A research bulletin entitled Rural Africana is now being produced by the African Studies Center at Michigan State University. It is designed to serve as an informal means of exchanging information concerning politics, anthropology, and development economics in the rural areas of independent Africa south of the Sahara. The origin of the bulletin dates from the 1966 meeting of the (U.S.A.) African Studies Association. A small group of political scientists who had for some years emphasised local-level research in Africa met with several anthropologists who had been oriented to the earlier works by Professors Evans-Pritchard, Schapera, and Gluckman. In discussion, it was evident that the individuals in this group, although in different disciplines, overlapped in their area of interest, their theoretical orientations, and levels of analysis. It was suggested that an informal bulletin might serve to crossfertilise ideas in these and related fields, and that the emphasis should be on the rural areas—a sector of or contemporary importance which had been largely neglected save for anthropological research.