The Organisation of African Unity is now three years old. In view of the nature of both its scope and its goals, it would obviously be premature to attempt an evaluation of this organisation at such an early stage. On the other hand, the O.A.U. has grown precociously since its birth in May 1963, and the time is ripe for a description of its rapidly multiplying organs, and for some preliminary observations of the multifarious activity in which they have been engaged. To state that the O.A.U. is still in the cradle stage of its development is to emphasise the obvious. It is hardly surprising also that it should suffer the pains of growth, which are likely to be rather severe in the case of a scheme so ambitiously conceived. These facts must be kept in mind while reviewing the O.A.U. at its present state of development.

The difficulties experienced by some African countries in settling their external payments have become a matter of considerable concern, both to the countries themselves as well as to the regional and international institutions concerned with economic and financial development. More and more countries are plagued by these difficulties, while the difficulties themselves continue to multiply. Nevertheless, it appears that the nature, the size, and the implications of these payments problems are not always fully understood. This article seeks to analyse them, to emphasise the need for further study and to seek possible solutions.

What Southern Africa will look like a generation from now is an immediate problem for the South African Government's top policy makers, who realise the precarious nature of apartheid. These planners have rejected both the do-nothing approach of the right-wing elements (e.g. the Republican Party) in South Africa and the multi-racial society solution pressed by Mrs Helen Suzman, the only Member of Parliament of the (relatively) left-wing Progressive Party. Between these two alternatives a host of partition schemes have been advocated, and one of them has been accepted: the ‘Bantustan’ proposals. By geographical isolation of each of the non-White ethnic groups into separate homelands or ‘Bantustans’, leaving the remainder of the territories of South Africa and South-West Africa to the Whites, the Nationalist Government is proceeding to change the face of Southern Africa.

The question of national unity for the new states of Africa stands at the centre of their political problems. Progress in a variety offields is blocked until they are able to resolve internally the constitutional question of loyalty to a new system of authority which was conceived under colonialism and made a reality through nationalist drives for independence. Africa, more than any other continent, is troubled by the divisions between ethnic, racial, and religious groups who found temporary consensus in the struggle against the common colonial enemy, but who, having achieved independence, find the principle of self-determination now internally a divisive force against a unified national polity and purpose.According to James Coleman and Carl Rosberg, ‘Just as the one-party trend is the most striking feature of the political structure of new African states, so the problems of integration are the major issues and obstacles in the task of nation-building, which is itself the primary preoccupation of the leadership of the new states.’

This article is an attempt to use some of the quantitative techniques of political science to provide a factual description of the voting behaviour of the African members in a selected session of the United Nations General Assembly. Drawing primarily upon methodology that has been used in studies of the United States Congress, 67 roll-call votes of the eighteenth session have been used to answer three questions which would seem primary to this description: (i) On what types of issues are the African states united and on what are they divided? (2) On divisive issues, into what groups are they divided? (3) How do the groupings vote, combine, and divide on these divisive issues?

The African World: a survey of social research, is in my estimation one of the most important and unique attempts in African studies to interrelate the social sciences and the humanities; it has been edited for the African Studies Association by Robert A. Lystad (New York, Praeger, 1965). The contributors, mainly American and British, are well-known scholars. Together they have brought out a volume on methodology that is unparalleled in multi-disciplinary comprehensiveness in African studies. This is a tribute not only to the authors but also to the development of scholarship on Africa, for the past two decades of accomplishments are richly represented here. The distinction of The African World is that it identifies new problems, raises new questions and deals with a wide variety of methodologies. It should be mandatory reading for students of African affairs. And it can be usefully employed by nonAfricanists dealing with multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary aspects of area research.

The Institute of African Studies of Fourah Bay College (University College of Sierra Leone) and the Committee for African Studies of the University of California, Berkeley, jointly arranged this seminar, whose sub-title was ‘the inter-relationship of area and comparative studies’.

This group of 13 archaeologists came mostly from universities and research institutes in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Niger, with two from American universities. They met under the auspices of the Institute of African Studies, Fourah Bay College—the first time that Sierra Leone has played host to an archaeological symposium. Each participant had been actively engaged on fieldwork in Africa and presented the results of his research.

This year the World Congress was attended by large delegations from Eastern Europe, and 88 from the Soviet Union alone. Some of these could speak English and French, and could thus exchange experiences and opinions outside the conference rooms. The new interest of Communist countries in the International Sociological Association and its activities was appropriately reflected in the election of a Polish sociologist as President of the next World Congress.

The sixth annual Cambridge Conference met to discuss ‘How to Make Aid More Effective through Co-operation’, with Dr R. E. Robinson again in the chair. Six donor and 34 recipient countries were represented by some 150 participants; background papers were presented by Chief Adebo, Professor Hollis Chenery, Professor Willard Thorp, Professor H. V. Wiseman, Dr J. A. Adler, DrT. Balogh, Dr I. G. Patel, Dr C. Quintana, J. Audibert, David Owen, S. S. Khera, Rashid Ibrahim, J. H. Mensah, Tun Razak, and Roger Swynnerton. Among other conference members were Professor G. M. Meier, Professor Lopes Rodrigues, Professor David Joslin, Professor E. A. Mauck, Dr Hans Singer, Dr Hassan Saab, Dr E. F. Schumacher, Dr S. Lourie, Dr T. Soper, Lady Ursula Hicks, and John Miller.

A volume is being prepared, under the over-all guidance and editorship of Gottfried O. Lang and Peter F. M. McLoughlin, on progress among the Sukuma, Tanzania's largest tribal group. The book is both historical and interdisciplinary, covering aspects of geography, economics, agricultural economics, anthropology, political science, sociology, and history. Occupying some 20,000 square miles east and south of Lake Victoria, the Sukuma own approximately one-fifth of Tanzania's livestock and produce most of the country's cotton, the second largest export by value. Chapters will pay particular attention to the factors which have been responsible for Sukumaland's positive economic, social, and political changes, as well as to those elements which have precluded or delayed change. The orientation is practical; development experience will be analysed so that current and future policies and procedures may profit from a more precise definition of trends, problems, and prospects. An appendix will synthesise contributors, research methodologies, techniques, and problems.

The Standing Conference on Library Materials on Africa (S.C.O.L.M.A.) was established in 1962 to improve the coverage of publications needed for African studies, by co-ordinating their acquisition and facilitating their use through bibliographic and other projects. Surveys in progress of periodicals and debates published in Africa have confirmed that there are substantial gaps in U.K. holdings of African material. Libraries collect the important publications from the regions in which they are interested, and thus acquire a great deal of the same material, but financial and other considerations prevent them from obtaining material which is less important but still of value for research.

Specialised semi-autonomous institutions for the training of civil servants have been set up in almost all independent countries of Africa. They are another symbol of independence, and the goals of independence could not be reached without the African civil servants they train. Because many of the needs of nation-building are the same, there are similarities between the Ecoles nationales d'administration (ENA's) in French-speaking countries and the Institutes of Public Administration (IPA's) in English-speaking countries; but the programmes and organisation of each language group reflect different colonial traditions, educational systems, and current policies regarding civil service development.