With the death of Monsieur René Hentsch at Geneva the Institute has lost a great friend, whose understanding and generous assistance were of the greatest help in the days when the plans for our Institute were laid and the first steps were taken which led to its foundation as an international body in 1926.

We are glad to announce two more additions to the membership of our Interim Committee: Dr. W. Huender of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Monsieur J. Soustelle, who is replacing General Sicé during his absence abroad.

Members will be glad to hear that, following on recent events, we have again been able to get into touch with the Institut Français de l'Afrique Noire at Dakar and our member, Professor Monod, its Director.

Since our last issue, another of the books embodying the results of studies in the field by our Fellows has been published. It is The Realm of a Rain Queen, A Study of the Pattern of Lovedu Society, by Dr. and Mrs. J. D. Krige. We hope to publish a review of this book in October.

On going to press, 58 entries have been received for the Prize Essay Competition. The latest date for sending off manuscripts was 1 April 1943, but, in order to allow for delays in the post, manuscripts will be accepted up to the end of June.

Most people are aware that Nigeria is named after the river Niger, but many may be surprised to hear that the word Niger is not derived from the Latin adjective niger meaning ‘black’, but from a Libyan and Sudanic root, meaning ‘water“or ‘river’. This word was used by the geographer Ptolemy some 1,800 years ago in the Greek form of ‘Niγɛιρ’, and it is used to-day by the tribes of lake Chad in the form of njer. But Pliny employed the form Nigris, and from very early times the land of the Niger was called Nigritia. The modern name of Nigeria was only invented forty-six years ago by Miss Flora Shaw, who became, quite appropriately, the wife of Lord Lugard, the master-builder of Nigeria. In a letter to The Times, written in 1897, Miss Shaw said, ‘It may be permissible to coin a shorter title for the agglomeration of pagan and Mahomedan States which have been brought, by the exertion of the Royal Niger Company, within the confines of a British Protectorate.’ Her suggestion that the new title should be Nigeria was at once accepted. But it did not receive official recognition until the territories of the Royal Niger Company were formally taken over by the Imperial Government in 1900, and were formed into the two administrations known as Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria. Fourteen years later these two administrations were amalgamated into a single Nigeria, which then became, next to India, the most populous dependency in the British Empire.

From time to time there have appeared in this journal notes on the lingua franca spoken along the central section of the River Congo. On the usual principle of discarding the prefix in referring to the names of Bantu languages, this lingua franca has been called Ngala. In this case, however, we are obliged to retain the prefix to avoid confusion, as there exists in this area more than one language whose name is derived from this stem.

With some previous knowledge of these people I had expected to ascertain on inquiry that they had a set if simple form of government and something more or less regular in their group and tribal organization, whereas I find that there is no cohesion or co-operation between groups or collections of groups, chieftainship hardly exists, and there is little or nothing in the way of a judicial system. What may have been custom seems to have been replaced to a great extent by habit and impulse, the interest of the individual is paramount to the exclusion of the good of the community—in short their mode of life, in spite of what may be said cf co-operative food quest, is the most complete expression of individualism, and any man who in astuteness and cunning, bravery and endurance, or in other similar qualities shows himself to be ahead of his fellows becomes their unacknowledged leader.

Les principes qui ont réglé et règlent encore l'enseignement que nous délivrons aux indigènes de nos colonies, ont été parfaitement définis par M. Charton, Inspecteur Général de l'Enseignement en Afrique Occidentale Française, dans plusieurs études. Je ne les reproduis donc pas si ce n'est à l'occasion de leur application. Préférant faire œuvre plus originale, je vais essayer de vous esquisser comment est distribué cet enseignement. En prenant l'exemple d'une de nos colonies, en comparant ce qui s'y fait avec ce qui se fait en d'autres territoires, puis en exposant pourquoi et en vertu de quels principes, vous aurez une vue d'ensemble de la question. Nous choisirons donc l'Afrique Équatoriale Française, dont je peux vous parler plus particulièrement puisque je viens d'y passer treize ans – et puisque M. Charton dans ses études traite de l'Afrique Occidentale Française.

Quelques mots d'abord sur la structure administrative et territoriale de l'Afrique Équatoriale Française, puisque l'organisation scolaire a dû nécessairement en tenir compte. L'Afrique Équatoriale Française se compose de quatre territoires: le Gabon, chef-lieu Libreville, le Moyen Congo, chef-lieu Brazzaville, l'Oubangui-Chari, cheflieu Bangui, et le Tchad, chef-lieu Fort-Lamy.