By the time this number of the Journal appears we shall have moved to these premises, which provide more adequate space for our library, as well as facilities for holding meetings and lectures. We ask our members to excuse any inconvenience caused by our change of address and by the inevitable dislocation of work due to the move; we hope to reduce this to a minimum, and we extend a cordial invitation to all our friends to visit us at our new home.

In a previous article on the Shilluk I discussed the laws of homicide and the legal and ritual functions of the reth or King. An interpretation of Shilluk law and authority is not easy because, apart from early contacts with the peoples of the northern Sudan, they have been subjected to external influences and some kind of Government since the early years of the last century. These contacts began with cursory and not altogether happy encounters with the Turco-Egyptian Government which were followed by the establishment of a provincial headquarters at Kodok in 1867 under the authority of a mudir; later came the turbulent and dismal years of the Mahdia and finally the occupation by the present Government in 1898. It would be idle to suppose that the political system of the Shilluk has remained unaffected by these influences. The Shilluk are by reputation an exceptionally conservative people and certainly the effects of their relations with outsiders are, to the casual observer, hard to detect. Profound changes have taken place none the less, especially in the sphere of customary law, and these changes are undoubtedly gathering momentum.

The culture concept carries many implications for the educationist which have still to be worked out. Perhaps its greatest value will prove to lie in providing a corrective to the intellectualist fallacy to which teachers and educationists are singularly prone. By taking into account the complex and largely non-intellectual processes of acculturation, the teacher in Africa will realize that he is unlikely to effect a direct transference of intellectual propositions and idea-systems; and he may be saved from disappointment when he sees the truths he has dealt in employed to subserve ‘illegitimate’ ends.

It is a well established fact that every culture contact has its effect on language. Every new thing or concept that is introduced requires a name. This is achieved either by coining a word in the language of the people to whom it is introduced or by the adoption of a foreign word. Thus it is possible to trace the different culture influences on any people by establishing the origin of the foreign words in their language. The fact that in Swahili most commercial terms are of Arabic origin (e.g. fedha = money, duka = shop, biashara = trade, &c.) would seem to prove that from ancient times Arabic traders sold their wares on the coast of East Africa. Today the increasing number of English words in Swahili is indicative of the influence of British administration and its introduction of modern amenities (baisikeli = bicycle, motakaa = motor-car, reli = railway, &c). The spread of Christianity in Africa may be seen by the general use of such words as padre (priest), ubatizo (baptism), Biblia (Bible), &c, as also from the use of Christian names now heard everywhere. Even among pagans there are so-called wapenda jina (people who desire a name), who are ashamed of their pagan names and call themselves Pauli, Kasiani, &c, in order to belong, by name at least, to Christianity, the religion of the day.

The report of the Commission of Enquiry set up to investigate the protection of secondary industries in Southern Rhodesia, published in 1946, produced statistical evidence to show that output per head was considerably lower than in any other Commonwealth country. The figures quoted refer to 1938, but there is little evidence of any marked advance in African productivity since that date. Only in isolated instances is native labour today working to the full satisfaction of its European management and, as a general rule, Government officials and industrial or commercial employers are unanimous in their condemnation of African inefficiency. Many of these opinions are founded upon race prejudice or ignorance of industrial history, but there is, nevertheless, ample evidence in the form of high absentee rates, rapid labour turnover and an almost complete failure of normal incentives to produce increased productivity, to indicate that something is radically wrong in the industrial field.

Bien que la description suivante soit basée sur un cas précis, observé en 1952 dans un campement des immigrés guerzé installés depuis des années dans le pays kono, aux environs du village de Bakoré (canton de Lola), son schéma correspond en grandes lignes au mécanisme coutumier local général.