This conference was the third in a series of biannual conferences organised by academics and civil servants working in agricultural economics in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Delegates from Ghana, Nigeria, Botswana, U.S.A., and the F.A.O. also attended and participated in the discussions. The conference was financed by the Ford Foundation, organised and sponsored by the Economic Research Bureau of the University College, Dar es Salaam, and supported by the three East African Governments.

Annual meetings of one sort or another are part of the ritual cycle of academic culture. Normally, these are of two distinct structural types: the disciplinary, in which the participants are of a specific group such as anthropologists, historians, political scientists, sociologists, as well as those being enculturated; and the interdisciplinary, devoted to a specific theme or geographical area, in which members and prospective members of the specific disciplines concerned participate. In the second category we may place the annual meeting of the (American) African Studies Association.

The research conference syndrome has finally reached Liberia. Heretofore, Africa's oldest republic has been one of the least researched countries on the continent, and in terms of scholarly inquiry remains one of the least known. Not that there are not a number of books about Liberia; but there are so few by serious scholars, and of those even fewer of recent vintage. As Professor Warren D'Azavedo, one of the conference organisers and its chairman, pointed out, there is a dearth of basic ethnographic studies; in fact, we still do not know the delineations of Liberia's tribal map—nor, it may be added, its complete physical geography.

Scholars from the United States constitute the largest single national group engaged in African research. The responsibility for establishing friendly relations with their colleagues in Africa has, in the past, been assumed by the individual scholar. It has become increasingly apparent that co-operation with Africanists in Africa itself will be of the greatest importance to future research, and that the A.S.A. can play a useful liaison role.

In March 1962 the late Dr W. E. B. Du Bois set up under the sponsorship of the Ghana Academy of Sciences a secretariat for an Encyclopaedia Africana, and became the first director. The aim was to compile an encyclopaedia dealing exclusively with Africa, using for the work as far as possible African scholars distinguished in their own fields of study. This does not preclude the use of foreign scholars where necessary, and some are being used.

This conference was sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce and Cooperatives of Tanzania and thejoint Credit Union Development Programme of C.U.N.A. International United Agency for International Development. Seventy-two delegates participated in the conference, representing the following 17 countries: Botswana, Denmark, Ethiopia, Germany, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritius, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Tanzania, Uganda, U.S.A., and Zambia.

The purpose of this seminar on the planning of rural development—organised by the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning—was to permit an exchange of views and experiences by teachers from various African countries. Twenty members of the teaching and research staff of 18 universities and research institutes, from 14 countries (seven English-speaking and seven French-speaking) attended the seminar, which was the fourth of its kind held in Dakar.

The 50 participants in this conference included academics and practical workers, students of and from Africa. Four panels, each led by four members, shared experiences and research on these topics: ‘Local-National Government Activities in Community Development’, ‘The Place of Co-operatives in the Development of the Economy of the Region’, ‘Work at the Local Level on the Improvement of Agricultural Production’, and ‘The Role of Local Authorities as a Channel for Financial Assistance’.

By mid-1965 the tensions which had always existed in the East African Common Market and Services had not been solved—nor even notably alleviated—by the 1961 Raisman Commission fiscal measures or the (largely unimplemented) 1964 Kampala Agreement, which had aimed at a programme of trade balancing and industrial allocation. Many observers expected as a result a speedy and bitter dissolution of the de facto East African economic community. The common currency was ending, the joint navy and tourist promotion body were liquidated, quota restrictions on regional trade were being imposed by all three states—but most widely by Tanzania—strains were evident in the University, and an atmosphere of growing gloom and complaint was evident.

A research bulletin entitled Rural Africana is now being produced by the African Studies Center at Michigan State University. It is designed to serve as an informal means of exchanging information concerning politics, anthropology, and development economics in the rural areas of independent Africa south of the Sahara. The origin of the bulletin dates from the 1966 meeting of the (U.S.A.) African Studies Association. A small group of political scientists who had for some years emphasised local-level research in Africa met with several anthropologists who had been oriented to the earlier works by Professors Evans-Pritchard, Schapera, and Gluckman. In discussion, it was evident that the individuals in this group, although in different disciplines, overlapped in their area of interest, their theoretical orientations, and levels of analysis. It was suggested that an informal bulletin might serve to crossfertilise ideas in these and related fields, and that the emphasis should be on the rural areas—a sector of or contemporary importance which had been largely neglected save for anthropological research.

This seminar was held at the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, under the general chairmanship of Dr I. M. Lewis of University College, London. It was organised by Dr Richard Pankhurst and ProfessorJ. Comhaire, with financial assistance from the British Ministry of Overseas Development. The seminar was attended by anthropologists currently engaged in field-work and by members of the Haile Selassie I University's Faculties of Arts, Law, Medicine, Business Administration, and the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, as well as staff of the Ministry of Community Development and Public Health. A number of visiting scholars, including Professor V. L. Grottanelli, participated in the meeting. Reports were received on field-work in Somalia and the Sudan as well as in Ethiopia: and the following papers were given: Dr D. Hecht on ‘Sacred Kingship in Africa’Fekadu Gedamu on ‘The Social Organisation of the Kistane Gurage’; J. Stauder on ‘The Social Organisation of the Mahangir’Dr. M. Lewis on ‘Possession Cults in Northern Somalia’A. Orent on ‘The Doce Cult in Kaffa’Virginia Luling on ‘Spirit-possession Cults in Mogadiscio’Terefe Walde Tsadik on ‘The Muyat Cult in Shoa’R. Hallpike on ‘Status of Craftsmen among the Konso’M. Cittadini on ‘Kunama Marriage’and J. Lisowski on ‘Biometrics of N.E. African Migrations’. Development papers were given by P. Sand on ‘Law as a Factor of Social Change’G. Savard on ‘Social Factors in Development’M. de Young on ‘Markets in Ethiopia’S. Messing on ‘Medical Attitudes and Practices in Ethiopia’and R. Bahar on ‘Rural Housing in Ethiopia’.

The industrialists and financiers who attended this conference, from industrialised countries in Europe, America, and Asia, came to explore the possibilities of co-operation with African countries. The purpose was to consider how best to follow up industrial projects, how to put forward practical suggestions for projects, and, above all, how to reduce to a minimum delays between survey and action, bearing in mind throughout the interests of African countries.

An occasional news-letter, monitoring all aspects of urban research in Africa, is at present edited by Ruth Simms Hamilton, George Jenkins, and Edward Soja, and produced under the auspices of the African Studies Centre at the University of California, Los Angeles. Eight issues of African Urban Notes have so far appeared, the first in April 1966 and the most recent in August 1967, together with three bibliographical supplements.

The idea of taking free drama to the masses of people who have no local theatre and in any case could not afford expensive seats is becoming an established custom for the Dramatic Society of Makerere University College. The 1966 Travelling Theatre visited many towns in Uganda and Kenya. We journeyed in a very crowded Land-Rover, another being used for the luggage. An immense framework had to be carried to hold the curtains that formed the background of our stage in all performances; on top of this had to be put suitcases, spears and shields, and big boxes for our costumes.

Many of the fundamental data required for the study of history, sociology, politics, or economics in Africa are stored up in the memories of a few elders, chiefs, priests, palace and town historians, and in the general knowledge of the average man and woman. To make such data available, the techniques of questionnaires and interviews are increasingly being employed to tap these unwritten sources. But great care needs to be taken in preparing the questions, studying the problems likely to arise where they are used, and in assessing the results. The care necessary on these matters has been well indicated by Girard: