A common element in all African studies is the background of the African environment. My first real sight of Africa, thirty years ago, was in the long train journey from Lagos to Zaria. As a botanist, I was fascinated then by the changing patterns of vegetation — different kinds of forest and savanna, a rich diversity of plant species. I suppose all members of our Association have seen something of Africa's vegetation and, especially on long journeys, may have thought it monotonous and dull. However, as with all forms of scholarly inquiry, what at first sight seems uniform becomes, on close inspection, a puzzling jumble, and only after a fair amount of study do meaningful patterns and causal relationships emerge. My interest was aroused by that very obvious part of the African environment and over the years I found that my vegetational studies were often relevant to researchers in quite different disciplines.

A most useful introduction to archive and manuscript collections in Europe and America as well as in Africa was contributed by P. Duignan to the Nairobi conference in 1967 and is published in The Bibliography of Africa, ed. Pearson and Jones, pp. 194—213.

The series of ‘Guides to materials for West African history in European archives’ being produced by the University of London Institute of Historical Research numbers four volumes up to the time of writing:

Methodist missionary work overseas began in 1786. The first missionaries to be sent out from this country went to Canada and the West Indies however, and it was not until 1811 that the first Methodist mission was set up in Africa. This mission was located at newly established Freetown in Sierra Leone. Three years later other Methodists were active in Cape Colony on the southern tip of the continent and the Wesleyan Missionary Society's two major fields of missionary activity in Africa, the West Coast and Southern Africa, had been defined. From Freetown the Society's influence spread to Bathurst on the Gambia River in 1821, Cape Coast on the Gold Coast in 1835 and in 1854 to the old slaving port of Lagos. From Cape Coast the mission spread inland to Ashanti and from Lagos Island into Yorubaland. By 1905 there were over 1,000 Methodist chapels and 19 expatriate Methodist missionaries scattered throughout West Africa.

In this and subsequent numbers we hope to give an account of the various centres of African studies which exist in the United Kingdom. We begin with accounts of the Centre of African Studies at Edinburgh, and the African Studies Centre, University of Cambridge. We are most grateful to Miss Grace Hunter and Miss Wendy Saville who have provided this material, and much information about research in progress at the two Centres. We are happy also to be able to include a note about the African Studies Institute recently established in the University of the Witwatersrand.

The Centre of African Studies at Edinburgh University, entering its second decade, has produced thirteen volumes of papers from its weekend seminars. The most recent volume, “Developmental Trends in Kenya” contains the papers of the seminar of that title held in April 1972 and plans for the next one are complete.

In 1972 the Council of the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, established an Institute of African Studies at the University. The aims of the Institute are to encourage and foster fundamental research in the humanities and social sciences, with special reference to Africa south of the Zambezi, although investigations outside the area of specialization are not precluded. The situation of the University, within half a day's drive from Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland and Mozambique, as well as being close to African rural areas and to the vast urban complex of the Witwatersrand, makes it a logical choice for a research centre.

The Institute will eventually consist of a full-time Director and a number of full-time Fellows, the latter on a contract basis of up to three years. Four types of research personnel are envisaged: Senior Research Fellows, Research Fellows, Associate Fellows and Affiliates. Senior Research Fellows will normally have a doctor's degree and previous research experience and will plan and conduct their research without outside supervision.