En 1460, à la mort de l'Infant Henri, que l'histoire a surnommé le Navigateur, les découvreurs portugais s'étaient déjà avancés jusqu'au dela de Sierra Leone. Avec la disparition du chef qui en avait été l'âme, les expéditions se ralentirent forcément. Elles ne cessèrent cependant point tout-à-fait, et, durant les années qui suivirent, Pero de Cintra et Soeiro da Costa dépassèrent le Cap des Palmes et parvinrent jusqu'aux alentours du Cap des Trois Pointes.

The term ‘Akan’ is applied to all the Twi-speaking tribes of Ashanti and the J- Gold Coast, including the Fante, Wassa, Akwapim, Denkera, Agona, Efutu, Ahanta, Sefwi, and other minor tribes. The most vital association in which the Akan lives is the matrilineal clan, the group of people who through the female line is of common descent and therefore is of one soul—ntoro. Succession is matrilineal.

Marriage among the Akans is a contract between two groups, the woman's and the man's clans, and for the security of both parties it is surrounded by definite customs and laws. By marriage one group delivers one of its members to the other for the purpose of the propagation of the group. The individual man or woman remains a member of his or her group, which continues to have an active interest in his or her well-being. Akan marriage does not result from love, its entire foundation lying in the desire for children. Every child has a place in the abusua (clan) even though it may be born out of wedlock, i.e. without the transference of aseda. It is cared for and has legal rights of inheritance. The unmarried mother loses social status, but not the child.

There are perhaps three main reasons why I should not have been the person to write this article. Firstly, because I hold fairly strong opinions, which are by no means shared by all Christian workers in Nigeria, whether African or European. This will not matter provided the reader remembers that others, better and wiser than myself, do hold other opinions, and that what I say must be corrected by them. In no way do I wish to suggest that opinions with which I disagree are illegitimate for the Christian. Secondly, it may be objected that since all my experience has been in a training college, my opinions must be somewhat academic, and out of touch with the problems of the villages and towns. This, no doubt, is largely so, but perhaps because I have been detached from the constant personal problems, which are often so distressing, I may be able to see a little more clearly the essential principles involved, and am not so liable to be distracted by ‘hard cases’. Thirdly, it may be objected that I possess very little anthropological knowledge and understanding, and therefore do not sympathize enough with the African point of view. Again I plead guilty, but in spite of that deficiency there may be some small compensation. During my probation, I was required to study African customs; I was interested and to some extent I have kept up my interest. But against my theory I had always, at the back of my mind, that I was studying the past and not the present. The anthropologist has an invaluable and essential contribution to make to our understanding. He will explain much in the African outlook, and we disregard him at our peril. But he has not the last word. We cannot put the clock back, and the most significant fact in Nigeria, as in other parts of Africa, is that the whole social life is changing.

Like many other African peoples the Nuer marry by the family and kin of the bridegroom handing over cattle to the family and kin of the bride. The marriage is brought about by this payment and by the performance of a series of ceremonial acts. Though these ceremonies and payments of cattle proceed pari passu as inter-connected movements towards the completion of the union they can be treated separately. It should be remembered, however, that Nuer do not consider the union to be complete till a child has been born of it, even though spouses may continue to cohabit where the union proves to be unfruitful.