Providing a good standard of living for all the peoples of Africa means that there must be more than simple economic growth. The alleviation of tremendous poverty requires special measures to ensure that those at the bottom of the social structure benefit by receiving part of the product of growth. Two problems of equal importance involve: first, the necessity for changing the life-styles of peoples and the economic forces of production of centuries; and secondly, the creation of the appropriate political apparatus to guarantee a more suitable distribution of the new goods that are produced. Francophone planners soon after the end of World War II used the word encadrement to convey a sense of the processes and institutions involved in coping with these problems.

The interdependence between art and society, and the subsequent question of the function of art, belong to the old debate which has divided the artistic world into two broad factions. Radical writers and critics, sometimes labelled as ‘revolutionary’, think that the artistic universe is intimately connected with the socio-political context in which creativity takes place, and hence that art must play an active rôle in the society. The ‘conservatives’, while not necessarily opposing the active involvement of individual artists in politics, cleave to the view of art for its own sake and truth.

This article grew out of a more detailed study of all tried cases of homicide in Western Nigeria from 1966 to 1972. While reading more than I00 court transcripts and trial opinions, I was struck by what seemed an inordinately large number of accused with symptoms which westerners associate with mental or emotional illness. I was also conscious of judges being forced to apply an awkward, and at best difficult, standard for the determination of criminal insanity with sparse direct evidence and, in many cases, without the help of expert testimony.

In February 1975, following a major cabinet reshuffle, General Gaafar Mohamed Nimeiri reaffirmed his Government's basic commitment to the pursuit of an Afro-Arab foreign policy, and noted that this was not tied to particular personalities. For just as the appointment of the distinguished diplomat, Mansour Khalid, as Foreign Minister in August 1971, had prompted charges that the Sudan's Arab ties were to be sacrificed to African interests, so his departure from office to become Minister of Education aroused speculation that greater Arab involvement, if not actual African disengagement, would now follow.

Several years ago A. O. Hirschman wrote an article entitled ‘The Search for Paradigms as a Hindrance to Understanding’ in which he attempted to ‘delineate various areas in which an impatience for theoretical formulation leads to serious pitfalls’ He reviewed two books which used opposite ‘cognitive styles’ in seeking to elucidate Latin American political development. One author was eager to set forth a paradigm of Columbian politics, and to show that all events–past, present, and future–are explained by the model (which is reducible to 34 stated hypotheses); the other wrote a study of Emiliano Zapata and the Mexican Revolution in which he was extremely reluctant to explain, moralise, or draw conclusions, but whose book is such that ‘whoever reads through [it] will have gained immeasurably in his understanding not only of the Mexican Revolution, but of peasant revolutions everywhere’.

The concern with the impact of industrial property legislation and practices on the developing countries, at both the national and international levels, has so far been confined almost entirely to patents and patent-related transactions. This focus on the protection of knowledge concerning production processes reflects, on the one hand, a preoccupation with the terms and conditions which owners of technology may be able to obtain for its sale or lease, when their proprietary position is reinforced by legal instruments; and on the other hand, a recognition that unless the developing countries can themselves control the generation of a significant proportion of the technology they employ, it is unlikely either that appropriate technology will be produced, or that good use will be made of what is already available and relevant.

Violence has been a recurring feature of political life in provincial Sierra Leone for a long time. In 1898, two years after the establishment of colonial rule, a mass rebellion, commonly known as the Hut Tax War, and directed against British political authority, took place over a large part of the Protectorate. Thereafter, the violence which periodically disrupted the chiefdoms of the hinterland, during both the colonial and post-colonial periods, resulted predominantly from conflicts amongst the indigenous peoples themselves. This article is concerned with the various disturbances that flared up in the Sierra Leone chiefdoms since the late 1940s.

Criticism of African creative works by both African and western scholars has become a major intellectual activity. Many articles have been published on African writers and their works, and, in recent years, several journals have appeared which are devoted exclusively to the discussion of African literature. This surge of interest is further reflected in the fact that a number of book-length studies have been produced, and African writers such as Wole Soyinka (a dramatist) and Yambo Ouologuem (a novelist) have received international accolades. In short, African literature is now recognised as a vital element in the corpus of world literature.

The People's Republic of Mozambique is a very new member of the international community of independent and sovereign states, having gained its independence… on 25 June 1975. We have much to learn, which is what we hope to do at this Conference, and have many new challenges to face. But at the same time we have the benefit of ten years of armed liberation struggle, and the wide experience of organising and administering vast areas of our country which were gradually freed from Portuguese colonial domination.

Barely six years ago, the owners of motor vehicles were besought to ‘put a tiger in your tank’. Now the advertising slogan urges them: ‘Don't be fuelish’. Where the union of energy and mobility was recently considered as the source of bliss and power, it is henceforth regarded as pure waste – foolish, fuelish waste. Is this an interruption of an ongoing trend, or the beginning of a less wasteful lifestyle?