Though the Gã are rich in folk-lore, proverbs, fables, and idiomatic sayings which refer to tribal customs, it is difficult to know just how many of these have been borrowed from the Twi—a good many, to judge by the extent to which Twi enters into their stories and songs. If a story has in it any sort of chant or ‘catch-phrase’, it is nearly always in Twi that that part is given, or Twi corrupted or mixed with Gã. Most of their tales are animal stories, and the Spider is always the clever and cunning villain of the piece, who gets caught in his own web, just as in the Brer Rabbit stories the fox gets caught in his own toils.

One of the chief impediments to ethnological study in Africa, south of Egypt and the northern coast belt of the continent, lies in the meagre amount of archaelogical data which exists, as also in the paucity of records which can be called historical. The position as regards these matters, however, is not as bad in the Sudan belt as is sometimes thought. The historical data collected by Barth and other writers concerning the Sudan belt in past ages, have been perhaps too readily considered as of doubtful authenticity. Consequently, any surviving direct evidence concerning Sudanese history and chronological data to fix it, is valuable not only in itself, but as helping to substantiate other traditions and notices which may not be considered to be fully authenticated.

The Institute has always placed the question of the provision of suitable text-books both in the vernacular and in the language of the European power in the different territories in the forefront of its subjects of study as being one of the most urgent needs in Africa to-day. Numerous discussions and inquiries have shown that adequate instruction in hygiene and the inculcation of simple health rules is one of the most pressing needs, and that work done in one area is often unknown in others. In consequence the Executive Council in 1929 devoted special attention to the question of what action could be taken which would assist in the solution of this problem. The general opinion was that the information at the disposal of the Institute showed the need of a survey of books in actual use. This would, it was hoped, provide material which would be useful in the preparation of model texts in which particular attention would be devoted to the method of presenting the subject to Africans. The Council decided that the survey should be divided into two parts, one of books published in English or in a vernacular used in British territories and another of books published in French or languages used in French-speaking areas, and that the information collected should form the basis of articles to be published in Africa.

Le droit d'aînesse domine toute la mentalité de nos indigènes, aussi bien leur vie familiale, qui est en même temps leur vie sociale et religieuse, que le concept animiste dans tout ce qui les entoure. En traitant de ce droit nous touchons un point capital autour duquel gravitent toutes leurs compréhensions de la vie.

Chez eux l'aîné a tout à dire. Il est le maître, car il est inouï chez ces animistes qu'un vieux soit obligé, malgré lui, de se soumettre à un plus jeune. De plein droit, c'est l'homme le plus ancien, le plus âgé de la famille qui sera leur chef, car tout village se compose des membres d'une famille.

In Band II. Nr. 3 der Africa ist ein Artikel von Dr. Torday ‘The Principles of Bantu Marriage’ erschienen, dessen interessante Ausführungen zu Schlussfolgerungen kommen, die, wenn sie als richtig anerkannt würden, geeignet wären, die bisher übliche Auffassung über die Grundlagen und die Entwicklung der Familie und damit der ganzen sozialen Verhältnisse bei den Bantu in wesentlichen Punkten zu erschüttern. Herr Torday fasst das Ergebnis seiner Untersuchungen in zwei Sätzen zusammen: einmal sei der eigentliche Charakter der Ehe bei den Bantu nicht Vielweiberei, sondern eine Einehe, die abgeschlossen sei zwischen einem Mann und einer Frau zur Erzielung einer legitimen Nachkommenschaft, und sodann sei diese Ehe nicht nur für das ganze Leben abgeschlossen, sondern auch unwiderruflich. Scheidungsgründe habe es bei dieser Ehe ursprünglich überhaupt nicht gegeben, sondern lediglich eine Ungültigkeit, die ihren Grund hatte in Mängeln in der Person des einen oder des anderen der Ehegatten.

In an article entitled ‘Practical Anthropology’, which appeared in Vol. II, No. I of Africa, Professor Malinowski makes suggestions as to the manner in which the anthropologist can be of service to those who are engaged in the practical business of colonial administration, especially in Africa. He writes, it is true, as an anthropologist, and he proposes that the anthropologist shall record the facts and the ‘practical’ man draw his deductions therefrom. How many anthropologists would agree that a division into anthropologists and practical men is satisfactory may be open to doubt: but as I am certainly not an anthropologist I hope that I may speak for the practical man.

At a time when so much has been said of self-determination and of the inalienable right of nations to maintain their own traditions and institutions and to build up distinct types of civilization and culture in response to the impulse of their own national spirit and genius, the importance of national and racial differences in temperament and character needs no demonstration. But the maintenance of national rights is only one aspect of the matter. It is not even its most important aspect. No one race or nation may claim that its own attainments in all branches of philosophy, art and science, can exhaust the possibilities of human accomplishment. On the contrary, it is becoming more generally recognized that each nation and race has its own special contribution to make to the intellectual and spiritual life of humanity. From this point of view, nothing would be gained by the existence of two nations identical in traditions, capacities, and temperament. The contribution of the second would merely duplicate that of the first. For the sake of peace and fellowship there is need of a general similarity in fundamentals, but the intellectual and cultural wealth of nations is derived chiefly from the development of a diversity of special gifts and aptitudes. It is to the special aptitudes and attainments of Palestine, Greece, Rome and Arabia, that the modern world owes more than can be calculated. There is also much to be learned from India and China, and who shall say that Africa has no special contribution to make to the sum of human attainment?

Il ne faut pas juger les gens sur la mine, dit le proverbe. Quand on voit les Basuto sortir de leurs pauvres habitations guère plus grosses que des fourmilières, pour aller cultiver leurs champs de maïs ou de sorgho, lorsqu'on les rencontre drapés dans leurs couvertures de laine, tantôt neuves tantôt en lambeaux, se demandant mutuellement, non pas ce qu'il y a de nouveau sous le soleil, mais dans quel village et dans quelle maison il y a de la bière à boire, il est difficile de s'imaginer que sous ces guenilles il y a souvent l'étoffe d'un vrai poête. Cependant c'est un fait connu que le génie poétique est souvent l'apanage de gens peu favorisés de la fortune. Le poète Lamartine a dit avec raison:

Le souffle inspirateur qui fait de l'âme humaine

Un instrument mélodieux

Dédaigne des palais la pompe souveraine.

For the enlightenment of those who here for the first time meet with the native stories known in the Kaffrarian Territories as Intsomi, it may help the reader to appreciate them at their proper value if a few words of explanation are prefaced to the selection which follows.