It may seem a very ambitious task to attempt even an outline of the native conception of education in so large an area as Africa, with its varying races and languages, its great variety in types of social organization. Nevertheless, there are certain fundamental aspects of these African cultures which are identical in them all, and which differ profoundly from those which form the foundation of our own educational needs. If we wish to understand and to help these African peoples, it is essential that we should learn to look at their culture and their world with their eyes, in order that we may know the basis of the faith by which they live, otherwise we run a grave risk of inadvertently destroying the foundations of social organization and belief which make life, not only tolerable, but possible at all.

The following remarks are not addressed to specialists, but to those Europeans and Africans working in Africa who have for professional reasons an interest in getting to know the native better and, if possible, in making this knowledge available to a wider circle. This applies pre-eminently to missionaries. They, more than any other body of men, have an interest in studying the people among whom they work. It is their aim to transform the inner life of the tribe and of the individual. They are co-operating in creating a new religious, moral, and often social order. Only those who know the traditional environment of the native have the opportunity and the right of effecting such a transformation, as they are thus in a position to forge links between the old and the new, and in consequence will make the new ideas develop naturally from the old ways of thought. Old traditions must not be pushed on one side and ignored, on the contrary they should be carefully studied to see if there is not embedded in them something that can be incorporated in the new order, or something that has to be transformed.

Wer, wie es mir in jüngster Zeit vergönnt war, einen grossen Teil des von Bantu bewohnten Afrika durchreist und unter der Führung kundiger Missionare überall in verhältnismässig nahe Berühtung zur Eingeborenenbevölkerung kommt, dem tritt in einer überwältigenden Fülle von Bildern die Tatsache entgegen, dass Afrika unter dem Einfluss der europäischen Zivilisation inmitten einer ungeheuren Revolution steht. Die grössten Umwälzungen sind immer diejenigen, die sich auf dem Gebiete des Geisteslebens volkiehen. Da aber das Leben der Bantu nach alter Art unlöslich mit Stamm und Sippe verknupft ist, da der entscheidende Zug an der Eigenart der Bantu ihr Gemeinschaftsgefühl ist und ihr Bewusstsein Glied eines lebendigen Organismus zu sein, so sind die seelischen Veränderungen da am stârksten, wo der alte Stammes- und Sippenverband aufgelöst wird und wo ihr Familienleben neue Formen annimmt.

The Public-Health Problem In Tropical Africa. A Survey of medical reports from all parts of tropical Africa shows us a remarkable similarity in the nature of the paramount diseases. True, certain diseases such as yellow fever, plague, and relapsing fever occur in some districts and are rare or unknown in others, but the conditions necessary for their occurrence and the danger of their spread are generally present in the so far unaffected countries.

La tribu dont il s'agit est celle des Babemba. Les Babemba ont leur histoire, c'est donc une tribu importante. Ils font remonter leur origine au royaume du Lunda. Chacun sait que le Lunda, situé à la tête du fleuve Kasaï, affluent du Congo, est un des plus grands et des plus puissants royaumes nègres de l'Afrique. Les Balunda établirent leur domination sur toutes les tribus environnantes: ils fondèrent ainsi trois grandes colonies appelées Baluba. La première de ces colonies s'établit aux sources du Zambise, partie en territoire Portugais (Angola), partie en territoire Anglais (Rhodésie du Nord), cette première colonie a été conquise plus tard par les Matabélés d'origine de Zululand. Elle prit nom de Barotseland. La deuxième colonie Baluba s'établit plus à l'est entre les rivières Kasaï et Sankuru. Enfin la troisième colonie Baluba se fixa sur la Lwalaba, affluent du fleuve Congo. C'est de cette dernière colonie que sont sortis les Babemba=Baluba.

Sofala, Portuguese East Africa, is not very easy of access. The journey has to be made from Beira, in a small hired motor-boat, and takes about six hours in favourable weather, but the Indian Ocean in the vicinity of Beira is often notoriously rough. In the dry season, part of the journey may be made overland, in a machila or travellinghammock. On our forward voyage in January 1930, the engine of the motor-boat was put out of action by the amount of water shipped. This caused a delay of about half an hour while bailing was done by the natives who managed the boat, and we were glad to enter the calm waters of Sofala Bay about 1.30 p.m., having left Beira at 7.30 a.m.