The Ibo-speaking people of Eastern Nigeria can be regarded as a single culture area which may provisionally be subdivided into five main divisions: Northern or Onitsha, Southern or Owerri, Western or Ika, Eastern or Cross River, and North-eastern or Abakaliki. The first two divisions, whose boundaries correspond very roughly to those of the Administrative Provinces of Onitsha and Owerri, contain the bulk of the population; the Western occupies the Niger riverain region and the forest country beyond, and their culture has been influenced by that of the Edospeaking tribes farther west, and by Benin; the Cross River Ibo are another marginal group whose affinities with the ‘Semi-Bantu’-speaking tribes on the eastern bank of that river have yet to be studied; while the North-eastern Ibo are a specialized group that has developed, in comparative isolation, a culture and a social structure better adapted to the savannah country in which they live. The remarks which follow refer mainly to the Northern, Southern, and Cross River Ibo; the North-eastern Ibo system differs in many important respects; the Western has not been studied. The terms used in defining Ibo social groupings have been explained in Africa, vol. xix, No. 2, p. 151, and in places where this may cause confusion the ‘official’ or alternative term is given in brackets.

There are many Abajas in the Ibo country; there were, until recently, two village groups of this name attached to a single Native Treasury. Its Native Authority officials were wont to distinguish them as Abaja-Isu and Abaja-Green. The former has now been transferred to Isu Native Authority, the latter is the subject of a recently published study by M. M. Green. It forms the third-ranking village group of the Ehime ‘clan’ (tribe) which belongs to the eastern section of the Isuama division of the Southern Ibo. This section was classified by Talbot as the Abaja ‘sub-tribe’ after its most important ‘clan’ (tribe), and within this ‘sub-tribe’ he distinguishes as the Abaja-Osu ‘clan’ (tribe) the two related ‘clans’ of Ehime and Ugboma. With so many Abajas to confuse the local issue the reviewer proposes to follow the Mbano Native Authority procedure and to refer to the community with whose affairs Miss Green is concerned as Abaja-Green.

Si l'eau et le feu ont particulièrement frappé l'imagination des petits Noirs qui se répètent régulièrement plusieurs devinettes qui s'y rapportent, les autres phénomènes ne les ont pas laissés indifférents comme nous verrons par la suite. Voyons d'abord l'eau:

Bakolamba eloko wana mpo na kotambwisa yango — Mai. On cuit cette chose-là pour la faire marcher — L'eau.

The present notes concern the Lwena, Chokwe, and Luchazi immigrants of the north-west of Northern Rhodesia, commonly referred to as the Balovale tribes. Like other Central African Bantu they are animists, and their ancestors through the ancestral cult form an essential element in the community of the living and the dead. The spirits of the ancestors are of communal significance to the kinship group to which they belong, and they are also of individual significance to living individuals within a kinship group.

The Luimbi (from the root lui, ‘river’, literally two rivers: mbali) are river-folk who occupy lands along and between the Kukema and Kuanja rivers in the Bié highlands of Angola. Subject since the eighteenth century to the depredations, aggressions, and pressure of their more powerful neighbours, the immigrant Biéan Ovimbundu, the Luimbi nevertheless maintain their tribal customs and unity and have not been without influence on their rivals and oppressors. European civilization, while it has largely liquidated the ancient tribal sanctions of the Ovimbundu, has not had an equal effect on the Luimbi.