On the evening of March 20, 1828, a group of free men of color organized a society that had as its purpose “the mental improvement of the people of color in the neighborhood of Philadelphia.” This organization was to be known as the “Reading Room Society.” Immediately a library was established and the librarian instructed to lend books to members for no longer than a week. Books were to be withdrawn or returned at the society's weekly meeting. Freedoms Journal, the earliest Negro newspaper, the first issue of which appeared in March, 1827, and Lundy's Genius of Universal Emancipation, an antislavery publication, were among the first works circulated. In May, 1833, the Philadelphia Library Company of Colored Persons appealed for “such books and other donations as will facilitate the object of this institution.” By 1838, this library had 600 volumes. Since Negroes could not enjoy the same privileges as whites in libraries, they established for themselves some 45 literary societies between 1828 and 1846 in several large cities, mainly in the East, most of which maintained reading rooms and circulating libraries.

As a consequence of these activities many Negroes were stimulated to assemble private libraries. In 1838, in Philadelphia and nearby cities, there were 8333 volumes in private libraries. In New York City, David Ruggles, a Negro abolitionist, pamphleteer, and printer, was probably the first Negro book collector. He maintained a circulating library and made antislavery and colonization publications available to many readers. He charged a fee of less than twenty-five cents a month for renting books relating to the Negro and slavery.

At universities with Programs of African Studies, the question arises how best to train graduate students in economics who intend to specialize in African economic development: which particular fields within the corpus of pure and applied economics should be stressed, and which other subjects should be added which are not included in traditional economics curricula?

The answer depends upon one's judgment of what African development consists of and which problems of development are most common and most pressing in Africa.

As Professor Carter has already told you, it was only a few weeks ago, actually a few days ago, really, that I finally agreed to come to talk to you, so that I'm sure you will not expect an academic discourse from me. I have already tried to tell Professor McKay that I'm not an academician like he is. He asked me if I was going to read a paper before you, and I said, “No, far from it, I will not read a paper; I will read from a paper, but those will be only very cursory notes.” I recognize that I'm speaking to a group of experts on African affairs, and I myself am far from being an expert on African affairs. I'm only an African. I also recognize that as experts you come from various strongholds of learning in this country, and you may be quite prepared to weigh me in the balance. If you do so, I only want to remind you that we're meeting in Washington and that I have some very powerful supporters here because Washington is Harvard territory, and I come from Harvard!

Africa for the last few years has gradually come closer and closer to the center of attraction for people who are interested in the world as a whole. It is because of this process of looking in on Africa that we have increasingly the kind of academic interest in the continent which has led to the rapid development of departments of African affairs and special projects of African studies in your universities and colleges, which has led to the excellent programs such as Dr. Jim Robinson's Operations Crossroads (most useful to us in Africa), which has led to President Kennedy's Peace Corps taking such deep roots so quickly on the African continent, which has led to an increasing amount of space in the journals and news media, of not only this country but of other western countries which deal with Africa. And this looking in on Africa is something which we as Africans of course are delighted about, because for a long time we have felt that we have been the forgotten continent.

This list of fellowship opportunities was originally compiled by Professor Rhodes to accompany the May issue of thisBulletin, which was devoted to African arts and humanities. It was not published at that time due to pressures of space. It may be noted that many of the fellowships listed are available to Africanists in other disciplines. Also, not all of these are tenable in Africa; many awards are for work in African studies in the United States or Europe.

The Africa Collections at Stanford University are divided between the University Libraries, including the Food Research Institute's department library, and the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace. The Hoover Institution maintains a major part of the Stanford Africa Collection, but its holdings are complemented by those of the University Libraries. During the past year, the Curator of the Africa Collection at the Hoover Institution has attempted to stimulate University interest in Africa and to coordinate acquisitions. This program has been successful, and a reasonably full coverage of African materials is now assured. The University Library has accepted responsibility for the fields of art, ethnography, geography, linguistics, philosophy, religion, sociology, statistics, and technical documents, as well as all African material before 1870.

Since the first Africa grants were made in 1958 ($ 300,000 distributed amongst Nigeria, Uganda, and what was then Tanganyika), The Ford Foundation has invested more than $ 56 million in African development, including nearly $ 34 million in African education. In recent years, educational support grants have been made in seventeen African countries, although major commitments have been concentrated in a half dozen of these: the Federation of Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. In each of these, the Foundation has been concerned in an important way with university development and frequently with the educational system as a whole.

Of the total Ford Foundation investment in African education, approximately $ 14 million has gone into West Africa, $ 3 million into Central Africa, and $ 8 million into East Africa. An additional $ 9 million has supported educational projects of a Pan-African or regional nature. In a majority of instances, these grants have been accompanied by technical assistance projects and the provision of advisory personnel.

All of this represents a very considerable private effort, but it is small when measured against needs. Indeed, to face the massive educational problems of the new African states, even from the outside, is a somewhat harrowing experience. For all practical purposes, requirements in terms of both money and manpower are infinite. Nowhere in the world is the gap between aspirations and the means to realize them so great; and where so much has been left undone for so long there is a credible impatience with delay. This situation--and the political pressures to which it gives rise--confronts Ministries of Education with a whole series of Hobsonesque choices. It also raises problems of priorities in a particularly acute form for external assistance agencies, including foundations.

After more than two years of preliminary planning, the First International Congress of Africanists convened at the University of Ghana, Legon, on December 11, 1962. More than 600 scholars and observers attended the sessions, and both the size of the Congress and its organizational problems make an adequate report difficult. This brief summary by the editor of theBulletin has been compiled with the assistance of other ASA members present in Accra; it attempts to convey a sense of the conference atmosphere as well as record its formal sessions. The proceedings of the Conference will be published by UNESCO.

The conference opened with an address by President Nkrumah in which he stressed the importance of African studies in revitalizing Africa's cultural heritage, and in developing a sense of nationality and Africanness. He considered in detail the development of African studies as a serious academic study, the coming of age of African intellectuals, and the necessity of utilizing a subject such as sociology in planning for an African future, contrasting this with anthropology which he felt had little to offer modern Africa. His speech helped to establish a tone for the conference; in addition to academic matters strictly defined the conference participants found themselves concerned with such questions as the role of African and non-African Africanists, differing viewpoints of English and French speakers, and geographic and disciplinary boundary lines. Perhaps naturally at a first international conference, there were many preliminary problems to sort out before serious scholarly discussion could take place.