There is an extensive documentary reflection in the United States, as yet only partially known, of American diplomatic, military, commercial, explorative, missionary, philanthropic, educational, scientific and other activities in, and contacts with, Africa over the past three and a half centuries. This vast accumulation, distributed throughout the country, has considerable research potential not only for historians of Africa and of American relations with Africa, but also for Africanists working in various social scientific disciplines.

In order to bring to light and to acquaint interested American and foreign scholars with the entire broad range of Africa-related archival and manuscript materials extant in this country, the African Studies Association sought foundation support for a comprehensive descriptive guide to these materials. The Ford Foundation has awarded a grant of $54,000 to the Association for the production of the guide over a three-year period.

The Archives-Libraries Committee of the Association, under the chairmanship of Dr. William A. Hance, has arranged with the Archivist of the United States for the National Archives and Records Service to assume joint responsibility with ASA for the conduct of the guide project. Morris Rieger, a senior member of the NARS staff, and as ASA Fellow, will serve as project director. The project, which began on February 1, 1964, has been placed under the immediate jurisdiction of the National Historical Publications Commission, a body, linked to NARS, of which the Archivist is Chairman. This link will give the project the valuable advantage of NHPC's close ties with archival and manuscript depositories throughout the country.

This brief discussion of United States economic aid to Africa has been compiled as a factual summary rather than an analysis or critical evaluation of present programs. A general description of economic aid, and of the activities of the Agency for International Development, is followed by a more detailed note on a country program in operation, that in the Sudan.

Although not the largest single donor in Africa, the U.S. Government in fiscal 1962 and again in fiscal 1963 provided about $500 million in economic assistance to 34 African countries. Surplus food and fiber under the Food for Peace Program accounted for nearly half of this aid. In contrast, other Free World government sources provided about $1, 200 million, and the Sino-Soviet Bloc extended $200 to $250 million in credits. Thus, the U.S. contributed roughly one-fourth of Africa's $2 billion in annual external economic assistance from government sources. In addition important contributions were made by U.S. private foundations, religious organizations, and other nongovernment groups. U.S. direct investments in “AID Africa” rose to about $800 million in 1962 from about $100 million in 1950.

At universities with Programs of African Studies, the question arises how best to train graduate students in economics who intend to specialize in African economic development: which particular fields within the corpus of pure and applied economics should be stressed, and which other subjects should be added which are not included in traditional economics curricula?

The answer depends upon one's judgment of what African development consists of and which problems of development are most common and most pressing in Africa.

U.S. assistance to the Republic of the Sudan began in April 1958 when an economic aid office was established in Khartoum, following a bilateral agreement for economic, technical and related assistance. In the six-year period ending with fiscal year 1963 (June 30, 1963), the United States has committed $75.6 million in assistance. The two governments are cooperating in a program to assist in achieving the objectives of Sudan's ten-year Development Plan. Projects are concentrated in portions of four sectors of the economy with an additional underlying emphasis on technical and professional training: 1) educational assistance is channeled toward the goal of expanding and strengthening academic, teacher training and technical education through the secondary level; 2) agricultural extension and research programs are focused on diversification to reduce the dependence of the economy on cotton; 3) infrastructure assistance is concentrated on highway demonstration and training although AID does finance some feasibility studies and provides development loans for selected transportation and public utility projects; 4) industrial development in the private sector is promoted through assistance in establishing an Industrial Bank, selected feasibility studies to encourage formation of small and medium industries and loans to private enterprise.

African studies in the United States were still in their infancy in 1958 when the National Defense Education Act was passed. One instructional program -- at Hartford Seminary -- had a long history. And numbers of anthropologists were notably active in field research on African topics by that date. But as compared with the venerable tradition of oriental studies, or even with pre-World War II area instruction and research on Latin America, the African field was only just opening up as a subject of concerted academic attention.

At the same time, it was clear that the postwar burgeoning of area studies programs had as much relevance to Africa as to Russia or India, and a few programs -- notably those at Northwestern and Boston -- had by this time displayed a serious intention of developing offerings of a scope comparable to those of the older fields. Indeed, the area approach had special pertinence for African studies, for with the exception of anthropology virtually none of the conventional departments inmost institutions included African specialists. The area approach was not an alternative to disciplinary modes of university organization, but rather a means of both focusing and reinforcing disciplinary competence with reference to a particular world region. The device helped to strengthen departments by reminding them of neglected fields and opportunities, and its corollary of multi-disciplinary emphasis helped to enable the social sciences and humanities to address themselves more effectively to the many contemporary scholarly problems lying on the periphery of individual disciplines. Thus, if East Asian or East European subjects of instruction and research could gain by the use of the area approach, the still more neglected African field was the more in need of such fortification. Moreover, African studies could, in the usual fashion of relative latecomers, avoid some of the pitfalls of the earliest area programs, e.g., needless tension between disciplinary and area interest or loyalty.

Under the auspices of the United States Department of State, The Ford Foundation, Georgetown University, and the African-American Institute, more than 75 scholars and other specialists convened at the Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D. C., from August 17 to 21, 1964, to exchange views on problems of political and social change in francophonic Africa. The program was organized and directed by Dr. William H. Lewis of Georgetown University. The first such conclave ever to be convened in the United States, it brought together more than 500 scholars, government officials, and diplomatic personnel from Africa, Western Europe, Canada, and the United States.

The basic purpose of this special program was to stimulate greater interest among American scholars and graduate students in the unfolding problems of francophonic Africa -- extending from Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia in the north to the Congo (Leopoldville) and the Malagasy Republic to the south. To this end, the sponsors established a four-week graduate Institute which preceded the Congress. Conducted at Georgetown University, the Institute brought together a faculty of leading African and American scholars, as well as a student body comprising Africans, Europeans, and Americans. The Institute offered a program of instruction in African history, problems of economic development, parameters of social change, West African politics, and nationalism in North and sub-Saharan Africa.

The Project arose as a result of two informal conferences at Nuffield College, Oxford, arranged by Dr. Margery Perham and Dr. Frederick Madden. Those who accepted invitations to the conferences included members of British universities interested in Colonial (and particularly African) studies, members of appropriate Government departments, representatives of the Royal Commonwealth Society and former officers of the Colonial Service. Dr. Conrad Reining of the African section of the Library of Congress attended the second conference.

The second conference, in April 1963, heard a report from Mr. John Tawney, a former Administrative Officer in Tanganyika and Editor of Corona, on his search for papers in private possession which were likely to be of value to British Colonial history. This work had been financed by the University's Beit Fund for an experimental period of six months, from the beginning of 1963, but after three months Mr. Tawney's report was sufficiently encouraging to arouse general support for the setting up of a special project at Oxford. Lack of funds, however, was an obstacle to the establishment of a formal organization until two generous grants breathed life into the proposal, one from Lord Boyd and the other from the African Studies Association of America. The grant from Lord Boyd was subsequently supported by the Goldsmiths Company and the Drapers Company.

Previous listings of African studies offered at American universities have appeared in the Bulletin, most recently in March 1963. This year the information is given in a slightly different form, as it is now possible to describe the general pattern of most African Studies programs in the U.S. If more information is desired, inquiries should be addressed to the directors of the programs. The Editor thanks those who kindly supplied the information, welcomes additional information and will be happy to include it in a subsequent issue of the Bulletin.

Most universities and colleges which have an organized African Studies Program have some or all of certain characteristics, which are for convenience listed here, with individual variations described for each institution. The organization generally consists of a “Program,” “Center,” or “Committee” which is largely an administrative device to bring together members of different disciplines, and to systematize and expand existing courses and seminars. Participating faculty members come mainly from the departments of Political Science, Anthropology, History, Economics, Geography and Sociology. They usually offer such general courses as “Government and Politics of Tropical Africa,” “Problems in Economic Anthropology,” “Peoples of East Africa,” “History of West Africa” and the like. In addition, many institutions have some specialization in discipline and in regional emphasis: such specialization is indicated.

A small conference was held in New York on March 19 to 20, 1964, concerning the general position of the teaching of African Languages in the United States at the present moment.

The conference, called at the joint request of the National Defense Education Act Language and Area Centers and Columbia University's Institute of African Studies, was attended by the directors and teachers of African language of the major centers of African studies in the United States.

In the course of the two-day meeting the directors reported in some detail on the position of African language teaching in their respective universities and a number of clarifications of NDEA policy were presented by Mr. Donald Bigelow.

The question of a summer session on African languages was discussed at length and a variety of suggestions were offered for possible changes in the format of the existing summer session sponsored by NDEA. In this connection, a resolution was passed urging the establishment of a summer Institute of African Languages, to be located at a permanent site, and under the sponsorship of the African Studies Association.

The International African Institute is organizing a seminar on the Impact of Christianity in Tropical Africa, to be held from Tuesday, April 6, to Friday, April 16, 1965, at the University of Ghana.

This will be the third in a second series of International African Seminars arranged with the aid of a grant from the Ford Foundation: it follows the completion of the first series of four seminars in the year 1959-61. These seminars are being devoted to research problems of significance for further social, economic and educational development in Africa. An important aim is to provide opportunities for research workers and other scholars holding posts in various parts of Africa to establish closer contact with each other and with their colleagues overseas, and to exchange views on problems and methods of research.

The Accra seminar will be held under the chairmanship of Professor C. G. Baëta, Head of the Department for the Study of Religions at the University of Ghana. Fifteen to twenty specialists from different parts of Africa and from overseas are being invited to participate. They are asked to contribute papers and to assist in preparing a study report on some aspect of the work of the seminar. It is also hoped to be able to admit a small number of observers to the meetings of the seminar. Travel and accommodation expenses cannot be provided for observers, but as far as possible accommodation will be secured for them.