The Fang, a conquering people, overran the southern Cameroons and northern Gabon during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Their conquest followed a rather curious pattern: without a deliberated tribal organization, one family after another picked up and descended to the sea. Their conquering past has deeply influenced the Fang; they do not hesitate to appropriate new techniques and ideas, confident that they are strong enough to assimilate almost anything into their culture. Eager for innovations and change, the Fang are convinced (...) that progress never rests, and they are not hindered by nostalgia which they feel is sterile and unjustified. It was natural for them to seek out Western civilization and try to assimilate it. As a result there was a massive conversion to Christianity among the Fang. (shrink)

Lately, the issues of “transfer of technology” seem to have become fashionable. However, they cannot be considered at length until those of DEVELOPMENT are clarified: transfer of technology is a means, development is an end, and, if we are not careful, we risk—in all good faith—being carried away by the example of the development and techniques of the “Northern countries,” while the needs and possibilities of the “South” may be quite different.

Since 1963 almost 200 films have been made by African authors. This provides a suitable quantity of documents to permit an attempt to study them as a group. These films are the work of a hundred directors and so perhaps can allow an analysis of their personalities. But can we suppose that they represent all of Africa? This is hardly probable. The film-makers and their crews belong to the upper social levels. Educated, well-traveled on other continents, highly qualified intellectually and (...) professionally, they associate with the leading class even though their financial means may not always suffice to realize their aspirations. They belong to the intelligentsia. But, because of the educative power of film, we can foresee that they will contribute to the formation of the masses. The Africa presented in their films is not that of today but maybe that of tomorrow. (shrink)

In European cities there is a clear-cut separation between center and suburbs. During the Middle Ages mainly the dictates of military strategy brought about the crowding of the population inside a belt of ramparts. Periodically this corset of walls proved too narrow, and consequently suburbs grew up along the roads leading from the city. These suburbs were in turn incorporated into the city, to be protected by a new enclosure, causing the (older walls to become circular avenues. Paris is a (...) classic example; with its three successive lines of avenues surrounding concentric areas. (shrink)