Abstract
FOR some time now it has been evident that a more intensive study of the political institutions and systems of native Africa was an increasingly urgent necessity. New and more searching methods of investigation have brought out the weaknesses and misconceptions of the older material, while of the more recent accounts of African economy complying with the standards of modern research, the extent is inadequate for the requirements of comparative study on the lines laid down in the development of sociological theory as applied in the study of the simpler societies. In such studies African political institutions will ultimately assume a place of importance, for they range from forms which ally themselves to those regarded as among the more primitive in the constitution of human societies, to those which in their extent and organization have been pronounced worthy to rank as great kingdoms and even empires, though of barbaric type, such as the West African emirates. In these, as well as in the details of the adjustment of social forces in the less advanced societies, there is abundant evidence of the political genius of Africa, which is not without its lessons for the study of more advanced communities.
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Forms of Society and European Rule in Africa. Nature 146, 188–189 (1940). https://doi.org/10.1038/146188a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/146188a0