The purpose of this paper is to analyse the slogans which are so prominent and ubiquitous on motor vehicles as expressions of social stratification among the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria. I interpret the slogans in the context of the taxi owners' and drivers' social interactions, not just as disembodied expressions of a total Yoruba world view. In studying the slogans I pay particular attention to processes of accumulation of wealth, status mobility and the way these are affected by cultural values. It is argued that the vehicle owners make different claims at different stages of their careers. Their fears and hopes at each stage must be understood in the light of the contemporary Christian and traditional mix of beliefs about destiny, the world and God.

This paper describes the political organisation of transporting in Agege, a Nigerian town located on the northern boundary of Lagos. Its aim is to provide an anthropological interpretation of this important domain of modern entrepreneurship, for, while social anthropologists have increasingly studied African urban economies, the analysis of transportation remains the preserve of economists and geographers. When anthropologists do make mention of those who own vehicles geared to the movement of produce and passengers, their social and political significance is confirmed. Wealthy Hausa transporters emerge as key figures in Cohen's (1969) careful dissection of the Sabon Gari of Ibadan, while Peel (1983) details how those traders who were also transporting magnates exercised continuous influence in the political transformation of Ijesha throughout much of the present century. Despite such occasional commentaries, the organisation of transporting per se remains a field unexplored by anthropologists. Accordingly, it is the micropolitics of relationships between bus owners, drivers and conductors that constitute my major concern, although the analysis also leads to examining relationships between prominent transporters and those who exercise authority in the contemporary Nigerian state.

In earlier articles I have argued the merits of the method of controlled comparison, both for the study of hunter-gatherer social organisation and for the study of Khoisan kinship across the forager/non-forager divide. In this article I put these two interests together to examine specifically the relation between kinship, production and culture contact among the Khoisan, and particularly the Khoe-speaking, peoples. Certain kinship structures and practices are dependent upon the means and methods of subsistence, while others are not. The latter are products of Khoisan history and in general reflect linguistic relationships between economically diverse Khoisan peoples.

In the present article, an analysis of the cooking hearth—‘a woman's place’—in Beti society provides the basis for reconsidering certain aspects of patrilineal organisation. Its aims are twofold: first, to demonstrate a continuity between female domestic roles and overall social structure, areas of concern commonly perceived as pertaining to separate domains and, second, to suggest the structural relevance of co-affinal ties, relationships largely neglected by current kinship theory.

Technological change among the Anlo-Ewe of southeastern Ghana is a subject that has received little attention from scholars, but it is a theme which figures prominently in Anlo oral tradition. Of the technologies mentioned, those associated with lacustrine fishing and salt making are discussed in the greatest detail. Traditional accounts of the fishing industry, for example, agree that when the Ewe-speaking Anlo first settled in their present area (located on the Atlantic coast immediately east and south of the Volta River and Keta Lagoon system) the Anlo were not familiar with the use of boats. As a consequence they employed fishing techniques that restricted such activities to the more shallow sections of the Keta Lagoon. The first boat that was developed (the agowu, made by hollowing out the trunk of the fan palm [Borassus aethiopium]) was said to have been inefficient because it capsized easily (Greene, 1981b: no. 29). A more stable vessel, still in use today and known as the lewu, was introduced, according to the traditions, by Amega Le.

In 1956 the Journal de la Société des Africanistes published a monograph-length paper by Jean Rouch entitled ‘Migrations au Ghana (Gold Coast: enquête 1953–1955)’ (Rouch, 1956). The paper was one of several publications during the 1950s and 1960s based on studies by Rouch and other researchers who participated in what was probably the largest study ever of West African migrations, financed by the Commission for Technical Cooperation in Africa South of the Sahara and the Scientific Council for Africa South of the Sahara (CCTA/CSA).

The Institute's sixtieth Executive Council meeting took place at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon in September 1987 and was preceded by a Gulbenkian Foundation workshop on Social Science and Development in sub-Saharan Africa in which most of those who attended the Council meeting participated. We are very grateful to our Portuguese Executive Council member, Dr Victor de Sa Machado, and his Gulbenkian colleagues for arranging the meeting, which, through the good offices of Carlos Medeiros, was jointly organised with our Portuguese partner, CEPCEP (Centro de Estudos dos Povos e Culturas de Expressao Portuguesa). Dr Roberto Carneiro, the Minister of Education, presided at the closing ceremony at this very useful stocktaking of Africanist research which underlined the continuing international role of the International African Institute.