Is there a fundamental disparity between Africans and ourselves in modes of thought? Can they assimilate Western civilization, not merely accepting its scientific discoveries and inventions, but making its intellectual assumptions and methods really their own? There is obviously no question of greater theoretical and practical importance for the teacher.

The civilization of Dahomey is based upon an agricultural economy. No matter what the rank of a Dahomean or what his trade, he must know how to cultivate the soil, and he will have his fields. As in all West Africa, clearing the land and hoeing it in preparation for the actual planting is the work of men. Planting itself is carried out by both men and women, and after the planting has been finished, the care of the growing crops is in the hands of the women. Women play quite as active a role in the economic life of Dahomey as do men, for it is not only their work to care for and harvest the crops, but in the Dahomean organization of markets, it is they who buy and sell. Since money earned by a woman is her own, and it is possible for those who are successful in the market-place to acquire wealth independently, there exists a class of ‘free’ women whose freedom extends to their economic life, and also to their relations with the male sex. This gives rise to the institution of women who play the role ordinarily assumed by men as heads of families, and who become titular ‘husbands’ to their ‘wives’.

Die Stellung und die Machtbefugnisse eines Pedi-Häuptlings sind im wesentlichen die gleichen wie bei den anderen Süd-Bantu. Da hierüber verschiedene Autoren bereits ausführlich berichtet haben, so ist es nicht angebracht in diesem Aufsatz das schon Bekannte in allen Einzelheiten zu wiederholen. Ich begnüge mich deshalb damit, das den Bantustämmen in dieser Beziehung Gemeinsame ganz kurz darzustellen, um dann bisher wenig oder garnicht beachtete Seiten des Häuptlingstums genauer zu beschreiben.

Among the Akan peoples of the Gold Coast the warrior organization is known as Asafu. This is found in almost every town or village in the Gold Coast in a more or less developed state, but nowhere has the organization been so fully developed or does it play so important a part in the social and political life of the people as among the Fantis of the coast towns. Owing, however, to the fact that its activities in these towns are more often than not rather disturbing to the maintenance of peace and occasionally result in sanguinary riots with fatal consequences, the organization is perhaps quite unjustifiably viewed with suspicion and condemned accordingly. Amidst drumming, dancing, and drinking, it requires only a word or a gesture on the part of any members of one Asafu momentarily carried away by the ecstasies of the dance, which is capable of being interpreted as an affront against another Asafu, to raise the beast in man and to set the whole place ablaze. That aspect of the Asafu would lead any foreigner to conclude, perhaps hastily but not without some justification, that it is an unprofitable institution. And yet the wonder is that even now the organization shows no signs of decay. To understand the institution itself and the sources of its vitality one must endeavour to find out what the organization is and what it stands for: its origin, history, development and scope.

From August 1930 to August 1931 the writer was absent from England on a visit, in his capacity as one of its Secretaries, to the mission areas of the London Missionary Society in Africa and Madagascar. Some seven or eight months of that time were spent in Africa south of the equator, mainly in Bechuanaland, Southern Rhodesia, and Northern Rhodesia, that is to say, in the areas in which the Sechuana, Sindebele, and Chibemba languages are spoken. While the tour was primarily for the purpose of visiting the stations of the London Missionary Society, it afforded opportunities of seeing something of the work of six or seven other societies. This article does not pretend to do anything more than record a few hurried impressions made during a rapid tour upon a mind largely occupied with other matters.

It is hardly possible to speak of public instruction, so far as Abyssinia is concerned, in the sense of an organized system of education embracing the whole country. Education has always been of a private character, dependent upon the zeal and enterprise of individuals and small groups. Neither the State nor the Church, as such, has ever really felt itself responsible for the instruction of the young, with the natural result that the majority of the people grow up in ignorance.

En écoutant les Barundi dans leurs proverbes, devinettes, contes, même dans leurs noms propres, le moins qu'on en puisse dire, me semble-t-il, c'est qu'ils ne sont pas dénués de toute poésie. On est même étonné de constater que leur mentalité révèle une tournure esthéque, un goût pour les images et le rythme, qui étonnent chez un peuple si arriéré au point de vue de la culture matérielle. Nous osons aller plus loin en avançant qu'au Burundi on rencontre des poésies, des poèmes.