The type of village polyandry described in this paper is found among the Lele, and possibly among other peoples, living between the Kwilu and the Kasai in the western Belgian Congo. The Pende, the Bunda, and the Dinga are reported to have a similar custom. There is a government ordinance prohibiting polyandry among these tribes, and I have followed this legal precedent in calling the practice polyandry, for lack of a better title. The Lele call it hohombe, or ngalababola, which means ‘wife of the village’. As the hohombe institution is closely connected with village life and politics, I shall begin by giving an outline of village conditions.

Dans un article intitule ‘Un Gnomon soudanais’ nous avons relevé l'existence et l'emploi du gnomon chez les Bambara du Soudan Français. Il n'est pas sans intérêt de présenter également la notion que ce peuple a de l'écliptique. Des idées similaires se retrouvent à ce sujet chez les Dogon; sans essayer de faire du comparatisme qui peut être fallacieux, nous mettrons en regard, cependant, cette notion astronomique commune aux deux peuples qui, démographiquement et spirituellement, témoignent d'une même origine.

When the bi-sexual deity of the cosmos Nyame Amowia, visible as the moon, gave birth to the Sun god, she gave him her kra, her eternal soul or life-giving power; hence his name, the Only Great Nyame (Nyame; ko- only; pɔn- great) generally drawn together as Nyankopɔn. The kra is also envisaged as bi-sexual; its female aspect is believed to be the substance or body of the moon and sun, i.e. fire, while its male aspect is the spirit, the essence, the spiritual, or that which is truly divine.

Ankole is a district in the south-west of the Uganda Protectorate. Its inhabitants, as a result of fifty years of British administration, are being gradually welded together into one people, the Banyankole. There are, however, two distinct ethnic groups in the country: the Bantu aborigines who till the soil and the cattlekeeping Bahima. The latter were Hamitic invaders from the north, who brought with them their own long-horned cattle, easily distinguishable from the small shorthorned zebu type found already in the country. Their one aim in life was and is the well-being of their herds.

The subsistence economy of the Yoruba of West Africa, like that of their neighbours, on the Guinea Coast, is based on sedentary hoe agriculture. Hunting, fishing, animal husbandry, and the gathering of wild foods are practised, but the basis of the Yoruba diet consists of starchy tubers, grains, and fruits grown on their farms, supplemented by vegetable oils, wild and cultivated fruits and vegetables, and meat and fish. The commercial economy of the Yoruba is based on cocoa (koko, from English) Theobroma cacao, originally native to Central America, which has become the principal cash crop of the Yoruba during the present century. Today Nigeria's major export, cocoa, is produced almost entirely by the Yoruba. More than 99 per cent, of the total tonnage of Nigerian cocoa graded in 1940-1 was produced in Yoruba territory, only 741 out of 97,862 tons coming from Benin and Warri provinces. First exported in the last decade of the nineteenth century, cocoa has increased in importance until in 1947 it ranked first among Nigeria's exports in terms of value. It is the principal cash crop in Ǫyǫ, Ondo, Ijębu-Ode and Abęokuta provinces and part of the Colony, all of which are inhabited by the Yoruba.

Ibadan is said to be the largest town in tropical Africa and is widely known as a rail and road junction, an air-port, and a large commercial and marketing centre. Ibadan is also a centre for education: it possesses primary, secondary, and training schools of various types, and has been chosen as the site of the new University College. There are about 50 churches in the town, and hundreds of mosques.

La section desociologie de l'Institut d'Études Centrafricaines a accompliune mission au Gabon pour le compte du Haut-Commissaire de la Republique et du gouvernement du territoire. Le but en était: étude des conditions démographiques, économiques; étude de structure sociale, de la structure des villages et des possibilités de regroupement et de modernisation. La mission était composée de M. G. Balandier (directeur de l'Institut) et M. J. Cl. Pauvert (ancien directeur de l'Institut Éthiopien, sociologue attaché au Cabinet du Haut-Commissaire), auxquels se joignaient les collaborateurs locaux (médecins et agronomes). La mission a opéré dans les régions administratives de la Ngounie, de la Nyanga et du Woleu-ntem. Un rapport vient d'être élabore à l'usage de 1'Administration; les chapitres relatifs à la démographie et aux structures sociales seront enrichis et pourront faire l'objet d'une publication.