How can Africanists and information specialists in African research and documentation get the most out of Wikipedia, and how can they contribute to Wikipedia? This article argues that Wikipedia is useful both as a universally accessible - albeit not specifically academic - free reference tool and as a channel for outreach to disseminate sourced academic and non-academic information. The ‘African Studies’ article on the English-language Wikipedia provides some slightly dubious definitions but also gives a useful hyperlinked list of notable Africanists, institutions and degree courses. But not all the socalled ‘notable’ Africanists and institutions mentioned are in truth very notable (or are they: John Frank Clarke and Antumi Toasijé?). One of the pitfalls of Wikipedia, namely its self-promotion, may be a factor here.

The Commonwealth Journalists’ Association (CJA) was established at a meeting of Commonwealth journalists held in Toronto, alongside the Commonwealth Press Union conference, on the 16th September 1978, following earlier discussions at a conference of Commonwealth NGOs at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1976. The organisation adopted its constitution at the first general meeting in Nicosia, Cyprus, April 1983, with the stated purpose: “To foster and promote better understanding and closer collaboration between the journalists of the Commonwealth; to further the interests of Commonwealth journalists in all aspects of their work; and, though the media, to enhance understanding and goodwill amongst the peoples of the Commonwealth”.

Accounts of the 1907 deputation of Basuto chiefs to Britain have tended to focus on events in South Africa prior to the deputation's departure, and on the negotiations which took place once the deputation was in Britain. Less attention has been paid to the planning and preparation by sympathisers in Britain in anticipation of the arrival of the deputation in the metropole.

The chiefs were from the Batlokoa and Bakhulukwe chiefdoms. They travelled to Britain to pursue a grievance concerning their being dispossessed of large tracts of land which they and their followers had previously occupied in the Orange River Colony (ORC) in South Africa. When they arrived in Britain in January 1907 there was a readymade support network waiting for them. This article seeks to explain how the chiefs came to benefit from such a well organised reception in Britain.