Was feudalism a purely Western phenomenon? Is it a universal stage in man's history, emphasizing replacement of kinship by ties of personal dependence which further social development required? If it is neither a universal prerequisite nor yet exclusively Western, what are the conditions under which it is found? A host of such questions are raised by the consistent use both by historians and sociologists of the term ‘feudal’ as a description of the societies they are studying. Here I want to inquire into the implications and value of the concept as applied to African societies.

The original draft of this article started with a quotation from O. G. S. Crawford: ‘… Irrelevant theorizing has been the besetting sin of the local archaeologist from the earliest times, and it is time it stopped …’ and continued by giving a rather detailed description of some pottery and metal objects found during the 1957 excavations of the Iron Age cemetery discovered at Sanga on the northern shore of Lake Kisale (northern Katanga). Especially for an area like the (ex-Belgian) Congo, where very little work indeed has ever been done on the protohistoric pottery cultures, we thought it essential first of all to give objectively as close a description as possible of the material remains of these prehistoric communities.

Le royaume de Kongo fut fondé par des conquérants qui soumirent les populations autochtones de souche ambundu. D'ou vinrent-ils? Deux théories ont été élaborées à; ce sujet. La plus ancienne et celle qui est accepté par la plupart des historiens veut qu'ils soient venus de l'est, de l'outre-Kwango. Cette version fut d'abord celle de Ravenstein avant d'ê;tre reprise et popularisée par Van Wing. On la retrouve chez Soret, Cornevin, Baumann et Westermann, Oliver et Fage soit dans tous les ouvrages de synthèse actuels.

The Funj Sultanate was the most easterly of the chain of Muslim dynastic States which at one time stretched south of the Sahara through Bilād al-Sūdān. Founded early in the sixteenth Christian century (tenth Hijri¯; century) by a king traditionally called ‘Amāra Dūnqas, its centre was on the Blue Nile, around the town of Sennar (Sinnār).

The name of John Hawley Glover is not often included among the founders of Nigeria. In fact, when he left Lagos in 1872 after fifteen years' service in the region he may well have felt that he had been dismissed under a cloud. Yet in the 1870s Glover was regarded as one of Britain's greatest African proconsuls. It was said that he was the most successful African negotiator since Maclean, that he was as well known in West Africa as Livingstone in the east. After Yoruba was brought under British control in the 1890s, Sir Gilbert Carter said he had only fulfilled what Glover had attempted over a quarter of a century before.

The purpose of this article is to examine the ideas of Mary Kingsley, not merely in abstract, but as the political theory of certain groups active in Late Victorian colonial affairs. A ‘surgical’ approach of this kind is almost certain to reduce concepts which at first sight seem brilliant and original to more mundane proportions, so perhaps at the outset this woman's outstanding achievements should be emphasized. Among contemporaries of her sex few achieved more; at a time when women were struggling to create merely the elementary conditions in which to express themselves, Mary Kingsley overshadowed the male competitors in her chosen field, sometimes in physical and almost always in intellectual achievement.

In accordance with the secret Treaty of London of 26 April 1915, Italy entered the First World War in exchange for certain promises made to her by Great Britain and France. The treaty provided for concessions to Italy in Europe, the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, and Africa, but the concessions to which Great Britain and France agreed were not regarded by the Italians as the limit of their demands.

This is the second list of radiocarbon dates for sub-Saharan Africa which are considered to be of interest to historians and others working on the pre-colonial history of Africa. The first list was published in vol. II, no. I, of the Journal.