The pioneering book The Negro, by W.E.B. Du Bois (1915), more than fifty years ago claimed a place for Africa in world history and opened the whole field of black historiography. It is fair to say that until its publication in 1915 the serious study of Africans at home and abroad had been neglected. Aspects of African and black American history had been surveyed but no synoptic view of Africans and people of African descent throughout the world had been undertaken, nor had the black man's right to be considered an integral part of human history been established. The originality of the book lies in its attempt “to pull together into one succinct but comprehensive whole the different elements of African history.” What we now frequently refer to as the “African Diaspora” still challenges historians, and it seems that there has not yet appeared a general history of the black race that goes much further than The Negro. It is equally important to note here that not much has been done in terms of the development of comprehensive African studies centers. As a matter of fact, I believe—although many Africanists, I know, would disagree with me—that the failure of African area studies centers to develop programs which embrace “The Black Diaspora” was partly responsible for the birth of separate Afro-American studies departments and Afro-Caribbean studies departments in the 1960s. This apparent lack of a Pan-Africanist perspective in African studies programs has created problems yet to be dealt with by American academia.

Scholars working in Africa through the years have been faced with the problem of how to identify and differentiate one group of people from another. One of the bases for classification has been to establish linguistic boundaries, a method which has been part of the traditional anthropological means of distinguishing one “tribe” from the next. Recently others have pointed out the dangers of compartmentalizing peoples purely on linguistic grounds, as many individuals are multilingual.

With scholars even today disagreeing over what constitutes a proper basis for classification (Biebuyck, 1966: 500-515; Helm, 1968), it is not surprising that there remain some areas of the African continent in which a consensus has not yet been achieved. As a case in point, there are two groups of people living in the eastern part of Liberia and the western part of the Ivory Coast who have been referred to in the literature by a variety of names.

It would seem that the problem is particularly acute among African art experts. The terms most commonly observed in English publications for those groups which live in eastern Liberia are Dan and Ngere (Fagg, 1953: 17-18). However, there is no consistency in the names used by other art historians, so that Dan N'gere, referring to a general art style of both of these peoples, is used by Sieber, Rubin (1968: 54), and Bravmann (1970: 32). The names Gio, Yacouba, Kran, and Tien also can be found used by other scholars to refer to the very same peoples (Harley, 1950; Girard, 1967: 7; Bascom, 1967: 78; Himmelheber, 1960: 192).

In the spring of 1973, the authors conducted a survey of political scientists teaching African politics courses at American colleges and universities. Our intention was to collect and disseminate information about: (1) the techniques used in teaching African politics, (2) the books assigned most frequently to students, (3) the choice of African political systems for emphasis in the classroom, and (4) the current level of student interest in African politics. Information was also collected about those who teach African politics: how many have done field research, in which countries do they have the most expertise, and which approaches to political development do they find useful in teaching?

The purposes of this survey were several. One was simply to collect the above information and make it available to teachers of African politics—hopefully, it will be useful to those in this field to know which teaching techniques, approaches, texts, etc., others have found successful in the classroom. A second purpose was to elicit comment on the popularity of African politics as an academic discipline. We hypothesized before conducting this survey that certain trends we had observed locally might be applicable nationally. In particular, we felt that in the post-Vietnam period in the United States, student interest and enrollment in comparative politics courses, on Africa as well as other regions, might be decreasing. The possible reasons for this are multiple, but one can speculate that a mood of isolationism following the Vietnam fiasco might adversely affect enrollment. Further, the uncertain state of the economy and continued high unemployment may induce a shift away from liberal arts courses toward more specifically career-oriented disciplines.

In the coming decades, the broad outline of Kenyan development is quite likely to duplicate the Mexican experience of industrial and commercial progress for a minority combined with economic stagnation for the majority. While there are obvious differences in culture, history, and geography, there are basic similarities in industrialization strategy, agricultural structure, urban expansion, and population growth rate. A continuation of the current industrial, financial, and agricultural strategies, and an extrapolation of other variables along certain key paths, will almost surely lead Kenya to the same form of dualistic transformation that has gradually engulfed Mexico over the course of three decades. A rather important point which emerges from the following analysis is that only by a significant reduction in the population growth rate can that result be avoided.

An economic transformation is many faceted, involving technological, institutional, and cultural changes as well as significant shifts in the product mix. From an economic standpoint, an essential element of transformation is a significant growth in labor productivity which, in turn, is translated into a rising level of income per capita. This improvement in average product per worker largely involves the transfer of labor from traditional, low productivity sectors into those which spearhead modernization. This facet of economic transformation is referred to as labor force transformation and is generally understood to be a goal of economic development.

The colonial engraving of political frontiers on Africa has profoundly affected the history of the continent. A legacy of heterogeneity resulted from assembly of diverse environmental and social milieux within singular boundaries. Rather than lending a richness of experience and resources enhancing post-independence development, this diversity has led to well-known consequences of regional ethnic antagonism ranging from spirited competition to warfare. At the present time, African nations face persuasion from opposite poles. On the one hand, preservation of traditional ethnic diversity in art, clothing, dance, literature, and other aspects of cultural heritage are important to a consciousness of self-value and one's identity. On the other hand, nationalism, socio-economic unity, and spatial integration to meld diversity into a modern nation-state are manifest in establishment of official languages, educational systems, and national economic development plans. Whether these aspects of unity and diversity are necessarily antithetical is less important here than the question of continued attitudes of differentiation and the perpetuation of local and regional identity.

The consequences of diversity in Nigeria need little introduction. The Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria was assembled in 1914 from Lagos Colony and the former Lagos, Southern Nigerian, and Northern Nigerian Protectorates. Each of the predecessor territories had incorporated diverse ethnic groups, tribal institutions, and/or city-states, and each major region persisted separately as a province after this initial federation (Adejuyigbe, 1974). Federal level unity was limited to the European administration. Two forces characterized political momentum in pre-independence Nigeria: one was the drive for unity with the goal of eventual independence; the other was for greater local autonomy and the creation of smaller internal regional units. In 1939, for example, the Southern Federation was divided into what became the Eastern and Western Provinces. These provinces achieved internal self-government in 1957, followed by the North in 1959 (Prescott, 1959, 1966). National independence in 1960 did not quell determined efforts for separate recognition by various regional and ethnic groups, in one case resulting in the 1963 separation of the Mid-Western Region from the Western Region. Until 1968, however, the Eastern and Northern Regions remained unchanged. Widespread disruption following the military coup of 1966 led in 1967 to the Federal Military Government's creation of the contemporary pattern of twelve states (Figure 1). Although none of the states coincides perfectly with ethnic, linguistic, religious, or cultural boundaries in Nigeria, each state nevertheless offers greater local autonomy and recognition, especially to some of the less populous Nigerian ethnic groups.