The Tiv of Northern Nigeria, who number some 800,000, believe that they are all descended from one man, Tiv, through some 14 to 17 generations of known ancestors (Fig. 1). These ancestors are constantly named in casual conversation and in discussion of serious affairs. To understand things Tiv one must know Tiv genealogies. By genealogical reference a Tiv traces ties of kinship and marriage, claims a place to live and farm, argues his case in a moot, conducts matters of magic and ritual, and decides against whom he will fight on any given occasion. Genealogies are the key to Tiv social organization. Tiv political structure is based on a lineage system: a system of segmented groups in which each segment (save the maximal) is included in a segment of a higher order but of the same kind, and each segment (save the minimal) includes segments of a lower order but of the same kind. The Tiv system has an almost one to one correlation between lineage and territorial segments. Both are called ‘those of X’, the eponymous ancestor; thus Mbaduku (those of Aduku) describes both the lineage segment (ipaven, pl. uipaven) and the discrete territory which they inhabit (tar, pl. utar).

The present paper is an attempt to interpret the structural principles of the Nilo-Hamitic age-system and to establish its significance in the wider structure of the Nilo-Hamitic societies. The discussion is based on an analysis of the available anthropological literature. But this literature is extremely uneven and not seldom confusing, so that some aspects of my argument necessarily have but a preliminary value. It will not be possible to produce here all the details of the analysis, which I hope to deal with more extensively in some other place.

Hausa is primarily a linguistic term but it has definite cultural connotations and refers to the Hausa-speaking Muslim populations of Northern Nigeria and adjoining French territories, who are typically organized in large centralized states. Such a definition excludes the pagan Maguzawa, whose native speech is also Hausa, and it ignores ethnic differences between the indigenous Habe, who were conquered by Fulani in the ‘Holy War’ of 1804-10, the settled Fulani, who now form the ruling group in most of the states, and the large assimilated populations of slave origin in Hausa communities.

The Cushitic group of languages belonging to Oriental Sidamo is spoken to the west, south, and partly to the east of the Gurage domain. The Sidamo languages and dialects are insufficiently known and, with a few exceptions, rather inadequately described. Those known as belonging to this group are Sidamo, Gudella (called Hadiya by the Ṭəmbarro, Kontoma by the Alaba), Kambatta, Ṭəmbarro (a close dialect of Kambatta), Halaba or Alaba, Darasa, and Qabenna (called also Womba by the natives of Qabenna, and Adiya by the Galla). It seems doubtful to me whether Moreno is right in considering Burǧi as belonging to this group.

Underlying Eva Meyerowitz's remarkable work, The Sacred State of the Akan, are two assumptions, partly expressed and in part left to be inferred by the reader from the great mass of evidence which her thorough and painstaking research has made available.

The first assumption is that the culture of the Akan today shows a decline from a higher culture which they formerly possessed. The second assumption is that the culture with which the Akan must be identified is the ancient heliolithic culture which once flourished in the Mediterranean and the Ancient East.

Les radicaux du type CV, tels qu'ils ont été donnés par Meinhof pour le bantou commun, se répartissent en cinq groupes vocaliques, la voyelle étant le plus souvent représentée par y ou w devant -a dans chacune des langues:

i̧pi̧ (cracher), ni̧ (aller à selle);

i pi (brûler), ni (pleuvoir), di (manger), gi (aller), ki (poindre), ti (mettre);

a p(a) (donner), b(a) (demeurer);

u pu (sécher), gu (tomber), cu (se coucher — soleil), mu (raser), du (se battre), ku (crier);

u̧ mu̧ (boire), du̧ (sortir de), ku̧ (mourir).

In Mr. Lyndon Harries's ‘Popular Verse of the Swahili Tradition’, published in Africa, April 1952, there appears a poem ‘The Song of the Poor Man’, taken from Muhammad Kijuma's collection of manuscripts made early in the present century. It might be of interest to students of Swahili to compare it with a version from Siu, which was recently dictated to me by a native of Siu and checked with another native of the same place. These two depended solely on memory and had no written record-to assist them.