This Committee was organised by interested scholars meeting in December 1962 at McGill University in Montreal. Representatives were present from the Islamic Institute, the Universities of Alberta (Edmonton), McGill, Montreal, New Brunswick, and Toronto, and from Loyola College and the Ontario Agricultural College. Expressions of interest were also received from Alberta (Calgary), British Columbia (Vancouver and Victoria), Manitoba, Memorial, Queens, Carleton, Waterloo, and York Universities. Professor Ronald Cohen (McGill) was elected chairman, Professor Donald C. Savage (Loyola) executive secretary, and Professor Donald L. Wiedner (Alberta-Edmonton) editor of a proposed annual bulletin. Organisational support and assistance was given by Dr J. R. Kidd, executive secretary of the Social Science Research and Humanities Research Councils of Canada, with which the Committee on African Studies is to be affiliated for its first two years.