In the course of planning a general bibliography of African famine, it became apparent that there were a number of problems raised by the multiplicity and variety of recent publications in this field. At a time when renewed interest has been triggered by the images of African famine on the television screens of the wellfed world, the researcher can no longer gather data exclusively from specialized journals. More diverse sources such as Marxism Today, New Society, and Past and Present, which normally pay comparatively little attention to African events, have in the last year published articles on African famine; it would seem that ‘everyone’ has a licence to write about famine. This deluge of recent publications joins a mass of literature on African famine which has been building up over the last century and a half: historical accounts, colonial records, economic reports, technical hand books, newspapers, periodicals and books.

The ambivalence of the term Afrikanistik is shown by its use in two works, one edited by Professor Bernd Heine (University of Cologne) Recent German research on Africa: language and culture, the other by Professors Hermann Jungraithmayr (now University of Frankfurt) and J.G. Moehlig (University of Cologne) entitled Lexikon der Afrikanistik; afrikanische Sprachen und ihre Erforschung. Whilst the former uses the term Afrikanistik to include languages and culture, as defined by Diedrich Westermann in the original title of the International Institute for African Languages & Cultures, the latter takes a more narrow interpretation of the discipline, as representing African linguistics stricto sensu.

The Centre of West African Studies was established at Birmingham in 1963 as an interdisciplinary department of area studies primarily engaged in research and postgraduate teaching. Academic appointments have been made ito the Centre in the social sciences and the humanities. A few members of other departments who are closely concerned with African studies have become Associates of the Centre.

To date nearly 80 research theses have been completed in the Centre (a list is obtainable from Mrs. E. de Veer, CWAS, University of Birmingham, P.O. Box 363, Birmingham B15 2TT). Those submitted and approved in the last year (1984-85) were on the history of the cocoa industry in the Amansie district of Asante (G.M. Austin), the political transformation and ethnic unification of the Tarok (Yergam) from the 19th Century toe. 1954 (Stephen Banfa), Nigerian clerical workers (a sociological study by Victor Omogbehin), Nigeria, the West and Southern Africa, 1960-83 (Adaye Orugbani), and the economy and society of St. Louis du Senegal, 1659-1809, with special reference to the influence of Eurafricans (S.O.M. Zilombo).