Full descriptions of the kinship terminology of the Ibo of south-eastern Nigeria are rare. One important reason for this is that, although the basic principles of kinship organization are similar over much of the Ibo culture area, terminology reflects, on the one hand, the extreme degree of dialect variation and, on the other hand, local variation in details of the kinship organization itself. Such variations occur sometimes over a very few miles. Certainly there is no single Ibo kinship terminology; there is only in a broad sense one southern Ibo terminology; while the area which can be said to have one terminology in the narrowest sense of an absolute identity of every term is often very restricted. Although this situation may be confusing to the investigator, it is not necessarily so to the Ibo. Every Ibo is conversant with kinship terms within and often far beyond the radius in which he may seek a wife, just as he is aware of dialectal variations in any other field of terminology. Thus it is that terminology in the literature has tended sometimes to be dialectally eclectic as well as incomplete. The growing body of publications in Ibo, both in the Onitsha and the Central dialects, also illustrates this tendency when kinship relationships are mentioned. It would therefore seem to be worth while to record one specific system of terminology in detail, within the social context of its area.

The purpose of this study is to present a comparative analysis of men's age-group (or age-set) systems in Africa, and to determine: (a) some of the main structural differences between the various age-set systems; and (b) the conditions (or the types of societies) in which the different systems arise and the functions they fulfil. For reasons of space the material is presented summarily, no full description, nor a complete inventory of age sets, being included.

Si la pénétration europdénne dans un monde organisé à l'échelle du village et de la tribu a modifié profondemént les sociétés africaines, on ne peut dire que les Noirs en soient arrivés à un stade d'évolution où ils sauraient mettre seuls leur pays en valeur selon les techniques modernes: ils ont encore besoin d'un encadrement de Blancs pour exploiter le sol ou le sous-sol. Les centres mécanisés de production minière, forestière, agricole, où divers groupes ethniques vivent et travaillent côte à côte, sont appelés à devenir des facteurs d'unification du pays, d'éducation de ses habitants et d'élévation de leur niveau de vie dans la mesure où les entreprises feront bénéficier leurs salariés, et l'Etat ses ressortissants, d'un équipement adéquat dans tous les domaines.

Three is, so far as I know, no published account of the nominal class system of the Gurma group of languages. This group, which belongs, in Delafosse's classification, to the Voltaic family and, according to Westermann and Bryan, to the Gur languages, was discussed by Bertho but he did not give an outline of the nominal class system. He says, ‘Les Kokombas ou Konkombas se disent originaires de la région située à l'Ouest de l'Oti. Il se donnent à eux-mêmes le nom de Kpakpamba. Leur dialecte à préfixes-suffixes tient le milieu entre le gourma et le bassari-tshamba, dialectes qui possèdent également les préfixes-suffixes.’ Nor does Westermann in his account of Akasele give a class system for that language.

The Survey of African Marriage and Family Life, organized by the International J- African Institute in collaboration with the International Missionary Council, is a formidable work of over 450 pages of small print. Though somewhat heavy reading for the general, it will be an invaluable book of reference for those concerned with the subject.

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.