Five years ago I happened to be passing through the Wurkun district of the Northern Provinces of Nigeria and used the opportunity to make some ethnographical inquiries. The people of the district, who are located on the north bank of the Benue River opposite Lau, had been described by Mrs. Temple (in her Notes on the Tribes of the Northern Provinces of Nigeria, compiled from official records) under the generic term of ‘Wurkum’, as though they constituted a homogeneous tribal unit. But from my inquiries it appeared that the term Wurkun (not Wurkum) merely meant ‘the people of the hills’, and included seven distinct groups of diverse origin, some speaking Bantu languages and some Sudanic. Notes and vocabularies were obtained for each group, but in this paper a short description of one of the groups only, viz. the (Ba-) Kulũ, can be given.

Die Geburtsstunden der systematischen Ethnologie standen unter einem Unstern. Derjenige, der das Verdienst hatte, diese Wissen-schaft in Deutschland hoffähig gemacht zu haben, Adolf Bastian, verstand es selbst nicht, aus seinen Gedanken praktische Folgerungen zu ziehen und das Lehrgebäude über Anregungen hinaus aufzubauen. Zudem kam Bastian ganz aus der Psychologie und hatte kaum Verständnis für historische Zusammenhänge. Er hat zwar das Verdienst, eingeschlichene individual-psychologische Erwägungen aus der Ethnologie verbannt zu haben, verfiel aber, im Drange, seine Lehre von den Völker- und Elementargedanken zu fundieren, in eine hemmungslose und fast krankhafte Materialsammlung, die leider auf jede wirklich historische Wertung der Einzeltatsachen verzichtete. Die besonders in Andrees ethnographischen Parallelen und Vergleichen auftretende, bei dem damaligen Materialmangel noch begreifliche Art der bequemen Ausflucht auf die alien Völkern gemeinsamen Elementargedanken, die höchstens durch die geographischen Provinzen ihre besonderen Ausprägungen als Völkergedanken erhielten, war lange Zeit die all-gemein üibliche ethnologische Betrachtungsweise. Auffallende Über-einstimmungen von Kulturgütern erklärte man, sobald sie in weit getrennten Kulturgebieten vorkamen, einfach mit den gleichen Elementargedanken der Menschheit, bestenfalls als Konvergenzerscheinungen. So lag die wiklich kulturgeschichtliche Erforschung des völkerkundlichen Materials sowohl in Afrika als auch in den anderen Erdteilen noch sehr im Argen.

In Africa to-day the need for adequate investigation of nutritional problems is evident. As European civilization advances, the task of maintaining or providing for large sections of the native population diets which shall be adequate in quality as well as in quantity becomes more and more definite. In the practical sphere the problem is of a different complexion according to whether the community considered is an artificially induced concentration of people, as in schools, hospitals, prisons, and labour compounds, or is a comparatively spontaneous and free-moving aggregation in its own territory. A tribe which has been shifted back into a native reserve is in a kind of intermediate category. The index is, of course, the respective amount of initiative and control exercised by the European authority and by the native. What follows is a discussion of the dietetic situation in tribal conditions only. The maintenance of a balanced diet in a hospital or a labour compound is a comparatively simple matter if due scientific care is exercised; it is much more difficult to regulate the food-situation of a free-living native tribe. The two sets of problems are, however, not entirely unconnected, since with an increasing knowledge of the constitution of native foodstuffs, and experiment by the trial and error method, it has been found that quite a number of these are suitable for incorporation into a standard diet and can replace European foodstuffs. On the other hand, the advent of a money economy into the life of many tribes has made possible the purchase of imported foodstuffs to correct a deficiency in their diet if they so desire—though too often it has the opposite effect of inducing the abandonment of useful native elements. Here then the problem takes on an economic complexion, and relative costs of importation, local purchase, or home production have to be considered, with inevitable complications for the final decision.

The idea of founding the Institute crystallized at a meeting of missionaries, and others, which was held at High Leigh in September 1924. Dissatisfaction with the prevailing order of things occupied the minds of all who were faced with the burning problems in Africa at that time. They were not content to allow a negative policy of drift to continue. They realized that they were confronted with one of the major problems of our age. They saw the need for an application of scientific method to a solution of the questions arising generally from the contact of Western civilization with African culture and particularly from the attempt to educate Africans on modern lines. The rapid opening of Africa to all the influences of Europeanism, they were convinced, called for an advance in the education of the peoples of Africa through the medium of their own forms of thought. The linguistic question was seen to lie at the root of the problem. The more systematic study of African languages, of their relative importance and uses, of their orthography, was deemed to be urgently necessary if the progress of education was not to be retarded, or rendered impossible, through the prevailing confusion and lack of co-operation between governments, missionary societies, and scientific experts. Such were the ideas in the minds of those who took part in that meeting nine years ago and embodied in a memorandum which they drew up. These problems had already been raised in New York after the return of Dr. Jesse Jones and Dr. Aggrey from West Africa before the departure of the Phelps Stokes Education Commission to East Africa. It seemed to us at High Leigh that the time was ripe for the setting up of an organization to carry out these ideas. We thought then modestly of ‘A Bureau of African Languages and Literature’. Probably not one of us had a prevision of whereunto the thing would grow.

Il est un domaine de l'anthropologie qui est encore fort peu exploré et par suite fort mal connu, c'est celui des ‘possessions’. Littré, après avoir donné tous les divers sens de ‘possession’, arrive, tout à la fin de sa liste, à ce onzième sens: ‘Terme de liturgie. État d'une personne qui est actuellement sous le pouvoir du diable, et dans le corps de laquelle il habite réellement.’ L'étude psychologique des anormaux nous a amenés à élargir considérablement la signification de ce terme. Nous savons qu'il existe tout un ensemble de faits surprenants, dans la vie des malades mentaux paranoiaques, où l'esprit se trouve, ou croit se trouver, sous l'influence d'un autre esprit. A la suite d'une rupture d'équilibre de l'état mental, sous l'influence d'émotions incontrôlables, l'individu perd conscience de lui-même et se met à parler comme un autre individu, parfois dans des langues qu'il paraissait méconnaître entièrement à l'état normal. Que ces manifestations étranges soient accompagnées d'états épileptiformes, en relation avec ce que les médecins appelent le ‘petit mal’ ou non, l'individu apparaît comme ‘possédé’, il est virtuellement sous l'empire d'un autre esprit. L'explication scientifique de ces cas de dédoublement partiel ou entier de la personnalité humaine est encore relativement peu avancée, et mon but ici n'est pas d'en apporter une nouvelle, mais de décrire purement et simplement le phénomène des possessions, tel qu'il se présente parmi les indigènes bantous, et en particulier parmi les Thonga et les VaNdau. C'est un sujet si intéressant pour la psychologie et la psychiâtrie, que les conséquences des faits décrits ici peuvent être utiles aux anthropologues, aux psychologues et aux médecins.

It is only of late years that the Sudan Government has laid particular stress on the language side of Southern administration. Hitherto all official intercourse with the natives had been through the medium of Arabic, the official language of the North. It became apparent after a while that the form of Arabic spoken in the Southern provinces was so debased as to be hardly practical. Unlike the Northerners, whose religion and culture is Islamic and who speak Arabic in the home side by side with the local dialects, the Southern tribes are pagan, and for the most part strongly opposed to outside culture, whether Islamic or otherwise, while only those who come into contact with governing officials or Northern traders can speak the jargon which passes for Arabic in the South.

The special branch of social anthropology which deals with peoples whose culture is undergoing rapid change as the result of contact with more highly developed societies is of interest from a number of different points of view. On the one hand there is the purely theoretic approach, which is concerned to discover rules governing this process—to find reasons for the assimilation of some elements of the alien culture and the rejection of others, or explanations of the fact that the dominant civilization has sometimes succeeded in imposing changes in social organization which analysis shows to be patently disadvantageous, while in other directions it may be powerless; perhaps to trace the basic human motives which come sharply into prominence when liberated by the breakdown of traditional standards of conduct and values. On the other hand this study has a severely and urgently practical importance. A recent American writer has suggested that in British colonies these problems are only considered relevant in their bearing on the maintenance of the labour supply. Such a view would appear to conflict with the fact that, as far as Africa is concerned, it is mainly in colonies governed under the system of Indirect Rule, where the economic policy is to encourage independent native production, that the study of social anthropology receives official encouragement. Actually it is being more and more clearly recognized by administrators directly concerned in moulding the development of the African peoples that this ‘sacred trust’ cannot be executed until the bases of a sound development are laid down; until it is known in each separate case how far the native social organization has been already rendered obsolete by changed conditions, how far it is capable of readjustment, what are the existing foundations on which the new institutions that the new needs require can be securely built. Experience is constantly bringing home to the man on the spot the need for some more practical criterion of policy than that inherent desirability of everything ‘civilized’, which the facts so plainly contradict.

The analysis of bride-wealth among the Wahehe by Dr. Gordon Brown is of particular interest to us, as we are studying the life of a tribe akin to them, namely the Wabena of the Ulanga Valley, Tanganyika Territory. A survey of some aspects of the custom amongst the latter people will not, perhaps, be out of place, especially as their social organization displays some interesting features indicative of compromise and adjustment between mother-right and father-right. Their past and present practice may contribute somewhat to the study of the subject of bride-wealth in general.

Among the many comparatively new factors bearing on native education policies in East Africa the administrative policy of Indirect Rule is one which must be reckoned with. Though already practised to some extent on the eastern side of Africa, notably in Uganda, it may be said that Indirect Rule as a definite policy of Government in East Africa dates from its introduction by Sir Donald Cameron as Governor of Tanganyika Territory in 1925. Sir Donald came from Nigeria, where he had helped to carry on the policy started by Lord Lugard during the years immediately preceding the War.

Das Rind drückt dem Nuerland sein Gepräge auf. Es bedingt die Ansiedlungsweise, Dorfanlage, Jahreseinteilung mit entsprechender Lebenseinrichtung und Arbeitsverteilung. Rind heisst auf Nuer yaŋ, pl. ɣɔ́k. Dine Nuer halten ausser Rindern in geringer Anzahl auch Schafe und Ziegen, beide in dem Worte dεεl inbegriffen. Sie kommen jedoch der Milch wegen nicht ernstlich in Betracht, höchstens für Kinder. Für die Tafel haben sie gelegentlich für Gäste und kleinere Familienfeiern Fleisch zu liefern. Für religiöse Zwecke kommt ihnen eine grössere Bedeutung zu als Opfergegenständen bei Gelegenheiten von untergeordneter Bedeutung oder bei Ermangelung von Rindern.

The phrase ‘the mentality of the native’ is much on the lips of those whose work brings them into contact with Africans. The need for the study of African mentality is widely recognized; and an immense body of knowledge has accrued from the labours of administrators, missionaries, anthropologists, and others. Yet those whose knowledge is deepest are the first to admit that we still know only in part and darkly. Now it may be that, to achieve a fuller and clearer knowledge of the African mind, not only more study but additional methods of study are required. The main method up till now has necessarily been observation—observation of the behaviour of Africans in natural, everyday situations; and the result of this method has been the description of such behaviour. To this method we owe almost all of our present knowledge of the mentality of the African; and it seems likely that this must for long remain the chief source of our knowledge. It is not, however, the ideal scientific method. Our knowledge could probably be extended and made in some ways more precise by the method of studying the behaviour of Africans not in natural, everyday situations but in situations experimentally arranged and controlled. This method would result not merely in description but in measurement. Results obtained in controlled situations and expressed in quantitative terms would be results precise and verifiable. This method of study is not to be adopted prematurely, before the conditions of its technique can be fulfilled. But the advance of scientific understanding will sooner or later demand some such scientific method. One such method which is already being experimented with does involve the observation of the behaviour of Africans in controlled situations and does yield quantitative results. This is the method of mental testing.

The Isoko country in the north-western corner of the Niger Delta, Southern Nigeria, is a virgin field for anthropologists. Beyond one or two brief and usually inaccurate references in accounts of the Delta, and a Government Intelligence Report, nothing has been collected about or written upon the Isoko people. The following notes were collected by me during a first tour of eighteen months, purely out of personal interest and curiosity, and in my spare time, without any previous training in anthropology.

Dans l'introduction de sa remarquable étude traitant de l'activité ethnographique des Belges au Congo, publiée en 1908, M. De Jonghe nous dit:

‘L’efficacité de toute œuvre de civilisation se mesure sur la connaissance plus ou moins exacte de la mentalité des populations indigènes.

‘Le colonisateur est, en dernière analyse, un civilisateur. Placé en présence de peuples d'une civilisation inférieure à la sienne, il s'efforce de les élever graduellement à son niveau. On peut le comparer à un agriculteur qui veut mettre un champ en rapport. Le premier soin de celui-ci doit être de connaître la composition de la terre pour y adapter son mode de culture, pour choisir avec discernement les substances chimiques capables d'en activer la production. La psychologie de l'indigène est pour le colonisateur ce qu'est pour l'agriculteur la connaissance des conditions chimiques de la terre qu'il veut cultiver. Connaître le tempérament et le caractère des peuplades qu'il doit civiliser est la première condition à réaliser par l'explorateur s'il veut procéder avec sûreté dans l'atténuation ou l'extirpation de leurs qualités mauvaises et pernicieuses, et dans le développement intense de leurs aptitudes morales et fécondes.

‘La science qui consigne, classe, synthétise les données sur la psychologie des peuples non-civilisés, s'appelle l'ethnographie. L'ethnographie est donc à la base de toute action civilisatrice véritable.

‘A un point de vue moins élevé, au point de vue exclusivement économique, elle mérite de préoccuper sérieusement le colonisateur. Innombrables sont les malentendus, les froissements, les conflits sanglants même, qui, à toute époque, ont surgi entre colonies et mères-patries et qui ont eu leur cause profonde dans l'ignorance des mœurs et coutumes locales.’

The outstanding point about British Africa to-day is the extension of the indirect system of administration. This is the more remarkable because, in the decentralized position of our territories, such extension is the result of free adoption on the part of the different governments. It is the endorsement of the system, after long experience, by practical administrators. Yet in England it has lately been subjected to a considerable amount of criticism. The object of this article is to re-state indirect rule in the light of these criticisms, in the hope of rebutting what is misinformed and incorporating what is constructive.

The educational work of missionary societies is a wide subject, and I propose to limit what I say to three topics: first, the quality of missionary education; secondly, missions and native society; thirdly, missions and governments.

When I was in Africa a few years ago I remarked on one occasion to a prominent official, ‘All the mistakes in native education in East Africa have been made by the missionaries.’ He looked at me in surprise at so frank an admission from a representative of missions. I added, ‘The reason is that they were the only people who could make them, since they have been the only people engaged in education.’ Throughout the greater part of Africa we are still only on the threshold of educational development. Ten years ago there were no education departments in Uganda or Nyasaland or Northern Rhodesia or the Belgian Congo or in Portuguese colonies, and those in other territories, British and non-British, were doing very little.

Il faut sans doute compter les tribus du sud-ouest de l'Angola, c'est-à-dire les Ambo et puis toutes les petites peuplades qui habitent le pays qui s'étend de la mer jusqu'au Kunene à partir du 14° 30′ de latitude sud jusqu'à la frontière et au delà, parmi celles qui opposent le plus de résistance à la pénétration de la civilisation européenne. Encore y a-t-il sous ce rapport des différences assez notables entre elles. Tous ces peuples sont à la fois éleveurs de bétail et agriculteurs, sauf les Kuvale d'en bas des montagnes de la Chela, proches parents des Herero, qui se dédient uniquement à l'élevage. En laissant donc de côté cette dernière tribu, qui est du reste numériquement de peu d'importance, il nous reste pour l'ensemble de ces peuples au point de vue de la culture matérielle une homogénéité assez grande. Leur attitude différente en face de la civilisation européenne est d'autant plus curieuse. Les plus réfractaires sont sans doute les Nyaneka de la région de Huila et Gambos. Bien que, par endroits, leur pays soit occupé depuis des années par beaucoup de colons blancs, ils n'ont presque rien modifié dans leurs coutumes ancestrales. Les Ambo par contre, ayant été beaucoup moins soumis à l'influence directe des Blancs, ont cédé plus facilement sur certains points. Il serait certes intéressant d'étudier à ce point de vue ces divers peuples et de tâcher d'expliquer la raison de leur attitude — les raisons en seront surtout d'ordre psychologique — mais pour pouvoir donner des conclusions sérieuses, il faudrait une connaissance profonde puisée au contact direct de tous ces peuples. Comme cette condition préalable n'est pas réalisée pour le moment, le présent article ne comprend directement que les Ambo et plus particulièrement la tribu la plus importante de ce groupe, celle des Kwanyama.

Under this title Mr. A. W. Cardinall has prepared a review of conditions in the Gold Coast in 1931 as compared with those of 1921, using figures and facts collected by him as Chief Census Officer, and adding an historical, ethnographical, and sociological survey of the people of that country. Accompanying the review is a volume of appendices containing comparative returns and general statistics of the 1931 census. Both books are printed by the Government Printer, Accra, and are obtainable through the Crown Agents for the Colonies.

Discussions on culture contact are liable to be unprofitable because there is no general agreement as to what culture contact is. I have used the fashionable label in my title, but do not wish to delay over definitions. In my field-work I was chiefly concerned with one aspect of culture contact in Africa—the changes taking place in a Bantu community as the result of its contact with Europeans, and it is my methods of studying that aspect which are described here. My interest in culture contact is primarily practical. I want to know for practical ends what effect European economic activities, European administration, education, and Christian teaching are having upon a Bantu community. The nature and extent of the changes taking place in the Bantu community are my first concern, the mechanism of change a secondary one.

The problem of the relationship between Pygmies and Bushmen is not yet solved. The earlier investigators contented themselves with the methods of Physical Anthropology which have predominated over all others. Father Wilhelm Schmidt, using more especially arguments based on his studies of religious history, was the pioneer of the ethnological approach. The only student to make use of linguistic evidence was Father Schebesta, who tried to establish the unity of all African Pygmies and Bushmen by means of tribal names.

There is one great disadvantage that the history teacher must feel in drawing up a syllabus of history for African schools. It is accepted now that young children should begin their study of history by learning about their own home district; and at this stage, history and geography should hardly be separated. It is common to find quite young children in elementary schools in Europe putting together little co-operative booklets about the history and geography of their own home; and even in out-of-the-way country districts there are usually enough historical traditions for the purpose. Market charters, manorial court rolls, perhaps a battle-field, or monastic ruins, or a great historic local family—this is material which has reference to places and buildings that the children know well, and which yet leads up easily to the history of a wider area.