To launch a new journal is an act of faith; it is also an act of recognition. An act of faith, because the editors and publishers of the journal will naturally ask themselves where the readership is to come from, which is to make the journal viable. An act of recognition, because the new journal officially marks, at least in the minds of its begetters, the recognition that a new area of theoretical study or practical action has now defined itself, which has hitherto been unrecognised or insufficiently provided for by the journals already in existence. As the first editor of this Journal, and the only member of the original Editorial Committee still serving the Journalin that capacity, I may be permitted to indulge in a personal reflection on the motives and background to the launching of the Journal of African Law in 1957.