This essay attempts to outline, and partially to expound, a conceptual framework for studying political change during the colonial and post-colonial periods.

It should be noted at the outset that the term ‘political change’ is purposely used instead of such terms as ‘political development’ or ‘political progress’, with reference to nationalism, organised groups, administrative evolution, and so on, in developing areas. This is more nearly akin to the rather value-free term ‘social change’ used by sociologists and anthropologists ever since the 1920's.1 Basic alterations in political systems do not occur through a simple addition of new institutions, norms, and procedures; rather, the process of political change involves its own set of inter-related norms, institutions, and procedures. It may be that the term ‘political change’ may better evoke this image in the mind of students of politics, just as the term ‘social change’ seems to do for sociologists and anthropologists.

Economists in Africa hold a narrow view of their scope. Traditionally they have been almost entirely concerned with the economic relationship between Africa and the West, with the import and export trade: the colonial situation was, in a sense, all that interested them. Nowadays their interests have extended to include statistical ‘survey work’ and, of course, problems of economic development. So successfully conducted are the surveys (at least in some countries) and so well backed are they by U.N. funds, that there is a real danger of a complete identification of African economics with statistics, and already the idea seems to be spreading that it is somewhat disreputable for economists to handle material which cannot be quantified. As for ‘development economics’, this—pace E.C.A.—is indeed an under-developed subject. Only recently have economists, such as W. B. Reddaway,1 begun to doubt the appropriateness to Africa and other under-developed areas of certain western concepts and assumptions. And scarcely any economists in Africa are yet showing any awareness of the need to study the structure of the indigenous economy—except statistically.

The rapid demise of empires in Africa is paralled by the equally swift retreat of social anthropologists to the wings. While Diedrich Westermann in 1934 could deplore the administrators' rejection of proffered anthropological advice, by 1945, at least where Europeans had settled, one gathers that administrators were slavish devotees of the profession, almost painfully eager to stare with puzzlement at premier chief lists and kinship tables of organisation. A further development was suggested in the middle 1950's, with a report from the Rhodesias of a nationalist boast that Africans relied upon anthropologists for information from the enemy European camp. But, as new states ran up their flags and despatched envoys to the U.N., anthropologists began to speak of alienation. in the future there may be a rupture unless anthropologists become historians or sociologists.

The first step in a discussion of the planning of industry is to decide on the role of industry in development. This paper tries to dispose of some fallacies on this point. There are so many about industrialisation that whichever anyone holds he is in good company. They can be broadly divided into three classes: classical fallacies, ‘infant industry’ fallacies, and industrialisation fallacies.

The colonial system is a system of social relations based on the political and economic domination of backward peoples by imperialist powers, in a world divided territorially and economically. The colonial régime is a monopoly exercised by the bourgeoisie of an imperialist country, based on economic and extra-economic pressure in a dependent country. This imperialist monopoly has two basic functions: on the one hand, it exploits the colonies; on the other hand, it maintains and develops the political enslavement necessary for its own existence.

In 1961, a Nigerian newspaper commented, with reference to the economic integration of East Africa, ‘these three States have stolen a march on the older African States. They have achieved one of the main objectives of pan-African nationalism, without tears.’1 Two years later the leaders of Tanganyika, Uganda, and Kenya announced their intention of going beyond economic integration by forming a federation. If this comes about, economic integration will have led to political integration, but at the same time Africa will be deprived of a chance of testing the viability of economic and administrative unions that stop short of federation. Whatever the outcome, the experience of East Africa will be of great importance, not only to African leaders concerned with the economic development of relatively small States, but also to economic and political theorists.

The Republic of Somali has recently been conducting a militant campaign for the reunification of ‘the five parts of the Somali nation’—British Somaliland and Italian Somalia (already united), French Somaliland, the Ethiopian regions of the Ogaden, the Haud, and the Reserved Area, and the Northern Frontier District (N.F.D.) of Kenya. The two principal weapons in this campaign have been diplomacy and the radio. This article is concerned with one aspect of the radio war—the series or Somali songs and poems broadcast regularly between September and December 1963 from Mogadishu, and to a lesser extent from Radio Cario.

This note attempts to evaluate the more significant studies on migratory labour in Africa,1 and to suggest some of the information needed not only to advance knowledge but also to provide a basis for governmental policy.

There are two important elements of migratory labour as discussed in this note: the impermanent attachment to the labour force, and the absence from home. An increasing proportion of ‘wanderers who travel in search of wage labor’ (Carter Goodrich, ‘Migratory Labor’, in Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, New York, Macmillan, 1933) become, at least during their individual working lives, permanent members of the wage labour force.2 Petty traders, as well as the still frequently expatriate high-level manpower, who manifest some of the characteristics of migrant labour, are excluded from any discussion in this note.

The African Studies Center at U.C.L.A. was established in June 1959, with the following objects: to bring together scholars from all of the social sciences, the humanities, education, law, and linguistics; to provide a framework for interdisciplinary collaboration and communication; to promote the organisation and development of undergraduate and graduate teaching programmes; and to further research on African subjects by both staff and students. It also serves to provide liaison with other institutes, centres, and associations in the same field, and works to improve the University's resources of Africana. In addition to its academic and professional functions, the Center furthers interest in Africa among the University community and the public at large.

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.

Teaching and research in French universities on African history and contemporary problems are no longer the sole privilege of Paris. Several provincial universities, including Strasbourg and Bordeaux, have in fact well equipped research centres. Among these newly-developing programmes, special mention must be made of the University of Aix-Marseille. The long-standing connexions of the Marseille region with Africa, especially the Maghreb, have led to the establishment in recent years of a number of institutes and centres dealing with African affairs—first by the University, then by other local bodies in association with it.

The Institute of Oriental and African Studies (Prague 1, Lazenska Str. No. 4), originally founded in 1922 by the Government, has since 1952 been an integral part of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, the president of which is a member of the Government. The purpose of the Institute, under its director, Professor J. Prusek, is to foster research in Oriental and African languages, cultures, economics, and history; there are four departments, one of which is concerned with the Near East and Africa, and has 17 members of staff, headed by Dr. O. Klima. Four scholars are working on various aspects of African languages and literature: Dr K. F. Waridi-Ruzicka (Swahili and Bantu), Mr S. Pantucek (Berber), Mr P. Zima (Hausa and Yoruba), and Mr J. Hulec.

The hum of giant transformers and the roar of turbines at the underground power station beside the dam at Kariba, visited by conference members, offered an appropriate illustration to a paper by Dr. J. M. A. Lenihan on ‘Humanity and technology, or: Why teach physics?’; he had stressed that science and technology provide an indispensable stimulus to each other.

This conference was sponsored jointly by the Government of Tanganyika and the University College, Dar es Salaam, and was financed by the Ford Foundation. It was attended by delegates from African countries, some of whose legal systems have been influenced by common law, some by European civil law or Islamic law. Official representatives came from Ethiopia, Ghana, the Ivory, Coast, Nigeria, Northern Rhodesia, Nyasaland, Sierra Leone, the Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika, and Zanzibar. Some celebrated authorities on Islamic law and African customary law attended as observers, and contributed a great deal to the discussions. The chairman of the conference was the Tanganyikan Minister of Justice, Sheik Amri Abedi, and the secretary general was Mr P. J. Nkambo Mugerwa of the local Faculty of Law.

These conferences grew out of the new University's desire to offer more direct assistance for the development of East Africa. The objects were:

(1) to provide a forum for political leaders from all the East African countries and from some others, in which they could discuss matters of major public policy in an objective and private atmosphere;

(2) to provide a series of opportunities for these leaders to meet and gain a deeper understanding of each other; and

(3) to help establish the fact that the University of East Africa is anxious and able to be of use in facing practical problems.

The University of Nigeria, founded on the initiative of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, President of the Republic, is now three years old, and has inaugurated a new College of African Studies, at the beginning of the academic year, 1963–4. The University has already declared that ‘Foreign educational systems provide a reservoir of ideas and experience, yet final answers will be found only by adapting these ideas to the new setting of our time and country.’

This conference, organised jointly by the Overseas Studies Committee of Cambridge University and the United Kingdom Department of Technical Co-operation, was primarily concerned with economic planning in Commonwealth Africa. The largest delegation, made up of Ministers and civil servants, came from the Federal Government and the three regions of the Federation of Nigeria. Other delegations came from Sierra Leone, Gambia, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Tanganyika, Zanzibar, Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, Basutoland, and Swaziland, the last four territories being represented primarily by British administrative officers. There were staff members of eight African universities, from Accra, Kumasi, Dar es Salaam, Makerere, Salisbury, Ibadan, Zaria, and Ife. From outside Africa there were delegates from the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Canada, India, and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Several participants, including the chairman of the conference, Dr R. E. Robinson, came from Cambridge University.

Soon after the first session of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa in January 1959, a Library was established to serve the needs of the Commission's secretariat. A comprehensive list of all the publications concerning Africa available at the U.N. Headquarters Library in New York was prepared as a basis for the acquisition of material. Lists were also drawn up of the government publications required from each individual country, dating back to 1950 (1958 for annuals and periodicals), and these were obtained from the governments concerned. Constant contact is maintained with them, to keep the collection up to date. Non-government publications were purchased through the Headquarters Library during the first four years. Since 1963, the Library has placed orders through booksellers in each country in Africa, and a few others elsewhere. A full list of booksellers in Africa is now being compiled, and will be published as soon as possible.