with Japan, a country whose survival depends on international trade as much as Nigeria.

The tribe of economists to which I belong regard concepts as more or less ‘kosher’, but not description. Economics, most of them would probably argue, is concerned with analysis and prediction; description is for lesser breeds. For example, students are taught the intricacies of analysing the supply of money, but it is rarely suggested to them that they might reasonably be expected to know how money actually comes into existence, which would involve knowing and being able to describe what a bank is, what it does and how. Confronted with such searching questions, they are therefore generally floored – and last year's students are, of course, this year's professional economists!

There are ideological, political, and economic incentives for nationalising foreign-based companies which operate in the export sectors of African economies. The basis of this appeal is the expectation that significant positive net benefits will arise from partial or complete acquisition of company assets. The expected gross benefits which serve as the basis for calculation are subject to risk, because national owners often become decision-takers within global markets over which they are constrained from exerting control.

This brief note will argue the case for certain lines of investigation, both empirical and theoretical, in African cities. It is increasingly recognised that the constellation of issues revolving around urbanisation and its effects will be a major factor in development for the rest of the century: witness the convocation of the Habitat Conference in Vancouver, June 1976, and the World Bank's new Urban Policy Task Force. Yet, as always, comprehension trails behind actual developments.

Criticism of African creative works by both African and western scholars has become a major intellectual activity. Many articles have been published on African writers and their works, and, in recent years, several journals have appeared which are devoted exclusively to the discussion of African literature. This surge of interest is further reflected in the fact that a number of book-length studies have been produced, and African writers such as Wole Soyinka (a dramatist) and Yambo Ouologuem (a novelist) have received international accolades. In short, African literature is now recognised as a vital element in the corpus of world literature.

The article by Victor Gerdes on ‘Precursors of Modern Social Security in Indigenous African Institutions’ in this Journal, Vol. XIII, No. 2, June 1975, is timely in raising the question of the interrelationship between ‘modern’ social security schemes, implanted comparatively recently in most African countries, and their traditional precursors. The description of a range of indigenous Ethiopian institutions which, to some extent at least, perform the functions of social security schemes, is a valuable addition to the published material in this field.

The People's Republic of Mozambique is a very new member of the international community of independent and sovereign states, having gained its independence… on 25 June 1975. We have much to learn, which is what we hope to do at this Conference, and have many new challenges to face. But at the same time we have the benefit of ten years of armed liberation struggle, and the wide experience of organising and administering vast areas of our country which were gradually freed from Portuguese colonial domination.

In his article on ‘Political and Economic Origins of African Hunger’ in this Journal, Vol. XIII, No. 4, December 1975, Michael Lofchie argues persuasively in favour of considering economic and political processes, rather than natural phenomena, as the major determinants of famine in Africa. He correctly demonstrates that the majority of analysts, be they academics or governmentai and relief officials, continue to view the question of famine in a limited and unsatisfactory manner.

In 1964, in response to a growing number of strikes, the recently-formed independent Government of Kenya established a new method of resolving industrial conflict. The purpose of this short article is to describe the operation and effects of the Kenyan Industrial Court, and to draw attention to some features that have affected its efficient operation.

As one of the 25 countries listed as ‘least developed’ by the United Nations, considerable thought is at present being given in many quarters to various aspects of development in Lesotho. Agricultural schemes involving millions of dollars have been initiated, and experts in different disciplines are employed by the Government to help solve some of the seemingly intractable problems of this small country surrounded by the Republic of South Africa.

It is the hypothesis of this article if the Provisional Military Administrative Committee, which took power in Ethiopia on 12 September 1974, is really intent on uprooting the feudal social system that has flourished for so long, then a revolution by violent means is necessary. As Frantz Fanon says, ‘if the last shall be first, this will only come to pass after a murderous and decisive struggle between the two protagonists’.

The major problem of agriculture in Africa has been the low productivity of the traditional sector. The general thrust of development strategies to this point has been towards providing opportunities to small-holders and ‘encouraging agricultural development within existing peasant production units’. This essentially laissez-faire approach has emphasised the need to improve producer incentives and the necessary infrastructure, as well as to provide new crop varieties and modern agricultural inputs in general. Social scientists, in turn, have studied the general question of how farmers respond to changes in incentives and, especially, to the availability of technological innovations.

In modern African political literature there is a recurrent reference to the dangers of ‘balkanisation’. Already during the 1920s the Gold Coast nationalist Kobina Sekyi compared Africa with the Balkans, and warned not to follow the ways of ‘balkanisation’ Later Kwame Nkrumah, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Sékou Touré, and other anti-colonial leaders continued to employ the term which rapidly became a basic part of the phraseology of modern African nationalism. I shall attempt to analyse the concept, and to show its use, definition, ambivalence, and implications.

Barely six years ago, the owners of motor vehicles were besought to ‘put a tiger in your tank’. Now the advertising slogan urges them: ‘Don't be fuelish’. Where the union of energy and mobility was recently considered as the source of bliss and power, it is henceforth regarded as pure waste – foolish, fuelish waste. Is this an interruption of an ongoing trend, or the beginning of a less wasteful lifestyle?