There is an extensive documentary reflection in the United States, as yet only partially known, of American diplomatic, military, commercial, explorative, missionary, philanthropic, educational, scientific and other activities in, and contacts with, Africa over the past three and a half centuries. This vast accumulation, distributed throughout the country, has considerable research potential not only for historians of Africa and of American relations with Africa, but also for Africanists working in various social scientific disciplines.

In order to bring to light and to acquaint interested American and foreign scholars with the entire broad range of Africa-related archival and manuscript materials extant in this country, the African Studies Association sought foundation support for a comprehensive descriptive guide to these materials. The Ford Foundation has awarded a grant of $54,000 to the Association for the production of the guide over a three-year period.

The Archives-Libraries Committee of the Association, under the chairmanship of Dr. William A. Hance, has arranged with the Archivist of the United States for the National Archives and Records Service to assume joint responsibility with ASA for the conduct of the guide project. Morris Rieger, a senior member of the NARS staff, and as ASA Fellow, will serve as project director. The project, which began on February 1, 1964, has been placed under the immediate jurisdiction of the National Historical Publications Commission, a body, linked to NARS, of which the Archivist is Chairman. This link will give the project the valuable advantage of NHPC's close ties with archival and manuscript depositories throughout the country.

At universities with Programs of African Studies, the question arises how best to train graduate students in economics who intend to specialize in African economic development: which particular fields within the corpus of pure and applied economics should be stressed, and which other subjects should be added which are not included in traditional economics curricula?

The answer depends upon one's judgment of what African development consists of and which problems of development are most common and most pressing in Africa.

The Project arose as a result of two informal conferences at Nuffield College, Oxford, arranged by Dr. Margery Perham and Dr. Frederick Madden. Those who accepted invitations to the conferences included members of British universities interested in Colonial (and particularly African) studies, members of appropriate Government departments, representatives of the Royal Commonwealth Society and former officers of the Colonial Service. Dr. Conrad Reining of the African section of the Library of Congress attended the second conference.

The second conference, in April 1963, heard a report from Mr. John Tawney, a former Administrative Officer in Tanganyika and Editor of Corona, on his search for papers in private possession which were likely to be of value to British Colonial history. This work had been financed by the University's Beit Fund for an experimental period of six months, from the beginning of 1963, but after three months Mr. Tawney's report was sufficiently encouraging to arouse general support for the setting up of a special project at Oxford. Lack of funds, however, was an obstacle to the establishment of a formal organization until two generous grants breathed life into the proposal, one from Lord Boyd and the other from the African Studies Association of America. The grant from Lord Boyd was subsequently supported by the Goldsmiths Company and the Drapers Company.

The International African Institute is organizing a seminar on the Impact of Christianity in Tropical Africa, to be held from Tuesday, April 6, to Friday, April 16, 1965, at the University of Ghana.

This will be the third in a second series of International African Seminars arranged with the aid of a grant from the Ford Foundation: it follows the completion of the first series of four seminars in the year 1959-61. These seminars are being devoted to research problems of significance for further social, economic and educational development in Africa. An important aim is to provide opportunities for research workers and other scholars holding posts in various parts of Africa to establish closer contact with each other and with their colleagues overseas, and to exchange views on problems and methods of research.

The Accra seminar will be held under the chairmanship of Professor C. G. Baëta, Head of the Department for the Study of Religions at the University of Ghana. Fifteen to twenty specialists from different parts of Africa and from overseas are being invited to participate. They are asked to contribute papers and to assist in preparing a study report on some aspect of the work of the seminar. It is also hoped to be able to admit a small number of observers to the meetings of the seminar. Travel and accommodation expenses cannot be provided for observers, but as far as possible accommodation will be secured for them.

It was decided during the Fifth Panafrican Congress on Prehistory and Quaternary Studies, held at Santa Cruz de Tenerife in September 1963, to follow the example of the Inventaria Archaeologica edited by the International Congress of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences, and to publish similar illustrated cards devoted to pre- and protohistoric closed finds and type-series from the African continent. The series is to be called Inventaria Archaeologica Africana (I. A. A.). It was thought by members of Congress that it might be possible in this way to have rapidly in condensed and standardized form, the most significant results of new excavations. As only very few specialized journals are prepared to take even preliminary excavation reports, this method was suggested as being both convenient and rapid to publish new material. On the other hand, important old material, already published in scientific periodicals, could possibly be redrawn and uniformly re-issued in the series.

To implement this resolution, Congress appointed a committee consisting of Messrs. L. Balout, J.D. Clark, O. Davies, R. Inskeep, J. Nenquin and M. Posnansky. Since these persons are also members of the Standing Committee on Terminology, the necessary close collaboration between those two bodies is guaranteed. It was further decided that all matters relating to the practical side of editing the material should be centralized by one person, so as to ensure a maximum of uniformity in section drawing, general presentation of the cards, etc. The Patrimoine du Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale at Tervuren (Belgium), through its Chairman Prof. Ir L. Cahen, very kindly offered to provide the financial backing necessary for this enterprise.

The Boston University African Studies Program inaugurated a program for the United States Government in June 1959 when an orientation and training course for International Cooperation Administration (the predecessor of the Agency for International Development) career personnel to be assigned to African posts was undertaken. A special staff was appointed to administer the program under the direction of the Director of the African Studies Program. In 1961 the Development Research Center was formally established within the African Studies Program with responsibility for administering contract activities. John D. Montgomery, who was in charge of contract activities from 1960 to 1963, was succeeded as Director of the Development Research Center by John L. Fletcher, Jr., Professor of Government at Boston University. Other members of the Center's staff have included Edouard Bustin, Associate Research Professor of Government; Wilbert J. LeMelle, Assistant Research Professor of Government; John W. Sommer, Research Assistant; and Claudia W. Moyne, Research Associate. Regular staff members of the African Studies Program also participate in the work of the Development Research Center by delivering lectures and giving informal instruction.

During the period of the first contract, 140 career employees studied at Boston University. The program for the first group of employees included seven months of study, part of which was at Boston University and part in Europe and Africa. For the second group of employees, trained in 1960, a shorter period of study included work in Boston as well as a European phase at Oxford, London, Brussels, and Paris. For the third group there was a seven-week's program conducted entirely in Boston. Subsequent groups received four weeks of instruction in Boston. In addition to the lectures and published written materials, the course also included the study and discussion of special case studies in technical assistance and group exercises in the design and analysis of foreign aid programs for selected countries.