The purpose of this study is to consider some of the changes that have taken place in the positions of political officials and in the administrative hierarchy of the Temne of Sierra Leone, British West Africa. The time period under concern extends from approximately 1880, towards the end of the ‘tribal wars’, as they are called by the Temne, through the establishment of the Protectorate and the later introduction of the Native Administration system, to the ‘disturbances in the Provinces’, November 1955 to March 1956.

Studies on the Bantu of south-east Africa by American anthropologists are rare. For this reason visits such as that of Dr. Marvin Harris of Columbia University to Moçambique should be welcomed.

However, on reading his paper on the political and cultural factors of the migratory labour of the Thonga his data seem incomplete and the inferences therefrom not altogether correct. He chose a social process of extreme complexity, and for it to be completely understood it is necessary to undertake more research on its correlations and implications, and to observe it in a broader perspective, taking into account geographical, historical, ecological, cultural, political, and economic peculiarities of this whole region of Africa. In the following comments I shall try not to become involved in moral or political issues but to observe the migratory process as objectively as possible.

This paper describes the infancy, childhood, adolescence, and marriage customs of the Efik of Creek Town, Calabar Province, Nigeria.

In former times, when polygyny was widespread, the husband was expected to have coition with his wives unless he was ill or the wives were either menstruating or nursing a child. Although he might have coition with any wife during the day, he was expected to sleep in strict rotation with the wives at night in order to prevent quarrelling and jealousy. If he possessed only three wives, a weekly rotation called urua mbri ebe, ‘weekly mat of the husband’, was expected, while a man with two wives performed ɔfiɔŋ mbri ebe, ‘monthly mat of the husband’. If he possessed several wives the husband followed usen mbri ebe, ‘daily mat of the husband’. The one with whom he slept prepared his food and bath water, and washed his clothes. Efik nicknamed wives iban ufip, ‘jealous women’, because of their frequent quarrels and feuds.

In February 1957 we visited the homestead of Laduma Madela, member of a small Zulu clan. He belongs to the PondolweNdhlovu regiment, i.e. he was born about 1906. He had been described to us as a somewhat mysterious but particularly knowledgeable person. One of us had established preliminary contacts and gained his confidence. When we visited him for the first time, neither of us anticipated that we should meet in him a unique Zulu personality, a man who, although ‘uneducated’ in the Western sense, possesses a remarkable breadth of vision and grasp of detail concerning his own culture.