Die übliche Einteilung der afrikanischen Sprachen unterscheidet Buschmann-, Sudan-, Bantu-, hamitische und semitische Sprachen. Statt Buschmannsprachen sagt man besser Khoisan-Sprachen, um die Zusammengehörigkeit des Hottentottischen mit den Buschmann sprachen zum Ausdruck zu bringen; denn obgleich das Hottentottische hamitische Züge hat und eine Sprache eigenen Charakters ist, sind doch seine nächsten Verwandten die Sprachen der Buschleute. Verwandt sind wahrscheinlich auch die hamitischen und semitischen Sprachen, und man spricht deshalb von einer hamito-semitischen Sprachfamilie. Eine eigenartige Stellung nimmt die unter dem Namen nilotische Sprachen bekannte Gruppe ein. Sie bildet in ihren Lauten, der Wortform, dem grammatischen Aufbau und auch im Wort bestand eine Einheit, die sich von ihrer Umgebung deutlich abhebt Die südliche Gruppe (Bari, Masai, Nandi, Tatoga, etc.) zeigt gewisse von manchen Sprachforschern als hamitisch angesehene Merkmale wie z. B. die Unterscheidung des grammatischen Genus am Pronomen, sie pflegt deshalb als niloto-hamitische der nördlichen niloto-sudanischen (Schilluk, Dinka, Nuer, etc.) gegenübergestellt zu werden. Es ist aber sachlich richtiger, die unleugbar vorhandenen Gemeinsamkeiten zu betonen als die Einheit zu zerreissen und die beiden Gruppen je einer anderen Sprachfamilie zuzuteilen. Dies umsomehr als es zum mindesten zweifelhaft ist, ob die bisherige niloto-hamitische Gruppe wirklich den Hamitensprachen zugerechnet werden darf, und weil der Zusammenhang der niloto-sudanischen Gruppe mit den Sudan-sprachen weniger eng ist als z. B. die Verwandtschaft der west-sudanischen Klassensprachen mit den Bantusprachen.

The Isa people are a sub-tribe of the Edo or Bini tribe, who inhabit a large area to the East of Benin City—their parent town—called ‘Esan’ or Ishan, which is bordered on the East by the River Niger. The language spoken is a dialect of Edo, and their customs are a development of those found in Benin. The people are organized into a large number of independent communities, some of which are true clans (according to the definition given in Notes and Queries on Anthropology), and others which can only be described as ‘Village Groups’. Each of these clans or groups has at its head a hereditary chief called Onogie (pl. Enogie), who traces his descent to the original founder from Benin or elsewhere, who was given the land by the Oba of Benin. The title of Onogie was also given by the Oba to recognize his right to rule over the community which was composed of his descendants and immigrants from other districts.

It is natural that the urgent need for systematic study of culture contact should first and most forcibly be felt with regard to areas where the process of ‘civilization’ or modernization is already comparatively far advanced, whether it be in the form of detribalization in urban and industrial districts or of the adaptation of the tribal system among an important and powerful people like the Baganda. In the first place, those areas present the most pressing practical problems and exhibit the most acute symptoms of social, economic, and political strain. In the second place, as a corollary of their accessibility to exotic influences, they are the areas most easily accessible to observers trained and untrained, and their troubles often force themselves on the attention of the civilized world. They have, however, certain disadvantages from the point of view of the student of culture contact, in that, as Miss Mair has shown, the opportunity to study the stages in their development has gone for ever. By careful investigation a useful and reliable, if incomplete, picture can be drawn of the working of the social order just before the torrent of modern civilization broke in upon it, and the comparison between past and present which such a reconstruction makes possible provides us with knowledge which is both necessary for the explanation of existing phenomena and also of the greatest practical value. But just as one cannot tell by looking at the finished product whether a pot has been fashioned from the lump or by the coil method, so, in the absence of proper observation at the time, we cannot reconstruct a picture of the intermediate stages in the creation of the present situation, or ever know the details of the processes whereby native society adjusted itself to some innovations and was dislocated by others.

Dès les premiers temps de l'occupation du Cameroun les autorités françaises entreprirent un vigoureux effort sanitaire et médical. Déjà un important réseau de postes médicaux était établi lorsque la maladie du sommeil se répandant avec une violence inouïe au centre même du pays, il fallut lutter contre ses trop rapides progrès avant de songer à toute autre œuvre médicale, et le Service de Santé du Territoire porta son principal effort à combattre la trypanosomiase.

Dès 1903 Brumpt, suivi quelques années plus tard par Martin, Lebœuf et Roubaud avaient, en Afrique Équatoriale Française, étudié de près la maladie, sa transmission et son traitement; au Cameroun c'est en 1910 que les Allemands entreprirent vraiment la lutte. Il semble, à ceux qui ont vu la trypanosomiase endémique et somme toute bénigne de la Basse Sangha gagner la Haute Sangha sous forme d'épidémie meurtrière, que le commerce du caoutchouc ait été en Afrique équatoriale une des causes les plus certaines de la dispersion de la trypanosomiase humaine.

Dans les pays où elle existait de tout temps les habitants se contaminèrent en beaucoup plus grand nombre en faisant la récolte du latex qui se pratiquait surtout en saison des pluies au moment où les glossines abondent et sont plus agressives. Le portage, le pagayage, surtout la montée des fleuves à la perche tout le long de ces gîtes à tsé-tsé que sont les rives des fleuves équatoriaux ont causé un chiffre innombrable de contaminations. La maladie évoluait sur ces populations jusqu'ici saines avec une violence inconnue chez les tribus depuis longtemps parasitées. Il est probable que la guerre et le portage que nécessitaient les opérations militaires ont aussi beaucoup répandu la trypanosomiase humaine.

In this survey of vernacular text-books I am confining my attention to the Union of South Africa and the three High Commission Territories of Basutoland, Bechuanaland, and Swaziland. In this area we have five important literary language forms in use, viz. Xhosa and Zulu (belonging to the Nguni cluster of Bantu), and Southern Sotho, Tšwana, and Northern Sotho (belonging to the Sotho cluster). Reference will be made to two other languages spoken in the northern and eastern Transvaal, Venda and Tonga (commonly written as Thonga, and belonging to the cluster of languages spoken in Portuguese East Africa from Delagoa Bay northwards). I do not intend to deal with the languages spoken in the Mandated Territory of South-west Africa, nor with such intrusions as that of Kalanga into the Bechuanaland Protectorate.

The direction from which I wish to approach this problem is rather different from that apparently implied by the phrasing of the title. As it stands, it suggests that it is possible for us, knowing what we now know on the subject of African beliefs, to select and reject among them in order to produce a body of practice and ceremony that will be at once Christian and at the same time firmly rooted in African assent. I do not think this is possible. Indeed, I have a feeling that of all missionary activities under present conditions none is more likely than this to be a waste of time. It is true that we do know to-day immeasurably more about African belief than we did even fifteen or twenty years ago, but it is very doubtful indeed if that increased knowledge is being translated into any new sort of relationship with the peoples concerned which would permit us to be allowed by them to undertake activity of this sort. What is our aim? In what ways have we qualified ourselves in African eyes for such intrusion into their intimacies? Is it our desire to arrive at an ecclesia of shared beliefs, involving ourselves and the African? Are we aiming at something in the nature of a community, sharing in varied racial experience and mutually comprehending each other's religious heritage? If not something of this sort, then what is our object?