Training of Colonial Probationers in Anthropology

Abstract

IN 1930–31, the scheme arranged by the committee charged with the training of Colonial (African) probationers at Cambridge, provided forty hours lectures which were obligatory and twenty hours for optional consultation. My colleagues, Mr. R. U. Sayce and Mr. J. H. Driberg, have experience of African conditions and personal knowledge of administrative problems in Africa. For 1931–32, the Colonial Office has approved of an additional course of eight lectures on the principles of African customary law. Other subjects—languages, criminal law, Mohammedan history, evidence and procedure, common law, agriculture, phonetics, history, and geography—have to be provided for in the Michaelmas and Lent Terms, so that under present conditions the allotment to anthropology is as large as we can hope for. If the conditions change, we shall press for more, and even now are ready to provide more. There are other features in the scheme which I regard as needing modification, and hope that argument and persuasion will prevail in the long run.