Editor's Notes
| Published date | 01 January 1959 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1959.tb01193.x |
| Date | 01 January 1959 |
JOURNAL
OF
AFRICAN
ADMINISTRATION
Volume
XI
.
Number
I . January
1959
Editor's Notes
SOME
of
the
most
difficult
and
delicate problems
which
confront
administrative
officers in Africa arise from
widespread
belief in witchcraft
and
the
practice
of sorcery. Witchcraft in
one
form or
another
is still a most powerful influence
in Africa today,
but
we
have
not
found it easy to
obtain
articles
which
describe
its
administrative
and
legal repercussions in a
practical
and
dispassionate
manner.
We
are
therefore
fortunate
in being
able
to
publish
in this
number
of
the
Journal
an
article by
Mr.
J.
C.
Nottingham
of
the
Kenya
administration,
who, after
much
study
of
the
subject in
the
Kamba
country,
describes
the
local
manifestations
of
witchcraft in
the
Machakos
district
and
the
administrative
problems
to
which
they give rise.
This
is followed by
an
article by
Mr.
H. R. J.
Lewis, Solicitor-General, Fiji, who reviews some of
the
legal implications
of
a
belief in
the
non-natural.
Many
of
our
readers will
have
experiences similar to
those described by
Mr.
Nottingham
and
we
hope
that
the
publication
of
these
two articles will
stimulate
them
to send us
the
fruits
of
their
studies in this
field.
The
respective
parts
to be
played
in local
administration
by
traditional
authorities on
the
one
hand
and
hy
non-traditional
clements on the
other
is
clearly
one
which
deserves
continuous
review as circumstances
change
and
as
faults
are
found in existing
arrangements.
Rigid
principles
and
doctrinaire
policies
are
to be avoided
and
the
debate
must
for long continue.
Two
articles
in this
Journal
contribute
to it.
The
first,
relating
to
Ghana,
is
an
interesting
study
by
Mr.
C. A. G. Wallis,
of
an
enquiry
held by
Mr.
A. E. Greenwood,
the
Permanent
Secretary
of
Local
Government,
Ghana,
into
the
working
of
the
local
government
system in
that
territory.
The
second is a review
of
"Some
problems of Local
Government
in
Uganda"
by
Mr.
D. E.
Apter,
of
the
University
of
Chicago. Both
deal
with
other
aspects
of
local
government
as well,
but
it is
the
relation
between
the
old
order
and
the
new which will, we think,
particularly
interest
our
readers.
Finally, we
hope
that
our
readers will
approve
of
the new look we
have
given
to
the
cover
of
the
Journal,
a nice balance, we believe, between
the
traditional
and
the
non-traditional.
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