bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Le Noir Africain: Comment Faut-Il le Juger?
Authors: Junod Henri A.
Published: April 2006

N'est-il pas oiseux de poser encore cette question? N'a-t-elle pas été résolue dès longtemps? La grande majorité des colons qui vivent près des indigènes, qui prétendent les connaître, ne déclaret-elle pas avec conviction que le noir est un être inférieur, incapable de s'élever au niveau du blanc, et qu'il doit rester dans la position qui lui convient, dans la position d'un subordonné? Un fait digne de remarque c'est que les nouveaux colons, les Européens qui vont se fixer aux Colonies, acceptent presque invariablement et très rapidement cette théorie. Lorsqu'ils demeuraient encore en Europe, dans la mère-patrie, ils partageaient les idées libérales qu'on y professe généralement à l'égard de la race noire. Au bout de trois mois, six peutêtre, leur conversion est complète. Ils ont adopté l'attitude de leurs confrères. Je parle d'une attitude. C'est en effet avant tout d'une attitude qu'il s'agit. Les deux races, quand elles entrent en contact, sont mises en demeure de déterminer comment elles se comporteront l'une envers l'autre dans les relations ordinaires de la vie! Le blanc prétend être et demeurer seigneur et maître. Pour justifier cette attitude, il prononce un jugement: Le noir est un être inférieur. Mais ce n'est pas là un jugement scientifique basé sur une étude objective de l'Africain. La plupart des colons se donnent en réalité fort peu de peine pour connaître les coutumes et la vie intérieure des indigènes.
Notes on Nature Study and Agricultural Text-Books Used in Africa
Authors: Wrong M. , Brackett D. G.
Published: April 2006

The following notes on text-books on nature study and agriculture used in Africa have been prepared in accordance with the decision of the Executive Council of the Institute to compile surveys of text-books in actual use, with a view to providing material which will help in the preparation of new model books. Reviews of current books for use in Africa appear in various journals, but there seems also to be a need for notes of this kind, which bring together information about books on a particular subject for a number of different areas. The first subject dealt with in this way was Hygiene (Africa, iii. 4, and v. 1). The notes on nature study and agricultural text-books which follow are incomplete and should be regarded as a first step only.
Lamba Literature
Authors: Doke C. M.
Published: April 2006

Regarding the true classification of the numerous Bantu languages we are still very much in the dark. We need much more detailed information upon many areas and collation of work before the various types, languages, and dialects which go to make up the Bantu family can be accurately mapped out. We do know, however, that Bantu languages are associated together broadly into a number of zones or types, which to a great extent are determined by geographical position. The migration and counter-migration of tribes, however, naturally cause much overlapping of these types and the formation of numerous enclaves which have to be taken into account. On the question of nomenclature then, the term ‘type’ will probably be less objectionable than that of ‘zone’, though the actual names of the types will of necessity be regional, such as ‘South-eastern’, ‘North-western’, ‘Central’, etc.
The Study of Native Court Records as a Method of Ethnological Inquiry
Authors: Hall R. De Z.
Published: April 2006

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Wherever native courts have been established and maintain W records of their proceedings, there is available a mass of material concerning native law and custom which, properly regarded, may be of great value to the ethnographer as well as to the administrator. In Tanganyika Territory, from one portion of which the material for the present paper is derived, the making of elaborate records of evidence and judgements is deprecated at the present stage of development, as likely to interfere with the smooth working of the courts. A minimum is required of the names of parties, a brief statement of the subject-matter, and a short judgement signed by the holder of the court, be he chief, headman, or chairman of a council. Under such circumstances, a study of records will show, at the least, the types of social maladjustment which bring people to court, with the relative frequency of different kinds of case: the manner in which different types of case are viewed by the court, whether as offences against society or as affecting only families or individuals: and probably some general indication of the tone of the society. From this type of record there will be an upward range to the most valuable of all for the student, those containing a precis of evidence and a full reasoned judgement.
L'Enfant chez les Sénoufos de la Côte d'Ivoire
Authors: Knops P.
Published: April 2006

La tribu des Sénoufos habite principalement le nord de la Côte d'lvoire, tandis que quelques groupements moins importants resident dans les districts méridionaux du Soudan français, entre Jes fleuves Baoulé et Volta Noire. Son territoire s'étend entre le 8e et le 11e degré de latitude nord. Comme les Sénoufos y vivent à côte d'autres tribus sur ce territoire, il est difficile de déterminer leur nombre exact, les recensements officiels du gouvernement colonial ne faisant généralement aucune distinction entre les tribus différentes. Néanmoins on peut approximativement évaluer les Sénoufos à 800,000 individus, y compris les anciens esclaves, prisonniers de guerres et leurs descendants qui ont accepté les coutumes et les mœurs de leurs maîtres. Cette tribu se subdivise en clans à idiome propre, avec certaines variantes dans les coutumes secondaires. Les clans principaux sont: les Naffaras, les Kiémbaras, les Niarafolos, les Pallakas, les Diébalas, les Tagouanas, les Niellés.
East African Census Reports, 1931
Authors: Melland Frank
Published: April 2006

If the compilation of statistics is reckoned a science, what is the interpretation of them? That is a question not easy to answer, especially when, as in the present case, the interpretation is even more halting than the imperfect statistics themselves. We do not know, and so we cannot properly interpret; but, as the years go by, these Census Reports will supply data, which is knowledge.
The Census of Nigeria, 1931
Authors: Perham Margery
Published: April 2006

The accuracy of a Census return is taken for granted in England; it is only when we turn to Africa that we realize how far it is the outcome of close and efficient administration, and of a people willing and able to do their part. The reader who passes from these fair-seeming tables to study the methods by which they were compiled, will conclude, all the more if he knows his Africa, that neither the will nor even the money are enough to obtain the information necessary for wise government. Africa presents us here with something of a vicious circle; knowledge cannot far outrun good administration; administration is therefore condemned to be empirical. Fortunately, however, the circle is not quite complete, and readers of Africa know that the Institute is doing its part to take advantage of the gap.
A Luba Tribe in Katanga. Customs and Folklore
Authors: Donohugh Agnes C. L. , Berry Priscilla
Published: April 2006

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.
Methodology and Field Research in Africa
Authors: Warner W. Lloyd
Published: April 2006

Until comparatively recently the problem of the use of an objective methodology in field research did not sufficiently exercise the minds of research men in the social sciences. The field man usually gathered what he thought he observed, and generalized his collected facts into preconceived categories. Many of the recorded data we depend upon at the present time are of this quality. To-day the exercise of a technique is too frequently an implicit and uncritical part of the theoretical concepts of the researcher. Obviously a methodology must have an ideological context which motivates it, but it is highly necessary to separate the theoretical concepts from it, if we are to obtain the objectivity of the natural sciences.
Industry and Trade on the Shores of Lake Mweru
Authors: Moore R. J.
Published: April 2006

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From Lake Mweru to Tanganyika is an area which was exposed to European influence at a very early date, when the lakes were the chief entrance to Northern Rhodesia. There was then a comparatively large European community, traders and administrators, settled at Chiengi and Kalungwishi. However, with the coming of the railway, and, later, the development of the copper mines, attention was focused farther South; trade in the Chiengi district became less important, and, recently, the District Commissioner, the last remaining European, was removed owing to Government economies.
The Development of the Military Organization in Swaziland
Authors: Beemer Hilda
Published: April 2006

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Activities. War. The one service which the military organization is no longer allowed to perform is the key to its former importance and present impotence. Inter-tribal warfare has been suppressed, and for purposes of war against the European, the weapons of the libutvo are out of date.
African Sculpture
Authors: von Sydow Eckart
Published: April 2006

At first sight this sub-title may appear somewhat paradoxical, for what could be in greater contrast than the things denoted by the words ‘primitive’ and ‘European’? On the one hand, civilization with its highly developed technical methods in everything practical and theoretical, on the other, the world of simplicity in all practical activities. There—a mighty movement of expansion, irresistibly drawing into its sphere of influence all primitive life, to transform or destroy it, and in either case to make what remains of the primitive peoples and their countries do it service; here—vain resistance against the superior strength of the European, or the doubtful attempt to conform to European ideals. In the face of successful colonization by the cultured races of Europe, the last thing to be expected was any influence on Europe by the primitive peoples. Nevertheless, such an influence certainly exists, and that in the realm of art. After the period of realistic Impressionism in the last decades of the nineteenth century, a strong movement flowed through the art world of Europe, finding its most permanent expression as Futurism in Italy, Cubism in France, and Expressionism in Germany. This movement in Germany, in opposition to Realism, made it one of its principles to observe and express not the external but the interior world, while in France the desire for bold drawing of a decorative character prevailed. Both tendencies culminated in an art movement which felt for the primitive works of art a sympathy due to a sense of relationship: the Cubist appreciated their inherent architectural character, and the Expressionists the mystic emotional content.
The Social Organization of the Kung (!UN) Bushmen of the North-Western Kalahari
Authors: Brownlee Frank
Published: April 2006

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With some previous knowledge of these people I had expected to ascertain on inquiry that they had a set if simple form of government and something more or less regular in their group and tribal organization, whereas I find that there is no cohesion or co-operation between groups or collections of groups, chieftainship hardly exists, and there is little or nothing in the way of a judicial system. What may have been custom seems to have been replaced to a great extent by habit and impulse, the interest of the individual is paramount to the exclusion of the good of the community—in short their mode of life, in spite of what may be said cf co-operative food quest, is the most complete expression of individualism, and any man who in astuteness and cunning, bravery and endurance, or in other similar qualities shows himself to be ahead of his fellows becomes their unacknowledged leader.
An Outline of the Descent System of the Teita, a North-Eastern Bantu Tribe
Authors: Prins A. H. J.
Published: April 2006

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This paper presents a preliminary account of the results of field research among the Teita, a tribal group not previously studied. It aims at giving a survey of the main structural features of the Teita tribal system and of the genealogical groupings within it. I hope to devote a separate article to a study of residential relations as cohesive factors within the tribal structure.
The Bamum Coronation Ceremony as described by King Njoya
Authors: Jeffreys M. D. W.
Published: April 2006

In the French Cameroons, West Africa, live the Bamum whose population is estimated at about 75,000. Their territory is bounded on the north by that of the British Trusteeship territory of the Cameroons. Their western and south-western boundaries are formed by the River Nun, while the Rivers Mape (a tributary of the Mbam) and the Mbam form its eastern boundaries. The tribe consists of a recent ruling group of Tikar who, migrating from Rifum—now called Bamkin—settled among other Tikar whose social and political organization was of the lineage type so common in West Africa. This ruling group, who claim to have come originally from the environs of Bornu, rapidly conquered the surrounding independent, uncentralized, local villages and created the powerful Bamum kingdom which withstood Fulani raids.
Some Problems of Language Classification with Particular Reference to the North-West Bantu Borderland
Authors: Richardson I.
Published: April 2006

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Persons accustomed to dealing with languages of known and proven ancestry may have difficulty in believing that language classification can be problematic. They may be unaware that, whereas many modern languages may be classified according to historical evidence, those without a recorded past must be grouped in the light of present-day similarity or dissimilarity. None of the languages investigated by the western section of the Northern Bantu Border Survey has a history which goes back beyond last century, and many of them had never been previously recorded. Oral tradition, usually so informative on ethnic events, is generally vague, if not absolutely silent, on linguistic matters.
Quelques Notes sur la Phonétique Lendu
Authors: Hertsens L.
Published: April 2006

Le lendu ou ba dha (ba le dha) est parlé à l'extrême nord-est du Congo belge, sur la crête de séparation des bassins du Nil et du Congo et environs. (Environ entre le 1° et le 2° 15′ Lat. N.; entre le 30° et le 31° Long. E.G.) Le lendu se subdivise en deux groupes linguistiques bien distincts. Le groupe nord comprend les dialectes (très rapprochés les uns des autres) pariés entre le 1° 35′ et le 2° 15′ Lat. N.; et du 30° au 31° Long. E.G. Le groupe sud comprend les dialectes parlés au pays de Géty, avec comme limites approximatives: Lat. N. 1° 35′ à Lat. N. 1° et Long. E.G. 30° à Long. E.G. 30° 30′.
Dialogue Verse in Swahili
Authors: Harries Lyndon
Published: April 2006

Dialogue verse in Swahili (mashairi ya kujibizana) has not hitherto been brought to the notice of Western students of the language. Examples were collected by scholars like Taylor and Werner, but were not prepared for publication. Yet this type of verse is one of the few literary exercises still practised by Swahili writers in the vernacular press. Modern Swahili verse fails to retain the variety of theme and prosodic form of the earlier poetry, chiefly because the art of versification based upon Arabian models has never become part of the main stream of Bantu cultural activity in East Africa. All the more reason, it may be held, for identifying, in the earlier verse, the kind of poetry which is still written.
Il Cannibalismo degli Asandè
Authors: Carmignani Renzo
Published: April 2006

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Filiberto Giorgetti ha pubblicato in questa rivista (vol. xxvii, no. 2, April 1957, pp. 178-86) un articolo su ‘II cannibalismo dei Niam-Niam’. Quel che ci riguarda di questo scritto è sopratutto la premessa, in quanto il Giorgetti prende spunto, per il suo assunto, da un nostro libro su Il Cannibalismo degli Asandè (o Niam-Niam), edito a Roma, nella Collana di Studi Etnografici, nel 1954.
Figurines used in the Initiation Ceremonies of the Nguu of Tanganyika Territory
Authors: Cory A.
Published: April 2006

The following pages give some examples of the figurines used in the male initiation ceremonies of the Nguu, a tribe related to the larger and better-known Zigua of Tanganyika Territory. The Nguu, like the Zigua, practise circumcision.

My own collection of figurines used in the initiation ceremonies of this tribe numbers eighty-seven; this is known to be only a small part of the total in use. The figures are made of clay, and vary in size from a few inches up to three feet in height. Beads, the bright red seed of Abrus Drecatorius, and coloured paper are used for decoration. This varies with individual taste and appears to have no symbolic significance.
L'École des Peintres de Poto-Poto
Authors: Lebeuf Jean-Paul
Published: April 2006

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A l'encontre de nombreuses entreprises groupées sous l'appellation d'Artisanat indigène où les modèles sont plus ou moins imposés, où les artistes, éloignés de leur milieu originel, se livrent souvent à des activités réservées à des catégories sociales différentes de celles auxquelles ils appartiennent, où l'influence européenne est déterminante, l'École des Peintres de Poto-Poto constitue une expérience rare. Créée à Brazzaville en 1951 sur l'initiative du peintre Pierre Lods, elle fonctionne depuis cette date avec l'appui du Haut-Commissariat de la République en Afrique Équatoriale Française.
Stratification and Modern Changes in an Ancestral Cult
Authors: White C. M. N.
Published: April 2006

The present notes concern the Lwena, Chokwe, and Luchazi immigrants of the north-west of Northern Rhodesia, commonly referred to as the Balovale tribes. Like other Central African Bantu they are animists, and their ancestors through the ancestral cult form an essential element in the community of the living and the dead. The spirits of the ancestors are of communal significance to the kinship group to which they belong, and they are also of individual significance to living individuals within a kinship group.
Étuis péniens ou Gaines de Chasteté chez les Ba-Pende
Authors: de Sousberghe L.
Published: April 2006

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Le territoire occupé par les Ba-pende forme une bande de largeur variable de la Lutshima au Kasaï entre le 5° et le 6,30° latitude sud, chevauchant le cours d'une série d'affluents du Kasaï dont le Kwilu et la Loange. Comme l'indique la carte ci-jointe, cette bande chevauche même la Lutshima à son confluent avec le Kwilu. Quelques milliers de Ba-pende y forment sur la rive gauche une poussière de petites chefferies.
Yoruba Cooking
Authors: Bascom William
Published: April 2006

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Among the Yoruba, cooking is done on a hearth (aro, adiro) consisting of three stones or lumps of clay on which a pot may be set over a wood fire. Five principal cooking techniques are employed:

se, bǫ, to boil in water, or to steam in leaves;

din, to fry in deep oil;

yan, ta, to toast beside the fire, or in live embers or in a potsherd or dry pot over the fire;

sun, to roast in the fire;

bu, to bake in hot ashes.
Le Problème des Mulâtres
Authors: Hulstaert G.
Published: April 2006

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Même dans les éventualités les plus favorables de l'application préconisée, la présence des mulâtres laissera subsister des difficultés. Si celles-ci demeurent réduites à des cas isolés, on ne voit pas que le gouvernement doive intervenir; car il n'a pas à l'égard des mulâtres des devoirs différents de ceux qui le lient à ses autres administrés et n'a pas à se substituer à la charité privée. Mais la multiplication des mulâtres pouvant conduire à transformer les cas isolés en véritable problème dont l'état doit s'occuper, celui-ci fera bien de prendre, dans les limites de la justice, de l'équité, de l'honnêeteté, du respect de la personne humaine et de ses droits naturels, les mesures aptes à éviter l'éclosion de cette situation défavorable.
Lord Lugard et la Politique Africaine
Authors: Delavignette M. Robert
Published: April 2006

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L'institut International Africain me fait un grand honneur en m'invitant à prendre la parole ici. J'y suis très sensible. Je ne saurais mieux vous remercier qu'en célébrant la mémoire de Lord Lugard.

Il y a quelque trente ans, dans la seconde décade du XXème siècle, un jeune administrateur des colonies françaises qui était désigné pour servir au Territoire du Niger, recevait par là même un rare privilège: celui de traverser la Nigéria britannique, du sud au nord, de Lagos à Kano.
Christian Marriage in Nigeria
Authors: Childs Stanley H.
Published: April 2006

There are perhaps three main reasons why I should not have been the person to write this article. Firstly, because I hold fairly strong opinions, which are by no means shared by all Christian workers in Nigeria, whether African or European. This will not matter provided the reader remembers that others, better and wiser than myself, do hold other opinions, and that what I say must be corrected by them. In no way do I wish to suggest that opinions with which I disagree are illegitimate for the Christian. Secondly, it may be objected that since all my experience has been in a training college, my opinions must be somewhat academic, and out of touch with the problems of the villages and towns. This, no doubt, is largely so, but perhaps because I have been detached from the constant personal problems, which are often so distressing, I may be able to see a little more clearly the essential principles involved, and am not so liable to be distracted by ‘hard cases’. Thirdly, it may be objected that I possess very little anthropological knowledge and understanding, and therefore do not sympathize enough with the African point of view. Again I plead guilty, but in spite of that deficiency there may be some small compensation. During my probation, I was required to study African customs; I was interested and to some extent I have kept up my interest. But against my theory I had always, at the back of my mind, that I was studying the past and not the present. The anthropologist has an invaluable and essential contribution to make to our understanding. He will explain much in the African outlook, and we disregard him at our peril. But he has not the last word. We cannot put the clock back, and the most significant fact in Nigeria, as in other parts of Africa, is that the whole social life is changing.
Democracy and Indirect Rule
Authors: Ashton E. H.
Published: April 2006

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When discussing the political development of the African it is important to ask whether in his social organization there is a sufficiently strong element of popular participation in government to form a basis for modern democratic institutions. Another question is, to what extent the present system of colonial government (which for the sake of convenience, I shall call Indirect Rule, without analysing the various meanings and application of the term) gives free play to such democratic institutions as may already exist. In this article, an attempt is made to answer these two questions, so far as they apply to Basutoland and the Bechuanaland Protectorate. The position in the latter territory has recently been referred to by two writers when dealing with the second question and, as their findings were almost diametrically opposed, a detailed analysis of the position will not be out of place.
Bref Aperçu sur les principaux Cultes syncrétiques de la basse Côte d'Ivoire
Authors: Holas B.
Published: April 2006

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Parmi les mouvements prophétiques qui donnent depuis plusieurs dizaines d'années un caractère spécifique au tableau religieux de la basse côte éburnéenne, le harrisme occupe une place de toute première importance, comptant décidément plus de fidèles que les Eglises missionnaires locales et les cultes autochtones. Déjà, en 1940, d'après les documents officiels, les Subdivisions de Grand Lahou et de Fresco (régions où ce mouvement accusait une tres grande intensité) présentaient les chiffres suivants: 7.75 5 harristes, 6.426 catholiques, 5.454 protestants, 2.202 animistes et 439 musulmans.
A Uganda Secondary School as a Field of Culture Change
Authors: Musgrove F.
Published: April 2006

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I Propose to examine the Uganda secondary boys' boarding-school, in which I teach, as an institution in culture contact; to consider how far its function must be interpreted in terms of its own dynamism and how far in terms of the parent cultures of the Black and White members of the community. The interpretation I make from data gained chiefly within the school is necessarily incomplete, and a complementary study by a field anthropologist, looking at the school from the point of view of outside society, is desirable. But within the limits of the data available to a schoolmaster I here offer a description and an analysis.
An Experiment in Public-opinion Polling among Preliterate People
Authors: Marwick M. G.
Published: April 2006

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Towards the end of 1947 I carried out a public-opinion survey among the Cewa tribe of Fort Jameson district, Northern Rhodesia. Although the survey was a failure, judged by the rigorous standards of public-opinion polling, it nevertheless threw light on some of the problems that arise when public-opinion-polling techniques are adapted for use among preliterate peoples. Research of this kind has a place in assessing general morale, in gauging people's reactions to administrative and development policies, and in supplementing the more intensive, but highly selective, observations of the social anthropologist. Because this is an important but almost untouched field, I am recording the lessons that are to be learned from my experiment.
Marriage Ordinances for Africans
Authors: Parr Martin
Published: April 2006

In England, if a man wishes to get married, he must do so, in the great majority of cases, under the law of England; in Scotland under the law of Scotland. In either country he is at liberty to get married in a registrar's office or in a Christian church; if he decides upon a church, no legal consequences will follow other than those which follow from marriage in a registrar's office. If subsequently either party to the marriage wishes to raise an action arising therefrom they are at liberty to do so in the appropriate court; the court is the same court, and the law to be applied is the same law, whether they have been married in a church or in a registrar's office, whether they are Christians or not. But the court, and the law to be applied therein, differ according to whether the parties are subject to English or to Scots law. The divorce law of England is applicable to both Christians and non-Christians; neither category is prohibited by law from having recourse to it, though a convinced Christian may be so prevented by his faith and conscience. In other words, the matrimonial affairs of an Englishman or a Scotsman are governed by the civil law to which he is subject, whatever his religious beliefs.
Anthropology as a Public Service
Authors: Wilson Godfrey
Published: April 2006

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For many years colonial governments in Africa have made occasional use of the services of trained social anthropologists. Sometimes they have employed them directly as ‘Government Anthropologists’, sometimes they have subsidized students in the employ of scientific bodies for particular pieces of research. But it was left for Sir Hubert Young, as Governor of Northern Rhodesia, to set up in 1937 the first institute for systematic sociological research in colonial Africa.
A Linguistic No-Man's Land
Authors: Bryan Margaret A.
Published: April 2006

This article deals with an area about the size of England, Scotland, and Wales which, even to this day, must be regarded as relatively still unknown to the outside world. Little visited by Europeans, it seems to be the gathering-place of a welter of obscure tribes and sections of tribes, speaking a bewildering diversity of languages. In the last hundred years it has seen various explorers and a few anthropologists, and has lately been administered by government officials; and it is to these people that we must look for information which sometimes includes linguistic data. Only one Christian mission station has been established, and no portion of the Bible has been translated into any language of this area.
Savanna and Forest in Western Nigeria
Authors: Morgan W. B. , Moss R. P.
Published: April 2006

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The savanna-forest boundary in West Africa is one of its most remarkable geographical features. The clarity with which the boundary is defined, whether seen from the air or from ground level, is, throughout most of its length, most striking. Moreover, the most casual observer will discover that many other features, particularly of settlement and of agriculture, reach the limit of their distributions at about the same location. Not the least significant feature, in sharp contrast with many other zones of vegetation change, is that the boundary is not an ecotone, or zone of gradual change in floristic composition and community structure in response to equally gradual changes in habitat character, but ‘a mosaic of communities representative of each region’. The zone of change consists of islands, salients, and enclaves of forest and savanna, sharply separated from one another. Only one community, the ‘transition woodland’, may in any sense be considered an ecotone. Even this, in some instances at least, may be a more or less transient sub-seral community, in view of the fact that forest trees within it are generally young, whereas the savanna trees are old.
Some Comments on Land Tenure in Egba Division, Western Nigeria
Authors: Mabogunje Akin L.
Published: April 2006

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During the sitting of the West African Lands Committee in 1912, the witnesses who were called before the Committee from Egba Division emphatically stated that sales of both farm and town lands had been going on in Egbaland for some considerable time and had become accepted as normal. Equally significant was the vigour with which witnesses from all the other Yoruba sub-tribes countered the suggestion that sale of land existed or was permitted by the traditional land law and custom. H. L. Ward Price in his report also pointed out that sales of land had been going on in Egbaland for at least sixty years before he was writing in the 1930's. From the evidence he collected, it would seem that land sales dated back to between 1860 and 1880.
Rituals of Nyoro Kingship
Authors: Beattie J.H.M.
Published: April 2006

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In this article I present an outline account of the ritual associated with the kingship of the interlacustrine Bantu kingdom of Bunyoro, in western Uganda. At the same time I attempt to analyse this material in terms of the categories both of Nyoro thought and of social anthropology. My information is drawn from the scattered accounts and references in the various writings about Bunyoro, rather than from my own field investigations, which in this department of Nyoro culture were not extensive. My assumption is that an anthropological approach based on some knowledge of Nyoro culture as a whole may make the available data more intelligible and more readily comparable with analogous material from elsewhere than it has been hitherto. This, rather than an exhaustive ethnographical account, is the aim of this article.
Activités Économiques des Femmes Dakaroises
Authors: le Cour Grandmaison Colette
Published: April 2006

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Dakar en 1965 offre l'image d'une grande ville, impression que corroborent les données chiffrées: 500.000 habitants, ensemble industriel qui groupe une centaine d'entreprises et 20.000 salariés, trafic portuaire de 2.000.000 de tonnes, administration ne comptant pas moins de 30.000 fonctionnaires. L'urbanisation y est relativement ancienne puisque la création de la ville date du milieu du siècle dernier; de surcroît une longue tradition de relations et d'échanges ont mis en contact de longue date les populations de la Presqu'île avec l'Europe par l'intermédiaire de Gorée et du trafic négrier et avec les anciens royaumes intérieurs du Sine et du Cayor.
Perspectives on Tropical African Demography
Authors: Pool D. I.
Published: April 2006

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In June 1968, in Calgary, a small meeting of Canadian Africanists discussed two papers related to the fields of demography, sociology, and anthropology. This brought together persons from a number of fields—history, anthropology, sociology, statistics, politics—forcing those of us who were demographers to review our objectives and to rephrase them in such a way that we could communicate them to our associates from other disciplines. I had this discussion still very much in mind when I was preparing a review of a book which, although fundamental to the entire understanding of African demographic trends, may be passed over as ‘too technical’ by non-demographers. And this is merely one book to appear in 1968, a fruitful year which has seen a number of major publications in African demography. Yet it seemed possible that our enthusiasm for progress had not been shared by our colleagues, either, as had appeared the case in Calgary, because our aims were not readily apparent to other Africanists, or because little is known among these others of advances in our field. Thus, in this review-article I intend to go beyond a discussion of the books themselves, and to outline some of the problems demographers are studying, our progress to date, and some of our research strategies. In a sense this may appear to be a reiteration of the excellent survey of the field by Lorimer, Brass, and van de Walle in Lystads encyclopaedic volume,The African World. However, such has been the development of demographic studies in the last few years that some sections of their essay are now out of date.
African Chiefs Today: The Lugard Memorial Lecture for 1958
Authors: Mair L. P.
Published: April 2006

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It is a familiar fact that European rule in Africa has set in motion a radical change in African society. In some fields this has not been the result of any deliberate intention. In that of economic development, interest has generally been centred in the immediate problems of production, and the effects upon African institutions of the solutions that have been found for these have been neither planned nor even foreseen. But in the field of politics, European governments have been obliged to define their intentions towards the authorities whom they found already in existence, and here, in theory, there was a clear-cut choice from the start. Either the holders of power in the indigenous societies should be recognized, and utilized as part of an administrative structure of larger scale, or they should be disregarded–their authority be perhaps deliberately destroyed–and replaced by what M. Albert Sarraut once called ‘new and rectilinear architectures’. The British chose the first course, and this policy has now become inseparably associated with the name of Lugard. I believe that the forthcoming work by Miss Margery Perham will show that what has been called ‘Lugardism’ in the derogatory sense–I mean the insistence on maintaining traditional authority almost for its own sake–was not Lugard's own philosophy, but that of the successors who were in command during the period when he was away from Nigeria.
Land Reform among the Mbeere of Central Kenya
Authors: Brokensha David , Glazier Jack
Published: April 2006

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The Mbeere live in the area east of Mount Kenya and south-west of the Tana River. Numbering just under 50,000 they are ethnographically much less well known than their related neighbours the Kikuyu, Embu, Meru, and Kamba. In this paper we first outline the social organization, then the system of land rights, continuing to describe the government's programme of land reform, concluding by assessing the probable consequences of changes in land tenure.
Ethnicity and Fertility: Implications for Population Programs in Africa
Authors: Clignet Remi , Sween Joyce A.
Published: April 2006

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Whether public policies concerning family planning involve legislative or educational programs, their impact depends upon an analysis of patterns of family formation. But to merely identify the direction and the magnitude of overall aggregate trends in this regard is insufficient. While programs of family planning aim at satisfying the requirements of a national and hence uniform policy, their success depends upon a problematic lack of variability in the relevant behaviours across the various social and ethnic groups located within a particular nation. Accordingly the thrust of the present paper is not only to identify the determinants of child-bearing activities, but also to assess the variability of these determinants along ethnic lines.
Historical Inferences from the Linguistic Geography of the Nigerian Middle Belt
Authors: Ballard J. A.
Published: April 2006

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This paper examines the distribution of languages in the Nigerian Middle Belt, draws certain historical inferences from the patterns of distribution, and assesses non-linguistic evidence tending to confirm or refute these inferences. The Middle Belt is taken as an area roughly inscribed by the Hausa-speaking area to the north, and the Yoruba, Edo, and Ibo-speaking areas to the south. Geographically it is an area which has a certain climatic coherence, falling between the sahel to the north and the forest to the south (Pullan, 1962; Buchanan, 1953). It is also an area of much more strikingly broken terrain than those to the north or south, with not only the complex relief of the Jos Plateau, but also many ranges of hills, particularly along its northern frontier and in its eastern half. This terrain appears to have militated against the establishment of large coherent political systems in the past and it is only in the plains of the Niger and Benue valleys that there is a record of extensive state systems in recent history, those of the Nupe and Jukun. On the other hand, archaeological evidence indicates that the Nok culture extended over a very large area of the Middle Belt, not by any means confined to the plains (Fagg, 1959, 1969), and there is evidence of a certain measure of cultural unity today (Murdock, 1959).
Small Urban Centres: Vanguards of Exploitation. Two Cases from Sudan
Authors: Ahmed Abdel Ghaffar M. , Rahman Mustafa Abdel
Published: April 2006

Introduction: Against Dualism

‘As theories of development, dualist interpretations have difficulty in accounting for the origin and the dynamic of a system which is, on the surface, dichotomous’. Our acceptance of a dividing line between ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ sectorsin African societies and the sectoral approach to issues of development allows for the continuing dominance of dualist assumptions in all fields.With the introduction of a differentiation in scale between ‘urban centres’, ‘small urban centres’ and rural areas it appears that we are in a position where the introduction of the idea of continuity between rural and urban sectors may be accepted:

Societies in transition are often a source of controversy, as they characteristically abound in ambiguities of both form and content. Historically they represent a dramatic juxtaposition of continuity and change.
The Problem of Drinking Water in Small Agglomerations and its Implications for Regional Development in Siliana, Tunisia
Authors: Trabelsi Mohsen
Published: April 2006

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Urban planning cannot be conceived in isolation: rural development is also essential for solving urban problems (Trabelsi 1978). Nor can rural development be achieved without an accompanying urban development policy and both must be integrated into a framework of regional development planning, itself part of the national social development plan (Trabelsi 1979). The modern conception is of a region evolving in an organised space around at least a second order town as a pole of development.
Le status des forgerons et ses justifications symboliques: une hypothèse cognitive
Authors: Boyer Pascal
Published: April 2006

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On sait que beaucoup de sociétés africaines associent une position sociale originate à la pratique d'un art quelconque: musiciens ici, devins ou guérisseurs ailleurs, sont placés hors du commun. Dans ce domaine des rapports entre occupations et status le sort de la métallurgie est remarquable par l'élaboration symbolique qui partout s'y attache et par la place réservée à ceux qui travaillent le fer: parias ou aristocrates, les forgerons sont des êtres à part. Ces phénomenès attestés partout sur le continent prennent des formes très variables, et de nombreux auteurs se sont attachés à concilier ces deux aspects: l'extrême généralité de l'existence d'un symbolisme du fer et d'un status spécial des forgerons, d'une part, et l'extrême variété des configurations observées, d'autre part.
The ideology of ‘communal’ land tenure in Zimbabwe: Mythogenesis enacted?
Authors: Cheater Angela
Published: April 2006

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Land is widely regarded as central to the politics of both colonial and postcolonial Zimbabwe. Land was, ostensibly, the core issue over which the liberation struggle was waged. On the successful redistribution of land, in Shamuyarira's (1984: 8) view, will depend ‘the future reputation and credibility of the new socio-economic and political order among the Zimbabwean masses’. Land, then, is ‘vital’ (ibid.) to both leaders and led in Zimbabwe.
Sakanab: greetings and information among the Northern Beja
Authors: Morton John
Published: April 2006

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This article is an ethnographic account of the economic importance of information in a particular society, that of the Northern Beja of Red Sea Province, Sudan, and of one social institution, the greetings ritual, vital in the transmission of information. As such it is intended as a contribution to the anthropology of information and to economic anthropology, but also to the study of greetings rituals and ceremonies. It suggests that it may in many cases be useful to approach the study of greetings from the perspective of their connection with information.
Against many odds: the dilemmas of women's self-help groups in Mbeere, Kenya
Authors: Mwaniki Nyaga
Published: April 2006

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One of the major, and perhaps the most embarrassing, problems still facing African populations today is hunger. It is described by Lofchie and Commins (1982: 1) as ‘the most immediate, visible, and compelling symptom of a continent-wide agricultural breakdown in tropical Africa,’ thereby making ‘sub-Sahara Africa … the only region in the world where food production per capita has declined during the past two decades.’ This condition has been blamed on many factors, the most frequently mentioned being climate, environmental degradation, outmoded and inefficient traditional agricultural methods, customary land tenure systems which inhibit innovation by individual farmers, lack of incentives to farmers to increase food outputs, bad agricultural policies, high population growth rates and agrarian dualism. A growing body of literature focusing on women's contributions in the development process has revealed another very crucial, but often ignored, reason why hunger is still prevalent in Africa: the disregard of the role of women, who are the main food producers in Africa, in efforts to promote agricultural development (Baumann, 1928; Boserup, 1970; Bryson, 1981; Guyer, 1980; Robertson, 1983). A recent book by Odero-Ogwel (1983), which discusses the food problems in Africa, pays no attention to the fact that a major contributory factor to the food crisis in Africa is the disadvantaged position of women. This exemplifies the failure, even by African intellectuals, to realise the crucial role women can play in increasing food supplies if only certain constraints are removed. Claire Robertson (1983) warns that, unless women are fully included in the development process, the food problem in Africa will deteriorate even further.
Lugbara illness beliefs and social change
Authors: Barnes-Dean Virginia Lee
Published: April 2006

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A considerable part of the anthropological literature on Africa is devoted to the description of African ideas about the causes of misfortune and illness and the steps which should be taken to remedy them. In the early days of African ethnography information on this aspect of culture was usually presented as part of a general ethnography or included in a more specific description of an African cosmological system. As the general ethnographic literature on Africa accumulated, and as the need for more focused information for application in health and development work arose, studies which investigated the more narrow domain of African therapeutics became more common. As Janzen has observed (1978: 121), the study of African therapeutic systems has now moved into a phase of exemplary field studies which gather data in a number of different areas: illness taxonomies, curative techniques, healing roles, health-care decision-making resource allocations, course of illnesses through distinct episodes, and the relationship between bioecological and sociocultural factors. No one would deny that an ideal study would gather data in all these areas. The study of Lugbara medicine reported on in this paper, however, was carried out under difficult conditions and was abruptly halted after one year because of the worsening political situation. No epidemiological or biomedical data were collected.