The search for a conceptual framework for interpreting the political evolution of the new states has led to a renewal of interest in charisma. Some writers, such as Shils, have used the concept of charisma to explain the problem of political integration; others, such as Wallerstein and Apter, have used it to indicate how political integration may be furthered. The use of charisma as a conceptual tool for illuminating the problem of political integration is taking on the character of a theory, which we call the theory of charismatic legitimation. This paper attempts an evaluation of this theory. Charismatic legitimation is the process of creating loyalty for the new state through the personal influence of the charismatic leader. This crude definition could bear further clarification. But we shall seek clarification by examining the theory of charismatic legitimation rather than by framing more abstract definitions.

The Company of the Apostles at Aiyetoro is a settlement unique in Nigeria. It is a prosperous community with a high standard of living and excellent amenities. Its reserves of capital, or rather cash, are obviously very large indeed. The people look healthy and content. Their way of life is wholly communal and they claim that it is based on the precepts of the early Christian Apostles. The varying views expressed about it by visitors have contributed to the great interest which it undoubtedly rouses.

Dr. McClelland's account of the communal settlement of fishermen at Aiyetoro, with its moving tribute to “the strength of purpose” and “fortitude”of “simple uneducated men”, brings to mind some lines by the Nigerianpoet, Gabriel Okara, in which he attempts to show something of the religious force behindan older group of African Christians on the West African coast, members of what is now known generally as the “Aladura” movement, the praying people, with their emphasis on the Holy Spirit:

They pray, the Aladuras pray

to what only hearts can see while dead

fisherman long dead with bones rolling

nibbled clean by nibbling fishes, follow

four dead cowries shining like stars

into deep sea where fishes sit in judgment;

and living fishermen in dark huts

sit round dim lights with Babalawo

throwing their souls in four cowries

on sand, trying to see to-morrow.

Still they pray, the Aladuras pray

to what only hearts can see behind

the curling waves and the sea, the stars

and the subduing unanimity of the sky

and their white bones beneath the sand.

And standing dead on dead sands

I felt my knees touch living sands -

but the rushing wind killed the budding words.

The Rastafarians have been a social problem for Jamaica ever since 1933, when one of their earliest leaders, Howell, sold 5000 postcards of the Emperor Haille Selassie at a shilling each making them out to be passports to Ethiopia. They gained greater publicity in 1941 when the police raided Howell's community at Pinnacle and arrested seventy of his followers on charges of growing ganja (marijuana) and of violence. In the 1950's many more were arrested, and - Rastas assert - flogged and forcibly shaved by the police; some were imprisoned on charges of rioting, and there were two separate cases charging that children were sacrificed by fire in Trenchtown, a slum area of the capital.

The Kraton religion of 15th century Java is complex, sophisticated and syncretic, and is generally characterised by the name Shiva Buddha, an expression implying a syncretic blending of Shivaism and Buddhism. Within less than two centuries, however, this religion had been displaced from its dominant position, many of its holy books were destroyed, and Java was under the exclusive rule of Muslim kings. A study of this period of transition from one dominant religious tradition to another involves the consideration of many important questions, perhaps the most significant of which is: how much was involved in the change of religion?

During the 1930's, especially in the early depression years, welfare associations of African intellectuals, for the most part Government clerks or mission employees, were formed in Northern Rhodesia. Originally conceived as guilds of conscious elites, what many Europeans of the period distastefully referred to as ”detribalized natives“, these associations quickly became, or were considered to have become, organs of wider significance. Many persons who later rose to prominence in politics and the trade union movement acquired their first organizational experience in these short-lived, rather underestimated protest bodies. As the name suggests, there were many resemblances to nineteenth-century British workmens' associations; certainly in the line of rail towns stretching from the Falls to Ndola, the Duke of Wellington's convictions were resurrected by Government a century later in another land. When Government directed its basilisk gaze at these associations in 1933, they quickly succumbed. Still, one is justified in studying them, if only because they serve to increase the number of Africans in African history.

In the process of industrialization Western Europe went through a period of serious social tensions. For a while this phenomenon became of the utmost concern to all men engaged in socio-political thinking and action. In some countries one spoke - and sometimes still does - of “the social problem” or “the social question” in the singular to indicate its over-all importance.

The two jurisdictions with the greatest volume and complexity of laws dealing with usury are the United States and Israel. England, the wellspring of our common law, and one of present-day Israel's legal fonts, did away with all regulation of interest over a century ago. All of continental Europe contains only two or three jurisdictions which apply legal limits to interest on loans. The communist countries present a special situation since private loans at interest have no official place in the economic system. Islamic countries, like Pakistan, constitutionally frown on interest but it is present in practice, thereby embarrassing the secular authorities. However, the extent of legal experience with loans at interest in all other jurisdictions combined does not rival that wealth of elaborate study which is to be found in judicial decisions and legislative documents in American and Jewish law. It is, therefore, of interest to examine from a comparative standpoint the approach to usury taken by United States' courts and by Jewish legal authorities to see in which respects they differ and are similar.