Africanists of all disciplines will never cease to be indebted to the late Professor Melville J. Herskovits for his pioneering work in the development of African Studies in the United States. As Professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University, he created and directed the Program of African Studies from 1948 until his death in 1963. To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the founding of this Program, a conference was held at Evanston under the general chairmanship of the present director of the Program, Professor Gwendolen M. Carter.