It has always been to me a matter of regret that I did not know Lord Lugard at an earlier stage in his great career. My acquaintance with him dated indeed only from 1935, when I first began work on behalf of the ‘African Survey’. I need not say that I then received from him that generous assistance which he was always ready to give to those who were interesting themselves in a field of knowledge in which he had such an unrivalled mastery. Nor need I say that he was equally generous in the counsel and guidance he gave me when I subsequently succeeded him as member of the Permanent Mandates Commission at Geneva. At the first meeting of the Commission which I attended, his former colleagues spoke of him in terms which deeply impressed me. It was obvious that they had a most sincere appreciation of those personal qualities which had won for him so much respect among all students of Colonial affairs and so genuine an affection from a wide circle of friends in this country. But there was more; they had clearly recognized that his name had added distinction and prestige to the position which the Commission occupied in the international world.

Members will be interested to know of progress and developments since the reorganization and expansion of the London office which were announced in the Journal for January 1944. In April 1944 a meeting of the Bureau of the Institute was held, when policy was considered and schemes for future work approved. A Consultative Committee was set up under the chairmanship of Sir Harms Vischer, and including French and Belgian members, to advise the officers on the development of the Institute's scientific and general activities within the framework laid down by the Executive Council before the war. The Linguistic Advisory Committee has been re-established under the chairmanship of Professor Ida Ward.

The student of English education who tries to envisage the development of African education is apt to be misled by the picture he has in his mind of its development in England. It is difficult for one brought up in the British tradition to divest himself of his national prepossessions, and it is hoped that any reader of this article will discount the limitations imposed by what seems to him to be British insularity. None the less, it may not be altogether without interest to readers of an international journal to see how this British tradition affects the approach to African problems. The English student is tempted to think of a vigorous and progressive Local Education Authority as part of the general local government of an area, managing and controlling schools, employing its own staff of administrative officials, building its own schools, and employing its own teachers. That picture is (of course) far from complete, for in England other parties are involved. There is the central government, which supplies from national (as distinct from local) revenue the bulk of the necessary funds. There are, too, the Churches, particularly the Anglican and the Roman Catholic, with their long educational history and their vast contributions to the educational system. Moreover, we have in England the further characteristic complication of a great and powerful body of teachers, who seem to the outsider to be partly state officials protected by the central authority and partly employees of the local authority. It is natural that in considering the supply of educational facilities in Africa we English should be in danger of being misled by our insular prepossessions. We must, therefore, be clear in our own minds as to what we mean when we speak of ‘Native Authorities’ and ‘Central Government’, and Churches, and the place and status of the teaching staffs in Africa.

This note on the distribution of the Sanusiya order in north Africa and western Arabia is a supplement to the article on the history of the order which appeared recently in Africa (vol. xv, no. 2). Use has been made of earlier efforts to list its lodges. The earliest authorities were mostly relying on hearsay and later writers have sometimes copied their lists without further inquiry. On the whole, however, their records are fairly accurate and, though many of the names they give are so badly transliterated that they would be unrecognizable to anyone dependent on maps alone, they can easily be identified by anyone who knows the countries at first hand. Even when a name cannot be identified it need not be assumed that it is necessarily incorrect, because lodges are often known by more than one name, sometimes, especially in the Marmarica, by the name of their Shaikhs. I have also been able to make use of a list of 128 lodges drawn up for me by al-Sayyid Ibrahim (whose father al-Sayyid Ahmad al-Sharif was the last head of the order), though it contains a number of inaccuracies; and of my own observations and inquiries, which cover Cyrenaica and, more superficially, Tripolitania and Egypt.

It is too soon after the death of Lord Lugard to attempt anything more than to write down some ideas and impressions that come into the mind at the first realization of our loss.

The chief impression upon considering Lord Lugard's public career is the immense range of his life and work. This never ceased to astonish, as some chance remark of his suddenly recalled that nearly seventy years before he had been playing his part in imperial affairs. From the moment when in 1878, at the age of twenty, he left Sandhurst, until a few days before his death, his was an active working life. As the needs of the British Empire changed and his own qualities and ideas developed, he passed through four clear-cut stages of his career, any two of which would have represented the life-work of most public men.

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.

An outstanding characteristic of Bantu speech is economy of form combined with flexibility in the use of forms. This economy in word form contributes to simplicity of expression, but can nevertheless be baffling to non-Bantu people unless flexibility in function is accorded its due recognition.

Some months ago, in a paper read before the Royal Society of Arts on the subject of ‘Partnership in Nigeria’, I called attention to the necessity for a closer connexion between native authorities and the central legislature. I went on to say that I did not consider the native authority system to be incompatible with self-government at the centre, and that I saw no reason why native authorities should not become an integral part of a representative government. I have been asked to enlarge upon these views, and am very glad to have this opportunity of doing so, particularly because a practical expression of them has appeared in the proposals for the revision of the constitution of Nigeria which have just been laid before Parliament and which, according to The Times, have received the unanimous and hearty approval of the unofficial members of the Nigerian Legislature.

Louga au Sénégal, à environ 60 km. s.s.e. de Saint-Louis, fut au siècle dernier la capitale d'une sorte de diocèse. Serigne Louga était alors considéré comme le chef religieux de tout le Ndiambour et avait, à ce titre, les honneurs du Moniteur du 25 décembre 1856. Il perdit cependant son autorité religieuse, et Louga du même coup sa notoriété, dans le naufrage de l'empire des Darnels. Louga n'était plus en 1905 qu'une maigre bourgade sans signification, lorsque se produisit un évènement qui allait étendre à tout le Sénégal, et même à la Mauritanie, sa renommée. C'est en effet cette année-là qu'un groupe d'hommes d'affaires entreprenants et astucieux, en tête desquels il faut citer Hamadou Barka, prit l'initiative de fonder le ‘Marbat’.

The archaeological material described in this note is the result, like many other finds, of mining operations. Other collections of prehistoric human and animal figures have been found in Nigeria, usually in circumstances offering little evidence of their origin: these specimens, though there is as yet no concrete evidence of their age, origin, and cultural significance, have come to light in conditions which give good reason to hope that the further investigations contemplated will reveal associated evidence contributing to the solution of some of these problems.

The eminent scholar-missionary J. G. Christaller, compiler of the Twi dictionary and of 3,680 Twi proverbs, wrote in 1879: ‘May those Africans who are enjoying the benefit of a Christian education make the best of the privilege; but let them not despise the sparks of truth entrusted to and preserved by their own people.’ Now Dr. J. B. Danquah, well known as the author of those admirable volumes Akan Laws and Customs and Cases in Akan Law, has brought a philosophical mind trained by such teachers as G. Dawes Hicks of University College, London, to expound the religious and ethical system of his own people. It is the first time, I believe, that an African educated on western lines has produced so detailed an exposition. It should, and doubtless will, be studied sympathetically by every Africanist. It would, however, be no compliment to the talented author if his statements were accepted without question. Very unfortunately two of the three manuscript volumes were destroyed by fire; and these, we are given to understand, contained many of the data upon which Dr. Danquah based his conclusions. Had the book been published in its entirety no doubt many of the questions we now ask would have been forestalled.

Dans cette étude nous nous limitons aux problèmes posés pat l'existence des mulâtres et nous éliminons la discussion de l'opportunité du mélange des races, qui est une toute autre question. On peut déplorer ce mélange ou l'apptouver — d'après les circonstances, d'après ses idèes philosophiques ou ses sentiments, ses préjugés, etc. — mais il est une réalité objective dont on doit tenir compte; il pose un problème auquel il faut chercher une solution. Si la solution de tout problème doit, pour être raisonnable, équitable, viable et utile, se baser sur des principes sûrs et sains, cela est doublement nécessaire quand il s'agit d'un problème gravement complexe et d'une portée sociale considérable comme est celui qui nous occupe ici.