First published in 1953 by the International African Institute
This edition first published in 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
1953 International African Institute
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-138-23217-4 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-315-30463-2 (Set) (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-23220-4 (Volume 9) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-23221-1 (Volume 9) (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-31297-2 (Volume 9) (ebk)
Publishers Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.
Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.
Publishers note
Due to modern production methods, it has not been possible to reproduce all the charts which appeared in the original book. Please go to www.routledge.com/Ethnographic-Survey-of-Africa/Forde/p/book/9781138232174 to view them.
T HE International African Institute has, since 1945, been engaged on the preparation and publication of an Ethnographic Survey of Africa, the purpose of which is to present in a brief and readily comprehensible form a summary of available information concerning the different peoples of Africa with respect to location, natural environment, economy and crafts, social structure, political organization, religious beliefs and cults. While available published material has provided the basis for the Survey, a mass of unpublished documents, reports, and records in government files and in the archives of missionary societies, as well as field notes and special communications by anthropologists and others, have been generously made available, and these have been supplemented by personal correspondence and consultation. The Survey is being published in a number of separate volumes, each of which is concerned with one people or a group of related peoples, and contains a comprehensive bibliography and specially drawn map.
A committee of the Institute was set up under the Chairmanship of Professor Radcliffe-Brown, and the Director of the Institute has undertaken the organization and editing of the Survey. The generous collaboration of a number of research institutions and administrative officers in Europe and in the African territories was secured, as well as the services of senior anthropologists who have been good enough to supervise and amplify the drafts.
The work of the Survey was initiated with the aid of a grant from the British Colonial Development and Welfare Funds, on the recommendation of the Social Science Research Council, to be applied mainly, though not exclusively, to work relating to British territories. A further grant from the Sudan Government has assisted in the preparation and publication of sections dealing with that territory.
The Ministre de la France dOutre-mer and the Institut Franais dAfrique Noire were good enough to express their interest in the project and, through their good offices, grants have been received from the Governments of French West Africa and the French Cameroons for the preparation and publication of sections relating to those areas. These sections are being prepared by French ethnologists with the support and advice of Professor M. Griaule of the Sorbonne and Professor Th. Monod, Director of I.F.A.N.
The collaboration of the Belgian authorities in this project was first secured by the good offices of the late Professor de Jonghe, who enlisted the interest of the Commission dEthnologie of the Institut Royal Colonial Beige. The collaboration of the Institut pour la Recherche Scientifique en Afrique Centrale has also been readily accorded. Work relating to Belgian territories is being carried out under the direction of Professor Olbrechts at the Centre du Documentation of the Muse du Congo Belge, Tervuren, where Mile. Boone and members of her staff are engaged on the assembly and classification of the vast mass of material relating to African peoples in the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi. They work in close collaboration with ethnologists in the field to whom draft manuscripts are submitted for checking.
The International African Institute desires to express its very grateful thanks to those official bodies whose generous financial assistance has made the carrying out of this project possible and to the many scholars, directors of research organizations, administrative officers, missionaries, and others who have collaborated in the work and, by granting facilities to our research workers and by correcting and supervising their manuscripts, have contributed so largely to whatever merit the various sections may possess.
Since the unequal value and unsystematic nature of existing material was one of the reasons for undertaking the Survey, it is obvious that these studies cannot claim to be complete or definitive; it is hoped, however, that they will present a clear account of our existing knowledge and indicate where information is lacking and further research is needed.
In connection with the preparation of this volume, our thanks are especially due to the following: Professor Evans-Pritchard, who assisted in the preparation of the first draft of the present study; Professor A. N. Tucker and Miss M. A. Bryan, for help with the language sections, the orthography, and the map; Mlle. O. Boone, of the Muse du Congo Belge, Tervuren, for advice on the classification of peoples dominated or influenced by the Azande; and Mrs. G. M. Culwick, Mlle. H. van Geluwe, M. R. Breugelmans, and Mr. F. R. J. Williams, who kindly allowed the use of their unpublished material, and Mr. John Middleton and Mr. T. A. T. Leitch, who read some sections of the manuscript and supplied additional data. We are also grateful to Mr. G. Janson-Smith, Director of Education, Southern Sudan, who kindly obtained for us advance information from the 1951 Equatoria Handbook before publication.
