The African World: a survey of social research, is in my estimation one of the most important and unique attempts in African studies to interrelate the social sciences and the humanities; it has been edited for the African Studies Association by Robert A. Lystad (New York, Praeger, 1965). The contributors, mainly American and British, are well-known scholars. Together they have brought out a volume on methodology that is unparalleled in multi-disciplinary comprehensiveness in African studies. This is a tribute not only to the authors but also to the development of scholarship on Africa, for the past two decades of accomplishments are richly represented here. The distinction of The African World is that it identifies new problems, raises new questions and deals with a wide variety of methodologies. It should be mandatory reading for students of African affairs. And it can be usefully employed by nonAfricanists dealing with multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary aspects of area research.

In nearly all the major historical fields one can see the increasing use historians are making of methods, models, and insights from the social sciences. E. H. Carr's exhortation, that the more history becomes sociology and the more sociology becomes history the better for both, is being taken seriously. Yet there is much more that can be done to bring these fields together. Most historians have used sociological theory only to gain insight, not with great rigour. They have learned their sociology by osmosis, so to speak. They have not gone through the social science literature, but rather have soaked it up second-hand from other interpreters. Consequently their works have not had the precision they might. Concepts have been distorted because of a lack of familiarity with them. African historians, on the whole, have been reluctant to use this rich and suggestive literature. This is probably true because the greatest efforts have been made in finding new sources in this difficult field—oral tradition, linguistic evidence, and so forth. But one is hard pressed to find works by African historians which have employed the theoretical literature of the social sciences.

PERHAPS the most notable feature of the literature of economic development and planning over the past decade has been the discovery—or the belated rediscovery—that capital investment is not the sole source of economic growth; that the quality of the labour force is intimately connected with the (potential) rate of economic growth; that this quality is based on, and can be affected by, the education that members of the labour force received; and that consequently manpower and educational planning is a necessary part of over-all economic planning. Indeed so thoroughly has this new orthodoxy been accepted that some countries now have manpower and educational plans even though they may have no over-all development plan worth speaking of.

The ability of the new nations to think for themselves has surprised their former rulers as much as their capacity for self-government. In many circles it has not only caused surprise but some dismay. It was hoped that the older and wiser rulers would still continue to rule other men's minds if not their countries. Nothing has so disappointed these hopes as the development in the newly independent states of a rich and complex idea of non-alignment, and as a result this idea has been much misunderstood and much resented. Scholars have realised only recently that it is now an integral part of contemporary political thought.

African studies in the Soviet Union have deep roots in the past. The nature of Africa, the African peoples' way of life, their culture, arts, and crafts have long been of special interest to scholars in the Soviet Union. We have never had any mercenary motives, for our country never had colonies in Africa and never aimed at seizing African lands. No Russian soldier has ever been to Africa. Moreover, many Russian progressive intellectuals strongly protested against any form of exploitation and slavery. More than once they spoke in support of Africans and attacked the slave trade and the policy of turning the vast regions of Africa into what Karl Marx called ‘field reserves’ for the hunting of Africans.

The Institute of African Studies of Fourah Bay College (University College of Sierra Leone) and the Committee for African Studies of the University of California, Berkeley, jointly arranged this seminar, whose sub-title was ‘the inter-relationship of area and comparative studies’.

When the first political troubles broke out in Léopoldville in January 1959, and the mobs demanded—for the first time violently and publicly—independence for the Congo, Brussels circles were the first to be surprised. Belgian specialists in colonial affairs did not even know of most of the parties thrust brusquely into the limelight: the Abako of Joseph Kasavubu, the Mouvement national congolais (M.N.C.) of Patrice Lumumba, and many ethno-political groups with their mystifying initials.

The Institute of African Studies at Fourah Bay College is an interdisciplinary research institute with teaching functions. During the next three years research plans will concentrate on two broad areas of African studies: social and economic problems, and culture and history. An equal division of activity between them is important, since there is no Institute of Social and Economic Research in the College. The Institute also provides an introductory lecture course in African studies which is required for all freshmen students under the terms of the revised degree structure of the College. The two-term lecture course deals with ‘West African History and Culture’ during the first term, and ‘Contemporary West Africa: Social and Economic Problems’ during the second.

This group of 13 archaeologists came mostly from universities and research institutes in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Niger, with two from American universities. They met under the auspices of the Institute of African Studies, Fourah Bay College—the first time that Sierra Leone has played host to an archaeological symposium. Each participant had been actively engaged on fieldwork in Africa and presented the results of his research.

When the B.B.C. began its special service in English to Africa over 20 years ago, it was the first broadcasting organisation outside Africa to do so. Today the B.B.C. African Service provides, in addition to the daily programmes in English, daily broadcasts in Swahili to East Africa, in Somali to the Horn of Africa, and in Hausa to West Africa. Audiences in East, Central, and West Africa thus receive a total of over o hours of daily broadcasting, with many repeat broadcasts on relay stations.

The Sudan Research Unit was established as an inter-disciplinary unit in the Faculty of Arts of the University of Khartoum in July 1964. Its objectives were specified broadly as the promotion of research in the human and social sciences concerning the Sudan, assisting research on projects which need co-ordination of different disciplines, training research workers, and sponsoring publication reports on their progress and results. The Sudan Research Unit also maintains contact with other centres of Sudanese studies and with centres of African studies in general. It is not at present giving any Sudanese courses, although it plans to do so in future. The Unit now organises a fortnightly postgraduate seminar on African studies, dealing with subjects of general interest.

The Nigerian Institute of International Affairs is an independent, nonpolitical and non-profit-making organisation which promotes the study of international questions and the understanding of peoples of the world through research, lectures, seminars, and information exchange with institutions of learning in Nigeria, Africa, and the world.

Science, one of the most universal and public of human systems to understand and control nature, has prompted a whole new area of international co-operation between African scientists and their colleagues in other countries. Such co-operation recognises the desires of African scientists to contribute to the advance of knowledge. It also recognises the desire of scientists abroad to take advantage of the rich opportunities for research in the various environments of Africa on a wide variety of problems of theoretical and practical significance.

It was evident early in the 1960's that a number of departments in the University of Leeds were developing independent programmes of study and research on African topics, and that it would be useful to strengthen this work internally and also to avoid unco-ordinated approaches to outside bodies for advice and financial support. Accordingly, after a working party had prepared a factual report on activities in different fields, the Senate established a Standing Committee on African Studies, which in turn set up a small secretarial and documentation Unit, to assist in the co-ordination, development, and documentation of African studies.

This year the World Congress was attended by large delegations from Eastern Europe, and 88 from the Soviet Union alone. Some of these could speak English and French, and could thus exchange experiences and opinions outside the conference rooms. The new interest of Communist countries in the International Sociological Association and its activities was appropriately reflected in the election of a Polish sociologist as President of the next World Congress.

It is supposed that most readers of The Journal of Modern African Studies know something of A.M.S.A.C., its origins, and the programmatic implementation of its purposes; if not, then certainly of its existence. Accordingly, only a summary recapitulation of the Society's history of origin will be made here.

This was the third international seminar held by the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, and was attended by 50 representatives of different organisations active in refugee work and in African political movements. The seminar, supported by the Swedish International Development Authority, was one of the first to be held on this topical subject. Lars-Gunnar Eriksson, Director of the International University Exchange Fund, acted as secretary.

The sixth annual Cambridge Conference met to discuss ‘How to Make Aid More Effective through Co-operation’, with Dr R. E. Robinson again in the chair. Six donor and 34 recipient countries were represented by some 150 participants; background papers were presented by Chief Adebo, Professor Hollis Chenery, Professor Willard Thorp, Professor H. V. Wiseman, Dr J. A. Adler, DrT. Balogh, Dr I. G. Patel, Dr C. Quintana, J. Audibert, David Owen, S. S. Khera, Rashid Ibrahim, J. H. Mensah, Tun Razak, and Roger Swynnerton. Among other conference members were Professor G. M. Meier, Professor Lopes Rodrigues, Professor David Joslin, Professor E. A. Mauck, Dr Hans Singer, Dr Hassan Saab, Dr E. F. Schumacher, Dr S. Lourie, Dr T. Soper, Lady Ursula Hicks, and John Miller.

If this seminar had to be characterised in one or two words, these might be ‘provocative’ and challenging'. Under the auspices of the East African Institute of Social and Cultural Affairs, 45 artists, scholars, and government representatives, from Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, met to survey the cultural scene and discuss some of the problems facing creative artists in all media. Sixteen papers were presented, but the most fruitful results of the seminar came from the intense discussions that followed each, often lasting far beyond the allotted hour.

The latest meeting of the African Studies Association of the U.S.A., with 1,000 participants, emphasised the scope and seriousness that African studies has now attained. The session included two plenaries and 32 panels, plus special film showings and an exhibition of African art, stamps, and books about Africa.