Too often dismissed as a feudal backwater in a seething continent, the kingdom of Burundi has scarcely received the attention it deserves from social scientists. If not out of indifference, perhaps out of sheer consternation in the face of the contradictory policies followed by its successive governments, most outside observers have prudently avoided speculating on future developments in this part of Central Africa. This neglect is unfortunate on several counts, not the least being the sense of dismay of certain Burundi élites upon discovering that so few westerners are even aware of the existence of Burundi on the map of Africa. Nor is their rancour in any way assuaged when they realise that the term Watutsi conjures up in the public mind a form of exertion more akin to St Vitus' dance than to the realities of their national culture; and though it is plain that Burundi politics often tend to exhibit signs of disorderly convulsions, policy-makers here and abroad obviously need more in the way of explanation. Quite aside from policy considerations, however, the fact is that Burundi offers one of the most fascinating laboratories for the study of social change, as well as a unique opportunity to observe and analyse the forces which transform traditional orders into modern ones, or, perhaps more appropriately, which impede this transformation.

THE case for taking a careful look at educational expenditure in African countries rests simply on its size, in relation to government expenditure as a whole and to national income. As Table I (overleaf) shows, most African governments devote a considerably higher proportion of their total spending to education than does, for instance, the British Government.

The Rhodesian rebellion was announced by no whiff of grapeshot but by Mr Ian Smith declaiming that he and his colleagues, ‘in humble submission to Almighty God’, were giving Rhodesia a new constitution, ‘so that the dignity and freedom of all men may be assured’. Subsequently the rebellion has continued to centre around a constitutional dispute. Although there have been armed clashes between the Rhodesian security forces and some guerrilla fighters who have infiltrated from Zambia, there has been no conflict between the forces of the legal authority, the British Government, and those which obey the rebel régime.

THERE was a time when it was thought, in the best places, that in order to justify the establishment of a central bank it was absolutely necessary to have a securities market and a bill market in which the central bank could perform the traditional text-book open-market operations which are so central to the history of the Bank of England's control of the British monetary system.

It is generally recognised that governments and methods of controlling them can exist without formal opposition parties—as in a one-party state.1 At the same time, the first flush of enthusiasm for one-party states in Africa is dying away and people are beginning to question whether a monolithic party structure is the best or the only way to achieve political stability and economic development, two driving forces behind much of African politics today. At this juncture, Tanzania presents a peculiarly apt case study, for here is a state which has moved through successive constitutional changes since independence from a Westminster model to a dejure one-party state—and in this, constitutional forms have reflected political reality—yet at the same time has endeavoured to ensure that opportunities for control and criticism have remained open.

The ability of the new nations to think for themselves has surprised their former rulers as much as their capacity for self-government. In many circles it has not only caused surprise but some dismay. It was hoped that the older and wiser rulers would still continue to rule other men's minds if not their countries. Nothing has so disappointed these hopes as the development in the newly independent states of a rich and complex idea of non-alignment, and as a result this idea has been much misunderstood and much resented. Scholars have realised only recently that it is now an integral part of contemporary political thought.

When the first political troubles broke out in Léopoldville in January 1959, and the mobs demanded—for the first time violently and publicly—independence for the Congo, Brussels circles were the first to be surprised. Belgian specialists in colonial affairs did not even know of most of the parties thrust brusquely into the limelight: the Abako of Joseph Kasavubu, the Mouvement national congolais (M.N.C.) of Patrice Lumumba, and many ethno-political groups with their mystifying initials.

The Sudan Research Unit was established as an inter-disciplinary unit in the Faculty of Arts of the University of Khartoum in July 1964. Its objectives were specified broadly as the promotion of research in the human and social sciences concerning the Sudan, assisting research on projects which need co-ordination of different disciplines, training research workers, and sponsoring publication reports on their progress and results. The Sudan Research Unit also maintains contact with other centres of Sudanese studies and with centres of African studies in general. It is not at present giving any Sudanese courses, although it plans to do so in future. The Unit now organises a fortnightly postgraduate seminar on African studies, dealing with subjects of general interest.

It was evident early in the 1960's that a number of departments in the University of Leeds were developing independent programmes of study and research on African topics, and that it would be useful to strengthen this work internally and also to avoid unco-ordinated approaches to outside bodies for advice and financial support. Accordingly, after a working party had prepared a factual report on activities in different fields, the Senate established a Standing Committee on African Studies, which in turn set up a small secretarial and documentation Unit, to assist in the co-ordination, development, and documentation of African studies.

The latest meeting of the African Studies Association of the U.S.A., with 1,000 participants, emphasised the scope and seriousness that African studies has now attained. The session included two plenaries and 32 panels, plus special film showings and an exhibition of African art, stamps, and books about Africa.

The Centre africain de formation et de recherche administratives pourle développement (C.A.F.R.A.D.) is an Institute for African Training and Research in Administration for Development, which held its first seminar in February 1966, on the problems of co-ordination of government departments in economic affairs. This led to an examination of the problems posed by the breaking down of administration outside the capital into smaller units, which was the main theme of the November seminar.

The Institute of African Studies at Fourah Bay College organised a symposium on the city of Freetown which brought together scholars from a wide range of disciplines to discuss the history and present social and economic structure of Freetown, under the joint directorship of Professor Eldred Jones, head of the Department of English at Fourah Bay College, and Christopher Fyfe, Reader in African History at Edinburgh University. A similar project on Ibadan was undertaken at the Institute of African Studies at the University there in 1963 and the collected papers are soon to be published by Cambridge University Press under the editorship of Peter Lloyd, Akin Mabogunje, and Bolanle Awe. More recently the University of Dakar held a series of discussions about Dakar and the resulting papers are to be published by Présence Africaine.

This conference brought together over 70 social scientists from the Kenyan, Tanzanian, and Ugandan constituent Colleges of the University of East Africa (with visitors from Zambia, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, and Rhodesia) for their annual inter-disciplinary, or rather trans-disciplinary, deliberations. Why ‘trans-disciplinary’? Because the historians discussed nationalism, politics, and church movements; political scientists discoursed on economics, rural settlement, agriculture, and education; sociologists criticised political decisions and economic criteria which hampered their investigations into resettlement programmes; and the economists, while speaking mostly about economics, were represented at virtually all panels, apparently to guard their disciplinary preserve against intrusions, presumptions and, in one case, elision with political science.

The governments of Africa, in planning for economic and social development, have become increasingly aware that they can no longer afford to treat population as an exogenous variable. They have begun to study the component variables of population change, and their interrelationships, and have paid special attention to the critical role of fertility.