In this article I shall confine my remarks almost exclusively to that portion of South Africa south of the Zambezi and the Kunene rivers, a territory comprising the Union of South Africa, South-West Africa, Bechwanaland, Southern Rhodesia, and the southern portion of Portuguese East Africa. In this large area, quite apart from the European languages used, we have representatives of three distinct linguistic types. Two of these types, the Bushman and the Hottentot, will not delay us any length of time; but the third, the Bantu, presents many difficulties at this stage of the opening up of Africa to European civilization, difficulties which the missionary societies, the European administrations, and the Natives themselves are beginning to face, difficulties which are bound up inextricably with questions of economics, sentiment, and growing racial consciousness. The work of the linguist in this connexion is not eased by the fact that this area is not under one administration, and I fear that some of the movements towards a unification and centralization of some of the languages will be hampered for this reason.