The subject of weavers has until recently received surprisingly little detailed attention from writers on Africa, given the importance of cloth in local and regional trade, particularly in West Africa. Yet, even here, cloth trading has received scholarly attention in the works of Hodder (1967, 1980) and of Johnson (1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1980). In addition crafts and craftsmen have been the subject matter of occasional papers and collected works (for example, d'Azevedo, 1973; Hallpike, 1968; Llovd, 1953; Murray, 1943), but few authors have concentrated on weavers alone. More specifically African cloth and textiles have received greater coverage in the works of Picton and Mack (1979) and of the Lambs (1975, 1980, 1981, 1984), though the actual organisation of production has by and large been overlooked. Before the publication of Esther Goody's collection From Craft to Industry in 1982, which has provided us with two examples of the development of cloth production for market in Nigeria and Ghana, possibly the only article to deal with the organisation of traditional weaving is Bray's (1968) contribution on weaving in Iseyin, Nigeria.

Until quite recently little was known about the output of traditional ironworking centres in sub-Saharan Africa. Although some estimates were made for a few centres by colonial administrators and agents, the reliability of many of these figures is doubtful (see Pole, 1983; de Barros, 1985: 270–71) and some of the more interesting data still lie buried in colonial archives. The first serious scholarly attempt at quantification of precolonial African iron production was made by Warnier and Fowler (1979) who investigated iron production in the Iron Belt of the Cameroon grasslands, particularly that associated with the nineteenthcentury Babungo chiefdom. Since then Goucher (1981, 1984) and Pole (1983), and to a lesser extent Haaland (1980), have provided some important quantitative data regarding both large and small iron working centres in West Africa.

This is an examination of the history, characteristics and decline of the making of water coolers, formerly a speciality of Ilorin. In order to place this in context, a brief overview of Ilorin pottery making in general is first essayed, including its derivation, continuing importance and future prospects. The association of water cooler making with particular Ilorin compounds is noted, together with the mode of transmission of this skill. Five types of cooler are described, with a sketch of what can be reconstructed of their history and origins. The decline of Ilorin cooler making and sale is demonstrated, and the factors responsible are examined. In conclusion, an attempt is made to suggest the wider significance of the study.

This study on the concept of oral tradition is based on three years of fieldwork, between 1980 and 1983, amongst the Gabra of northern Kenya, an Eastern-Cushitic (Oromo) speaking people who originated in southern Ethiopia and who live today on both sides of the Kenya–Ethiopia border. According to the 1978 national census figures, there are about 30,553 Gabra living on the Kenyan side of the border, mainly in the arid waste of the Eastern Province. In this hostile landscape, in the volcanic, boulder-strewn country on the edge of the Chalbi Desert east of Lake Turkana, the Gabra roam with their herds of cattle, camels, sheep and goats in constant search of pasture for their animals.

One of the major, and perhaps the most embarrassing, problems still facing African populations today is hunger. It is described by Lofchie and Commins (1982: 1) as ‘the most immediate, visible, and compelling symptom of a continent-wide agricultural breakdown in tropical Africa,’ thereby making ‘sub-Sahara Africa … the only region in the world where food production per capita has declined during the past two decades.’ This condition has been blamed on many factors, the most frequently mentioned being climate, environmental degradation, outmoded and inefficient traditional agricultural methods, customary land tenure systems which inhibit innovation by individual farmers, lack of incentives to farmers to increase food outputs, bad agricultural policies, high population growth rates and agrarian dualism. A growing body of literature focusing on women's contributions in the development process has revealed another very crucial, but often ignored, reason why hunger is still prevalent in Africa: the disregard of the role of women, who are the main food producers in Africa, in efforts to promote agricultural development (Baumann, 1928; Boserup, 1970; Bryson, 1981; Guyer, 1980; Robertson, 1983). A recent book by Odero-Ogwel (1983), which discusses the food problems in Africa, pays no attention to the fact that a major contributory factor to the food crisis in Africa is the disadvantaged position of women. This exemplifies the failure, even by African intellectuals, to realise the crucial role women can play in increasing food supplies if only certain constraints are removed. Claire Robertson (1983) warns that, unless women are fully included in the development process, the food problem in Africa will deteriorate even further.