Scientific research of African societies and cultures in Czechoslovakia has developed only in the last two decades. Nevertheless, to precede the research there was a relatively extensive background shaped by the tradition of travelers whose interest was centered especially on geography, biology, and descriptive and collective ethnography. The most important of these travelers were Dr. Emil Holub (1847-1902), who crossed South Africa as far as the Zambezi River and published several books, most of which are now available in English, about his experiences; Remedius Prutký, a missionary who visited Ethiopia in 1751-1753 and not only described his travels but even compiled a vocabulary of the Amharic language; and Dr. Stecker and Čeněk Paclt, who traveled in the nineteenth century through Ethiopia and South Africa, respectively. In the twentieth century there was a considerable number of Czechoslovak travelers who acquainted their compatriots with the “Dark Continent.”

Before World War II, three professor of Semitology at Charles University, Prague -- R. Dvořák, R. Ru̇žička, and A. Musil -- started to study Ethiopian languages and history. The well-known Austrian scholar of Czech origin, Dr. Pavel Šebesta (Schebesta) became one of the best specialists in the anthropology and ethnography of the Pygmies.

The United States Joint Publications Research Service, an organization established to service the foreign language needs of the various federal government agencies, has translated a number of items on African affairs. The following list of JPRS translations on Africa south of the Sahara was compiled in the Government Publication Section, Serial Division, Library of Congress. It includes translations of material originally published in various foreign language journals, primarily those of the Soviet Union and Communist China. A large percentage of the articles is devoted to politics and propaganda, setting forth the current policies of the two major Communist nations toward Africa. But there is also a considerable body of material — much of it translated from French publications — on anthropology, ethnology, economic development, labor movements and mining activity.

The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research supported a research conference on Bantu Origins in Sub-Saharan Africa, which was held from March 25 through 30, 1968, at the Center for Continuing Education, University of Chicago. The participants in the meeting were J. Desmond Clark, University of California at Berkeley; David Dalby, School of Oriental and African Studies, London; J. M. J. de Wet, University of Illinois, Urbana; Christopher Ehret, Van Nuys, California; Brian M. Fagan, University of California at Santa Barbara; Geoffrey Gaherty, University of Toronto; Jack Harland, University of Illinois, Urbana; Thomas N. Huffman, University of Illinois; Charles M. Keller, University of Illinois, Urbana; Roland Oliver, School of Oriental and African Studies, London; Irvine Richardson, Michigan State University, East Lansing; Albert C. Spaulding, University of California at Santa Barbara; Jan Vansina, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Frank Willett, Northwestern University; and C. C. Wrigley, University of Sussex. They were selected from a broad range of disciplines and spent five days in free-ranging discussions on Bantu origins and its related research problems. No formal papers were presented, thereby leaving maximum time for discussion, nor is any publication resulting from the conference planned. This brief report summarizes some of the general conclusions of the meeting and sets out certain recommendations made by participants at the conference; a draft was circulated to all the delegates for examination prior to publication.

Teaching about Africa south of the Sahara in American secondary schools is often severely limited or ignored altogether because most teachers believe there is an inadequate number of instructional materials available for use in the classroom. Fortunately, this belief is erroneous.

Project Africa, a U.S.O.E. -funded social studies curriculum development center at The Ohio State University, has recently completed an examination of commercially prepared materials currently available for instructional use at the secondary level. In so doing, the Project has located and identified a number of up-to-date, well-structured and generally accurate materials which have the potential for easy adaptation to virtually any type of study about this region as well as to any teaching style.

It is a well-known saying that Africa begins at the Pyrenees. What is also obvious is that due to historical, cultural, and geographical reasons, Spain constitutes a unique bridge between Africa and Europe. Within Spain itself, as it advances toward the south, one can appreciate how the north of Africa gradually penetrates into Europe. Hence the African root in Spain is a logical consequence of the geographical reality and the evolution of social historic facts, which throughout the centuries have strongly related Spain and Africa, particularly its northwestern regions; so that when Africa is mentioned in Spain the Maghreb often comes to mind. For the same reason Arabic and Islamic studies occupy a privileged position in Spanish Africanism.

Historically speaking, since the end of the nineteenth century, coinciding with the last impulse in exploration and delimitation of areas under European influence in the sub-Saharan continent, an Africanist movement in research and study has always been manifest in Spanish cultural life. Four definite phases can be traced in its development.

1. The first phase, dating from the end of the last century and the beginning of the present one, is characterized by deep social and political instability (the Spanish-American War, the civil wars, etc.). The ever increasing gap between West Europe and Spain, and the consequent feeling of isolation, created a favorable “Africanist atmosphere” in intellectual milieux. In that time, institutions such as the Real Sociedad Geográfica or the Liga Africanista Española, to mention the most important, did away with the first major obstacle: the emphasis on scientific dedication to Hispanic-American and Arab studies. The above mentioned institutions promoted with success a systematic work in widespread African investigation.

In July-August, 1964 at Lagos, 28 countries participated in a UNESCO -United Nations Economic Commission for Africa-sponsored “International Conference on the Organization of Research and Training in Africa in Relation to the Study, Conservation, and Utilization of Natural Resources.” The following is from a resolution of that conference:

Conscious of the importance of natural resources to the national heritage of each country … Considering that development and social progress depend upon the wise exploitation of these resources … Proclaims … that extension of scientific and technical research on natural resources constitutes a factor essential to such development … Recommends that governments should devote continued and very large-scale efforts to the promotion of science and technical research….

This recognition by governments of the need to increase scientific research programs, of their responsibility for the organization of scientific research, and of the need to establish a balance between fundamental and applied research implies a previous or existing situation with a different approach which should be examined and also indicates a necessity for changes in outlook, the results of which can be followed for years to come.