It is well known that nationalist movements are generally accompanied by parallel movements of ideas that make it possible for its leaders to mould a new image of the dominated people. And as Thomas Hodgkin has shown, the need for African political movements to ‘justify themselves’ and ‘to construct ideologies’ has been particularly strong.1 Nationalist movements were to a large extent founded upon emotional impulses, which imparted a distinctive tone to the intellectual clamour that went with them and which continue to have a clear resonance after independence.

President Senghor of Senegal stands out among the statesmen of Africa not only for his literary achievements and his political acumen, but also for having made a major contribution toward the emergent doctrine of African Socialism. Senghor's reflections on that subject are based on his emotional and intellectual commitment to African values and realities, and on a thorough investigation of western and Communist thinkers. The result is an amalgam aimed at serving the future of Africa.

In 1962 the Nigerian Federal Minister of Economic Development said,

It is our duty as a nation to see to it that we produce population census results which have been thoroughly conducted, verified and appraised, and therefore acceptable, without any shadow of doubt, to all governments of the world and to all international bodies such as the United Nations and its agencies, the World Bank, etc… The impressions of the manner in which a country conducts its affairs are one of the factors which earn for it the respect or disrespect of the rest of the world.1

The last few years have been notable in Africa for the many attempts which have been made to bring about economic integration, on the one hand through political regroupings, on the other by various kinds of economic associations between fully sovereign states. At present, the number of ‘political’ integrations is small. One of the most important recent examples, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, was broken up in 1963 after a life of ten years. The Federations in former French West and Equatorial Africa did not survive the independence of their constituent territories. In fact, about the only examples of this kind of integration at present are Cameroun, Somalia, and EthiopiaEritrea.

The Islamic Republic of Mauritania, independent since 28 November 1960, is the most recent convert to the revolutionary model of single- party government practised in a number of new African states.1 As such, it is a political curiosity, for the model presupposes a militant mass party that ‘won’ independence, whereas the Mauritanian People's Party, founded after independence, in December 1961, is a heterogeneous association of politicians and traditional tribal leaders. Until 1964, President Mokhtar Ould Daddah, Mauritania's first university graduate, carefully balanced the regional, tribal, and personal demands of the notables while moderating those of the young modernisers within his administration. Since the extraordinary congress held at Kaedi in January 1964, however, he has attempted to transform a politics of equilibrium based upon tribal personalities to a politics of nation- building based upon a modern party.

A University must grow from seed. It cannot be transplanted from England or Germany in full leaf and bearing … When the American University appears, it will not be a copy of foreign institutions but the slow and natural outgrowth of American social and political habits.

This quotation from C. W. Eliot, who was President of Harvard University nearly 100 years ago, provided Sir Eric Ashby with the starting text for his recent Godkin Lectures at Harvard, which have since been published under the title African Universities and Western Tradition. Ashby is concerned with the process through which the universities in Africa, still very much western transplantations, will develop into genuine national universities. He seeks to extend Eliot's prophecy to the universities of Africa, to test there its applicability and its implications.

The African Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin was established in September 1961, thus formalising the co-operation which had been developing over several years between faculty members in various disciplines and departments with research and teaching interests in Africa. The Program provides a centre for the co-ordination of such teaching and research. A certificate in African studies may be obtained in association with an M.A. degree in one of the university departments; at the Ph.D. level, African studies may be offered as a minor field.

When the Centre of African Studies came into being three years ago, the lack of specialists in many branches of African studies in Poland and the resulting scarcity of teachers made it seem likely that development might be initially rather slow. Nevertheless, some evaluation of the Centre's work is already possible.

There were four practical objectives in establishing the Centre: (1) to build up a collection of books and other printed materials for African research; (2) to offer a two-year diploma course in African problems for holders of Master's degrees of various departments and faculties (for example, the M.A. of the Oriental Institute of the University of Warsaw, a five-year course which can include specialisation in African philology/linguistics); (3) to organise a centre of advanced research; and (4) to issue our own publications.

This seminar was held under the auspices of the Department of Adult Education and Extra-Mural Studies, at the University of Ibadan. For a number of years, the Department has attempted to encourage African writing and the study of African literature, largely under the leadership of Chief Ulli Beier, originator and editor of the magazine Black Orpheus; and now that African works in English are included in the list of set books for the West African School Certificate, it seemed necessary to discuss systematically the teaching problems involved.

This seminar was sponsored by the European Centre for Overseas Development (C.E.D.I.M.O.M.), which has included since its foundation in 1957 about 40 public and private countries, established in the Common Market countries and in Africa, interested in the exploitation of mineral and power resources in the under-developed countries, particularly in French-speaking Africa. This conference, like others organised from time to time by the Centre, was attended by a large number of business executives and civil servants from Europe and Africa, as well as university representatives and economic journalists. The chairman was M Roland Prć, governor and president of C.E.D.I.M.O.M.; others included MM J. Alibert, a director of the Banque Internationale de l'Afrique de l'ouest (B.I.A.O.), P. A. Forthomme, Director- General of the Belgian Department of Foreign Trade and Co-operation, R. Sailer, Minister of Finance from the Ivory Coast, R. Triboulet, the French Minister of Co-operation, J. M. Jeanneney, a former Minister and Professor of the Faculty of Law and Economics at Paris, G. Panouillet, Director- General of the Banque centrale des états d'Afrique équatoriale et du Cameroun, and R. Rouques, Director-General of B.I.A.O. There were also several university professors: J. Devisse from Lille, Dupriez from Louvain, L. Hamon from Lyon, G. Leduc and M. Luchaire from Paris, besides the Ambassadors in Paris of Senegal, Congo (Brazzaville), Dahomey, Madagascar, and Niger.

Broadcasting, especially of a religious nature, has a varied pattern in Africa today. The reasons are not far to seek, in the variety of European colonial powers who left their mark on Africa, followed by the interest and influence of non-colonial powers such as the U.S.A. Nigeria owes most to the patterns of the B.B.C.; the former French territories show strong marks of resemblance to C.R.T.F.; Liberia looks like an American child, and Ethiopia has her own peculiar pattern, having learned much from Sweden, the U.S.A., and Germany. The variety is increased in the field of religious broadcasting by the activities of the various missionary societies. Some of these have totally ignored the opportunities of the mass media or concentrated on literature; others, notably the Lutherans and Baptists, have pioneered in radio and are ready to do the same for television. There are Christian studios in Africa producing programmes for the missionary stations like R.V.O.G. in Addis Ababa, or for commercial stations broadcasting to African countries.

This was the second annual Seminar for university teachers of economics held by the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (I.D.E.P.). There were 22 anglophone—and unfortunately only 10 francophone— participants, from 28 teaching and research institutions in 16 African countries. The following papers were presented: ‘The Necessity and Limitations of Planning as a Tool for Economic Development’, by Professor Diran Bodenhorn, University of Ibadan; ‘The Use of Critical Path Analysis as an Aid to Planning in African Countries’, by J. R. Jurcan, University of Glasgow; ‘Planning as a Tool for Economic Integration in Africa’, by Professor H. C. Bos, Netherlands School of Economics; and ‘Planning in Agriculture: techniques and problems’, by J. Dalton, Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa.

The U.N. Statistical Commission and the U.N. Statistical Office are responsible for a world programme of work which is intended not only to assist the development of national statistical programmes, but also to establish international standards for ensuring the comparability of data. The general principles arising from these activities offer one of the main sources of guidance for countries developing their statistical programmes.

The economic aid programmes of Kuwait should be viewed within the context of that country's economic status, which cannot be described as either ‘developing’ or ‘developed’. Indeed, such simple classifications fail to allow for a situation in which a nation might be developed in certain aspects yet be ‘under-developed’ in others. Criteria which generally indicate a developed economy include a high income per capita, a high rate of economic growth and a sound external financial situation. The Kuwaiti economy fulfils these requirements. In 1964 the income per capita reached $3,275 in Kuwait as compared to $3,221 for the United States and $2,161 for Sweden. An average annual growth rate reaching eight per cent can be claimed, which is about double that of the highly industrialised world powers. The Kuwaiti balance of payments is most favourable if compared with that of many ‘developed’ nations. Furthermore, it spends over 20 per cent of its national income on economic aid programmes.