When one contemplates the remarkable expansion in research interest in African phenomena among social scientists on both sides of the Atlantic, the need for an up-to-date inventory of completed, continuing and projected research becomes increasingly apparent. Field research is costly; knowledge should be cumulative; reproduction ought to be systematic; and effective rapport with the human actors concerned should be scrupulously preserved. These and many other considerations dictate closer liaison among scholars everywhere in the organization and planning of future research on African subjects.

The purpose of this report is to provide a brief analytical survey of the character of research on Africa recently completed, or currently being pursued, by social scientists associated with European centers. There is, of course, a certain arbitrariness in focusing upon the state of research in European centers only, particularly in view of the very close organizational links between metropolitan institutions and associated research centers and institutes in the African territories. Moreover, as an increasingly greater proportion of the total research activity is being carried on by agencies established in Africa, a survey of the European centers provides us with only a partial picture of the overall dimensions of research sponsored and supported by the European countries concerned. In this report, however, space considerations unfortunately dictate this narrower focus upon the European side only.

It is a real pleasure to introduce the impressive articles specially prepared for this issue of the Bulletin by members of the Libraries Committee of the African Studies Association. They reveal a fact already discovered by the book dealers of Europe and Africa, namely, the remarkable demand for Africana by American libraries during the past decade.

In its meetings thus far the Libraries Committee has endeavored to identify African library resources and needs in the United States. Certain of the needs we have considered are outlined on pp. 15-16 of the November, 1958 issue (Vol. I, No. II) of the Bulletin. Since that date the Committee has completed, in collaboration wiih Library of Congress officials, a detailed proposal and budget to establish an African Studies Unit in the Library of Congress which, among other duties, would produce a monthly accessions list of publications on Africa acquired by American libraries. This proposal has now been approved by the Board of Directors of the Association which is seeking the funds necessary to implement it.

Africana - works about Africa and publications issued in Africa - is dispersed widely among the general collections of The Library of Congress. As these collections at the latest reckoning number more than eleven million books and pamphlets, and for all forms of material amount to over thirty-six million pieces, and as the Library policy has for many years been to acquire all worthwhile works published anywhere in the world, the holdings relating to the second largest continent may be presumed to be very substantial. The Africana is not under any separate, unifying control. Consequently it is impossible to give even approximate estimates of a total figure, but scholars working in the African field will usually find a visit to the Library of Congress richly rewarding.

The Library acquires Africana as it does its materials in general, by copyright, purchase, gift, exchange, and transfer. It thus achieves broad coverage in all subject fields except technical agriculture and clinical medicine, which are the provinces respectively of the Department of Agriculture Library and the National Library of Medicine.

The provision of the National Defense Education Act which may have application to African Studies are of the following three types;

1. (1) Graduate fellowships. Fellowships may be granted to students in new or newly expanded graduate programs approved by the Commissioner of Education. Institutions of higher education may apply to the Commissioner for approval of their programs, and may recommend applicants for fellowships. Fellowships are granted to individuals, but in addition a grant is made to the institution in recognition of its expenditures for training recipients of fellowships. Preference is given to applicants who are interested in teaching in institutions of higher education, normally in the field in which they study.

2. (2) Language and area centers. While the purpose of the Act is to support instruction in modern foreign languages, the importance of supporting course work in all phases of “area studies” is fully recognized. New or newly expanded language and area centers may be granted one half of the cost of their establishment and operation. That is, the Act provides for funds to match new expenditures by the applying institution. Such centers are restricted to needed languages for which adequate instruction is not already available in the United States. In addition, acceptable students of such needed languages, attending such a center or other qualified program, may receive stipends if they give reasonable assurance that they intend to be available for language teaching or relevant public service.

Northwestern University's interest in Africa South of the Sahara dates back to 1927 and was originally centered in the field of Anthropology. By 1948 the need for greater knowledge of Africa and its inhabitants had become so increasingly apparent that the Anthropology Department announced the establishment of an African research program to be guided by an interdisciplinary committee. At approximately the same time, the University Library acquired a large collection of African newspapers, periodicals, pamphlets, and monographs as a gift from the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. The report in the Northwestern Library News for December 17, 1948describing the gift concluded with these words:

Prior to 1953 the University had very little on Africa, but with the establishment of the African Research and Studies Program systematic buying was begun for books and periodicals later for government documents. As of June 1958, there were about 4,187 books (monographs) and 1,803 serial titles. Of these latter, 108 are periodicals; the remainder are society publications and government documents. In addition, there are twenty-seven newspaper subscriptions covering all parts of the continent save for North Africa. We have 142 linear feet of documents.

Howard University was incorporated as a University on March 2, 1867. Soon thereafter, among the first books acquired by the Library were titles on Africa. In the early years of the Library's growth, founders of the University interested in foreign missions donated their files of the Missionary Herald, along with biographies of missionaries, and books of travel such as the 21-volume Collection des Relations de Voyages, by Walckenaer; Norden's Travels in Egypt and Nubia (1757) and the 1704 edition of Churchill's Collection of Voyages and Travels. From time to time, books an Africa were added to the Library; but it was not until Jesse Edward Moorland, a trustee of the University gave, in 1914, his private library of more than 3,000 books and pamphlets that the library acquired an appreiable number of titles on Africa. Included in the Moorland gift were some pieces of art and some manuscript letters written to Dr. Moorland by Africans and by American Negroes living in Africa. Upon the acceptance of Dr. Moorland's gift, the Board of Trustees created The Moorland Foundation, a Library of Negro Life and History. Although the Foundation lacked endowment, its general purpose was to collect and preserve printed and non-print materials written by and about persons of African descent throughout the world. Dr. Moorland desired not only to donate historical writings about American Negroes, but studies highlighting the African background.