Si vous demandez à un Mbali ce que signifie ce nom, il vous répondra fièrement: Kimbali veut dire, ‘Noir civilisé’. Si vous poussez plus loin votre curiosité et voulez savoir si ce terme même signifie ‘civilisé’, et en quelle langue, le plus intelligent de vos interlocuteurs ne saura vous donner une explication satisfaisante. Tout au plus dira-t-il: C'est ainsi que les non-civilisés, les ‘gentios’, appellent les Noirs qui vivent au service des Blancs. C'est exact, mais insuffisant comme explication. Du reste eux-mêmes se désignent volontiers par le même mot. En tenant compte de tous les éléments constitutifs on pourrait ainsi définir les Mbali: Des Noirs descendants d'anciens esclaves et travailleurs de plantations ayant assimilé un grand nombre d'éléments culturels de leurs anciens maîtres et qui aujourd'hui encore cherchent facilement leur gagne-pain chez les Blancs comme domestiques et comme artisans.

Die Asu oder Pare, die den dreigliedrigen Gebirgsstock zwischen Usambara und Kilimanjaro im Norden von Tanganyika bewohnen und auf rund 60,000 Seelen angewachsen sind, zählen nicht nur Sonne und Mond sowie eine Reihe von Tieren und Bäumen zu ihren Gottheiten, sondern verehren vor allem einen selbsthergestellten Fetisch von der Grösse und Form eines Gänseeies, den sie auf dem Hausboden auf bewahren und mrungu wa gu, Hausbodengott, nennen. Die Arbeit stellt auf Grund von eingehenden Studien den Versuch dar, die Herstellung und den Kultus dieses Bodengottes zu beschreiben.

Societies And Organizations Not Based On The Gens. The Soldiers of the State. The soldiers are recruited from Grand Cess as a state. The army contains no recognized village or gens units. It is grouped first by age. Then each age group is divided into two divisions—the bobi's men and the tugbewa's men.

In the vast countries which stretch between Kordofan and the Bahr el Ghazal Province in the east, Tripolis in the north, Lake Chad and the north-western frontier of the Cameroons in the west, and a line in the south which is formed by the southern border of the colony Ubangui-Chari, linguistic research work is still only in its beginnings. The languages spoken in the above regions which comprise the highlands of Tibesti, Borku, Enedi, and the old kingdoms of Darfor, Dar Banda, Wadai, Bagirmi, Bornu, Adamawa, and their neighbouring countries, are still to-day the least known of all the languages of Africa. This part of Central Africa lies far from the animated coastal areas and was occupied by European Powers only in a comparatively recent period. But the study of languages of newly occupied countries is not the first object of a Native Administration, especially where Arabic is a first means of communication; and Arabic plays an important role indeed in some parts at least of Central Africa. Besides the use for purposes of administration, linguistic research work is linked to two undertakings: the missions and native education. Missionary work is especially important in pagan countries, but may have little or no influence in a large part of Muhammadan Central Africa.

The eighteenth meeting of the Executive Council of the Institute was held in London on June 1 and 2, 1939. The meeting took place in the Conference Room at Parliament Square House, which had been placed at the disposal of the Council by the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

In 1933 a Short Guide to the Recording of African Languages was published as a Supplement to Africa in response to many requests for a publication of the kind. It later appeared as Memorandum XI in the series published by the Institute in connexion with the Journal. The Guide was intended as a first step towards the systematic recording of African languages, and in particular of those about which little or nothing is known. It has been widely used in Africa, both for practical purposes and for the scientific studies of research workers. A number of people have sent to the Institute material collected in this way and a list of the languages so recorded is given here.