Un grand effort a été tenté, au cours de ces dernières années, pour adapter aussi exactement que possible les programmes scolaires des colonies françaises aux besoins et à l'esprit du milieu. Il se trouve encore, assurément, de mauvaises langues pour prétendre qu'on fait réciter aux petits noirs des leçons d'histoire qui commencent par la formule fameuse: ‘Nos ancêtres les Gaulois’; mais ce sont là des calomnies et les instructions officielles attestent amplement que notre enseignement colonial s'est résolument proposé de faire table rase des routines métropolitaines, d'étudier son champ d'action et d'y tracer des voies à sa convenance. Que l'œuvre soit imparfaite, c'est bien certain; car les gens qui ne sont pas du métier n'imaginent pas à quel point une pareille tâche est difficile; il n'en reste pas moins que I'élan est donné et que ce principe est désormais ancré dans l'esprit de tous les éducateurs coloniaux dignes de ce nom: ce qui convient aux petits européens ne convient pas nécessairement aux petits indigènes d'Afrique ou d'Asie, et il est indispensable de se demander à la fois ce qu'on doit enseigner et comment on doit l'enseigner.

Eduard Hahn, to whom the ethnological study of economics owes a considerable number of important discoveries which have been published repeatedly and in varying forms, seems to have paid scarcely enough attention to the good work of the scholars who preceded him in the fight for the recognition of the outstanding position of women in the lower forms of soil cultivation. Steinmetz and quite recently Koppers, have pointed out that Buckland already attributed to the female sex the invention of the most ancient method of soil cultivation, or hoe culture, as, since Hahn, it has generally been called. He was followed by Roth, Lippert, Mason, Grosse, Schurtz, and finally Eduard Hahn with his very logical and ingenious deductions. The modern student of social history is not so easily satisfied with evidence arbitrarily collected from all over the world and the theories based on it, which are then said to hold good for all mankind; he finds the results of the research of the so-called ‘zones of culture school’ (Kulturkreisschule) much more convincing. Gräbner, the leader of this group of German ethnologists, has now recently made his numerous works, in condensed form, accessible to a wider public. Here we find, in particular, a clearer statement of the arguments of Grosse, Bachofen, and others about the connexion of matriarchal society and lower forms of soil cultivation. Matriarchy and hoe culture are assigned to definite chronologically determined stages of civilization (older forms of the so-called ‘two class culture’, and later ones of ‘bow culture’). Koppers, of the Austrian branch group, associates matriarchy and hoe culture with these two civilizations, which he, as does P. W. Schmidt, designates more aptly as ‘exogamous matriarchal’ and ‘free matriarchal’.

The several forms of preferential mating, such as cross-cousin marriage, sororate and levirate, are well known and have been reported from all the ethnographic provinces of the world. Lately Lowie and Rivers have devoted special chapters in their books on social organization to the comparative study of these important institutions. Lowie has pointed out that there is strong evidence for the correlation of sororate and levirate. The later publication of Rivers hardly serves to make these matters any clearer than Lowie's work. Although the latter scholar, with Tylor and others, recognized the close connexion existing between sororate and levirate, the evidence at his disposal did not allow him to arrive at a similar conclusion with regard to the other forms of preferential marriage. Accordingly he had to treat them, for the time being, as institutions of independent origin.

There are at the present time so many societies and institutes—national and international—for the study of African questions that there would be no justification for the inauguration of yet another unless it had an object in view, different from, or at least not effectively met by, any existing organization. There are, as it seems to me, two directions in which the organizations at present in existence need to be supplemented, and the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures has been founded in the hope of meeting these two requirements.

The methodical investigation of African customs and institutions, which, notwithstanding tardy official recognition, has made such rapid strides within the last twenty or thirty years, brings us constantly up against phenomena which upset our most cherished theories. The best text-books have taught us that the method of making fire by the stick-and-groove method belongs to Oceania, and it is most disconcerting to come across some African tribe, like the Tophoke, right in the centre of the continent, who practise it and know no other. The features of a Bena Lulua display unabashed curvilinear scorings which by all rights ought to adorn the face of some Maori. The Boloki employ a method of casting which is, but for its crudeness and the distinction that vegetable matter is used instead of wax, based practically on the same principles as the cire perdue process of higher civilizations. How is it that the Warega disdain the timehonoured African institution of slavery in whatever form and have social grades which find their nearest counterpart among the Edo and Ibo, twelve hundred miles west? Shall we ever find explanations for these and many other ethnological problems? The greatest difficulty we have to face when investigating matters of the past in Africa is the entire absence of dates: the African has never kept an account of time, which has always been of but little value to him, and consequently the co-ordination of various events becomes extremely laborious, if not impossible.

Le problème du coton, qui a pris tant d'importance depuis un quart de siècle, est posé en réalité depuis plus de cent ans et il semble bien que les tentatives faites pour le résoudre au début du XIXe siècle dans la vallée du Sénégal furent les premières de cette nature réalisées en Afrique.

Text-Books used in African schools are admittedly to a large extent not satisfactory. Many of them are neither adapted to the life and mind of the people whom they are intended to teach, nor do they meet the requirements of the principles of modern education. The call for better school-books in Africa is therefore general.

The International Institute of African Languages and Cultures considers it as one of its foremost duties to direct attention to this serious and urgent problem, which needs careful study, and for the solution of which the co-operation of those engaged in education in Africa is imperatively required.

Wenn sich noch vor zwanzig Jahren die Abkömmlinge verschiedener Stämme in der Steppe Ostafrikas begegneten, gingen sie teilnahmlos aneinander vorüber, ja wohl noch erfüllt miteinem Gefühle gegenseitiger Ablehnung. Das hat sich völlig gewandelt, und gerade die Bewohner der Steppen sind es, die das ihnen begegnende Glied eines altangesessenen Bergstammes fragen: wer bist du? Und wenn der auf ihre Frage antwortet: ich bin ein Christ, dann laden sie ihn freundlich ein zum Niedersitzen mit dem Rufe: karibu karibu, tuzungumze: tritt näher, wir wollen uns besprechen.

Die meisten Menschen glauben, dass die Sprache lediglich Verständigungsmittel ist. Jeder Reisende empfindet es ja als störend, dass man im fremden Lande seine Wünsche nicht unmittelbar äussern kann, sondern sich einer fremden Sprache oder eines Dolmetschers bedienen muss, und man erlebt dabei Missverständnisse und Verdriesslichkeiten. So ist es denn auch für den Beamten, den Geschäftsmann und den Missionar höchst lästig, dass man in Afrika sich nicht ungezwungen mit den Eingeborenen unterhalten kann, sondern damit warten muss, bis die Eingeborenen die Sprache des Europäers gelernt haben, oder der Europäer die Sprache der Afrikaner. Man versucht, diesen unerfreulichen Zustand auf allerlei Weise zu beseitigen, indem man die Kenntnis einer europäischen Sprache im Lande nach Möglichkeit verbreitet oder irgendeine afrikanische Verkehrssprache als Vermittlerin zwischen Europäern und Eingeborenen anwendet. Für rein praktische Zwecke wird das gewiss nützlich sein, aber es hat daneben eine bedenkliche, um nicht zu sagen gefährliche Seite, die der Freund der Afrikaner nicht übersehen darf.

Bantu ancestor-worship varies from one tribal area to another in much the same way as Bantu language, though to a lesser extent. It is not an organized or systematic religion: it has no sacred books, no pontificial standards of belief or practice, nor even past-masters of cult whose deliverances carry the general consent of the faithful. So far as I know, no Bantu ancestor-worshipper has ever written a reasoned exposition of the faith that is in him. We have, therefore, to rely upon first-hand reports from aliens scattered over a field of very wide scope, who peer into the gloom from their own little coigns of vantage and tell us what they partly see and partly infer; and there is unfortunately no known method of accurately assessing the allowance that ought to be made for each observer's astigmatism or slowness in noting phenomena. The best that can be done, perhaps, is to notice an observer's attitude towards religion, especially the non-Christian expressions of it, compare his findings on well-known points with those that seem to lie nearest the truth, and then make a rough guess at his personal equation. All writers on this subject, whether field-workers or synthetists, are therefore purveyors of opinion, not of unclad truth—enlightened opinion, perhaps, but still opinion; and their opinions are unwittingly coloured by their prepossessions.

In ethnological accounts the dance is usually given a place quite unworthy of its social importance. It is often viewed as an independent activity and is described without reference to its contextual setting in native life. Such treatment leaves out many problems as to composition and organization of the dance and hides from view its sociological function.

The native problem as it exists to-day in South Africa is not a phenomenon of recent growth. The issues which confront the country are the product of many decades of inter-racial contact and adjustment, during which Europeans and Natives have exercised a steadily growing influence upon each others' lives. Under the influence of European culture many of the Natives have abandoned their original tribal customs, and their social life is being reorganized on a new basis by the adoption of European habits and ideas. On the other hand, the presence of the Natives has so profoundly affected the social and economic development of the Europeans as to have become almost an integral part of the whole structure of civilization in South Africa. It is no longer possible for the two races to develop apart from each other. The future welfare of the country now depends upon the finding of some social and political system in which both may live together in close contact, without that increasing unrest and disturbance that seems to develop as the inevitable result of the lack of stability and unity in any society.

L'Olivier, très vieil arbre. Il en est peu qui puisse s'enorgueillir d'une tradition si ancienne et si humaine: un de ses rameaux dans le bee de la colombe n'annonçait-il pas à Noé la fin de la colère divine?

Sur tout le pourtour de la Méditerranée, l'olivier trouve des conditions favorables dans les sols considérés comme les plus arides aussi bien que sur les terres les plus riches. Il est en Syrie, en Anatolie, en Italie, en Provence, en Espagne; Athènes en a fait l'attribut de sa marraine, la sage Pallas; les rives redoutées de l'Afrique septentrionale en sont couvertes comme par contraste, car l'arbre de paix a fructifié au milieu des pires complications de l'histoire, de celles déterminées par le seul goût des rapines qui, pendant des siécles, a poussé les tribus pillardes à dévaster villes et campagnes, les pirates barbaresques à écumer la mer.

‘East Africa’ is a somewhat vague term; but for our present purpose we may take it to mean the area between Cape Guardafui and the Zambezi, extending inland to the Great Lakes, and including Nyasaland. Our subject naturally falls under two headings: we have on the one hand to consider the inchoate and sometimes only half articulate poetry of the inland tribes, and on the other the literature, as it may fitly be called, developed by the Swahili under Arab influence, but all the same a genuine product of the soil. The poetic output of the Hamitic Somali and Galla, though little known at present, is certainly worth attention.

The purport of this article is to provide an answer to the following questions:

1. What is African music like as compared to our own?

2. How can it be made use of in Church and School?

The answer might be as brief as the questions:

1. African and (modern) European music are constructed on entirely different principles, and therefore

2. they cannot be fused into one, but only the one or the other can be used without compromise.

The attention of most of my readers will only be engaged by the second of these points as being one of practical interest, while the first is of a more theoretical nature. But my second answer being only a conclusion drawn from my first one, I shall have to support it by entering on some theoretical detail; it will not, therefore, be possible to keep altogether clear of musical technicalities. Readers who feel alarmed at the idea of having to find their way through analyses of this kind, or to read music, may safely confine their attention to the last section; as for the preceding ones, they will, it is hoped, be indulgent towards the author, granting him that it would be difficult to state a thing without speaking of it.

Westafrika ist das klassische Land des Fetisches. Man will mit diesem Ausdtuck eine besonders niedrige Religionsform bezeichnen, die Verehiung eines beliebigen Gegenstandes. Wir tun damit dem Afrikaner Unrecht. Wohl verwendet er Gegenstände zu religiösen Zwecken, aber sie werden niemals beliebig gewählt, sondern nur sofern sie nach seiner Meinung Träger wertvoller Kräfte sind, Ein Stein verleiht Dauer, weil er selber unvergänglich ist. Der Zahn des Leoparden ist geschätzt, weil er Teil hat an den gefürchteten Eigenschaften dieses Tieres. Zudem wäre es falsch, von einer religiösen Verehrung dieser Gegenstände zu reden, sie sind wirksame Hilfsmittel im Kampf des Lebens, aber sie werden nicht angebetet; und sie sind keineswegs der einzige oder vorherrschende Gegenstand religiöser Betätigung, vielmehr gibt es gerade in Westafrika eine Fülle religiöser Vorstellungen, die zum erheblichen Teil sogar persönlichen Charakter tragen und als Gottheiten zu bezeichnen sind.

At first sight this sub-title may appear somewhat paradoxical, for what could be in greater contrast than the things denoted by the words ‘primitive’ and ‘European’? On the one hand, civilization with its highly developed technical methods in everything practical and theoretical, on the other, the world of simplicity in all practical activities. There—a mighty movement of expansion, irresistibly drawing into its sphere of influence all primitive life, to transform or destroy it, and in either case to make what remains of the primitive peoples and their countries do it service; here—vain resistance against the superior strength of the European, or the doubtful attempt to conform to European ideals. In the face of successful colonization by the cultured races of Europe, the last thing to be expected was any influence on Europe by the primitive peoples. Nevertheless, such an influence certainly exists, and that in the realm of art. After the period of realistic Impressionism in the last decades of the nineteenth century, a strong movement flowed through the art world of Europe, finding its most permanent expression as Futurism in Italy, Cubism in France, and Expressionism in Germany. This movement in Germany, in opposition to Realism, made it one of its principles to observe and express not the external but the interior world, while in France the desire for bold drawing of a decorative character prevailed. Both tendencies culminated in an art movement which felt for the primitive works of art a sympathy due to a sense of relationship: the Cubist appreciated their inherent architectural character, and the Expressionists the mystic emotional content.

The resolution of a spoken language into its constituent sounds is an exercise that most of us have practised since first we began to prattle. Our early efforts in the hearing and making of speech sounds were probably as automatic as the act of breathing, and it is very doubtful whether we ever attain any great degree of voluntary control over the physical and mental processes involved in the hearing and making of speech sounds. Before the acquisition of speech is complete, the language problem is further complicated for us by the laborious tasks of learning to read and write, that is to say, learning to see a language with the eye, and to make a visual picture of it with the hand. The result is that language becomes, while we are still young, a medley of complex processes, in which ear, eye, hand, and tongue are co-ordinated by the brain in an intricacy that is probably the crowning achievement of the human mind. Language, visual or oral, heard or seen, made with hand or mouth, rests thereafter upon a congeries of reflex processes that remain at our disposal to serve all the purposes for which language is intended.

Generalizations based on insufficient or inaccurate data have in the past contributed to many anthropological fallacies. Instances of such hasty generalizations will come to mind readily enough, and it will be recollected that whole theories have been so formulated and, after leading anthropological enquiry down sterile labyrinths of thought to dogmatical culs-de-sac, have had to be jettisoned with all their accumulated impedimenta of false inferences and falser conclusions. There is no room as yet for broad generalizations in cultural anthropology: our reliable information is still too fragmentary and unrelated.

In this article I shall confine my remarks almost exclusively to that portion of South Africa south of the Zambezi and the Kunene rivers, a territory comprising the Union of South Africa, South-West Africa, Bechwanaland, Southern Rhodesia, and the southern portion of Portuguese East Africa. In this large area, quite apart from the European languages used, we have representatives of three distinct linguistic types. Two of these types, the Bushman and the Hottentot, will not delay us any length of time; but the third, the Bantu, presents many difficulties at this stage of the opening up of Africa to European civilization, difficulties which the missionary societies, the European administrations, and the Natives themselves are beginning to face, difficulties which are bound up inextricably with questions of economics, sentiment, and growing racial consciousness. The work of the linguist in this connexion is not eased by the fact that this area is not under one administration, and I fear that some of the movements towards a unification and centralization of some of the languages will be hampered for this reason.