The Azande are one of the best-known peoples of Africa. Much was written about them by European travellers in the second half of the last century, and there are books on them by de Calonne-Beaufaict, Hutereau, Mgr Lagae, the present writer, and Mr. de Schlippe, as well as a considerable number of articles by various hands, notably by Major Larken. A summary of what is known about them and a full bibliography are contained in The Azande and Related Peoples, by P. T. W. Baxter and Audrey Butt, International African Institute, 195 3. It is therefore unnecessary for me to speak about them in a more general way before discussing the particular topic or this paper. I have only to observe that very little information is to be found in the literature on the subject of border raids and to state that my own research in Zandeland, carried out between 1927 and 1930, was mainly restricted to that part of it which comprised the kingdom of Gbudwe.

N!ow is a belief concerning rain and cold which is held by the !Kung Bushmen in the region around Nyae Nyae in South West Africa.

About ten inches of rain falls in an average year in this part of the Kalahari Desert and sinks into the deep sands. There is no run-off in streams and there are few water holes. The rain is sufficient to support a covering vegetation of grass, shrubs, and scrubby trees. The vegetation includes numerous edible roots, tubers, leaves, fruits, and nuts, for which the Afrikaans language provides the convenient word veldkos.

Situation générale du Problème

L'exemple des Oubi que nous avons choisi pour la présente étude n'est que l'illustration d'un problème plus général qui décidera du proche avenir des économies traditionnelles dans les forêts de l'ouest éburnéen.

En accueillant la culture des plantes industrielles: caféier et cacaoyer, comme une forme nouvelle de leurs activités, les petites unités ethniques de cette zone—jusqu'ici matériellement autonomes—doivent faire appel à toutes leurs ressources morales, afin que leur intégration dans un système économique plus vaste, se réalise sans trop de dommages. Les marchés mondiaux du café et du cacao n'étant pas pour l'instant en cause, le problème immédiat reste en général circonscrit dans le cadre de l'Union Française, plus précisément dans des relations Côte d'Ivoire-métropole.

Readers of Africa will be well aware of population migration as a characteristic feature of a continent where movement between one part and another is largely unrestricted as compared with the more settled parts of the world. There is much evidence of large-scale tribal migrations in the past, of the age-old seasonal wanderings of herders, and of recent labour migration to centres of mineral and industrial production, the last particularly in Central and South Africa. Information is more limited concerning the features of labour migration in West Africa at the present day. In general it is thought that migrants leave their home areas, after the harvest at the commencement of the dry season, to seek work elsewhere for a period of from three to six months and then return to take up farming with the commencement of the next rains. The major source area for these migrants is to the north of the tenth parallel where the wet season is concentrated into a period of about four months, thus severely restricting agricultural activity. Cultivation during the dry season is possible only on a very limited scale. There is thus a considerable period of the year when the primary economic activity of the people is not possible. It is logical that they should seek work elsewhere.

Dans cet aperçu sur une tribu assez bien connue du Territoire de Stanleyville, dont les coutumes ancestrales ont été, jusqu'à présent, peu étudiées, je me limiterai à trois points principaux que j'examinerai dans l'ordre suivant: tout d'abord, l'origine présumée de cette peuplade et son installation à proximitè des Stanley-Falls; ensuite, quelques mots de leurs moyens de pêche très originaux, et enfin un exposé d'une parmi de nombreuses coutumes wagenia: la circoncision.

The peoples of the Western world, and not a few Africans who have adopted some Western ideas, are apt to think that in matters of hygiene and preventive medicine the peoples of Nigeria owe all their useful practices solely to Western civilization, while the traditional theories and practices are merely superstitions. But in fact, when one analyses these, one finds interwoven with them correct principles of hygiene and preventive medicine. It is true that Nigeria owes a great deal to modern medicine, but had it not been for an existing foundation of practical hygiene and preventive medicine among Nigerian peoples, it would not have been possible for them to derive full benefit from modern practices.