524 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—H. 
The numbing effect of omen-taking, consultations with soothsayers and 
similar practices has not hitherto received the attention it deserves. Most 
Gold Coast natives will do nothing without observing the ritual of the 
omen. Thus he naturally tends to become more and more engulfed in 
the ruts of custom. The introduction of new ideas by Europeans has 
increased the opportunities and broadened the outlook of the native, and 
thereby enlarged immensely the field and scope of this practice. 
Finally the attribute of luck given to one who has power or success has 
been inevitably attached to the European. This has resulted in magnificent 
loyalty, which in turn has ensured success and therefore confirmed the belief. 
Dr. R. S. Ratrray, C.B.E—Present tendencies of African Colomal 
Governments (10.40). 
The British system of governing her Colonial possessions in Africa may 
be conveniently summed up in the phrase ‘ Indirect Rule.’ By this is 
implied, (a) the administration of the African masses by or through Africans 
on lines conforming to their own national customs and traditions, and 
(6) that the European is only there to guide, with a minimum of interference, 
being prepared eventually to quit, leaving the African ‘ to stand alone.’ 
A certain long-standing self-complacency, regarding this system—arising, 
perhaps, from the fact that all lovers of Africa and her people desire to see 
the African national genius preserved, and because ‘ Indirect Rule’ seems 
the only way of attaining this end—has begun to give place, in the minds 
of some of its staunchest adherents, to genuine doubts and grave anxiety. 
It seems certain that the system will very soon have to withstand onslaughts 
both from within and from without. The assault from the inside will come 
from the masses of the people themselves, who are likely to become estranged 
owing to the undoubted tendency of ‘ Indirect Rule,’ as now applied, to 
build up centralised African autocracies, disregarding the bases of former 
African constitutions and states, which were decentralised and democratic. 
The attack from the outside will be delivered by that ever-growing educated 
African element who feel aggrieved, because they sometimes appear to be 
excluded by a system where Western education and Western lines of progress 
seem at a discount. 
Were neither of these dangers ever to materialise, there would yet be a 
third. Does ‘ Indirect Rule’ mean that we are to build up states, which, 
while perhaps being Arcadian for the anthropologist, and possibly a model 
for barbaric or medizval sovereignties, would nevertheless be greatly 
handicapped were their sheltered privacy to be rudely invaded, and were 
they suddenly called upon to stand alone and unprotected amid the rough 
forces of the ever-changing world around them ? 
I believe I am voicing the opinion of the majority of educated Africans 
when I state that ‘ Indirect Rule’ and ‘ Anthropology ’ are both regarded 
by them as veiled attempts at ‘ keeping the Africans in their place.’ Yet, 
without their co-operation, the whole structure of ‘ Indirect Rule ’ and any 
permanent value accruing from anthropological research must surely 
crumble. ‘These and other questions are briefly discussed. 
Sir Ricumonp Patmer, K.C.M.G.—Stone circles in the Gambia Valley 
(11.25). 
(1) A short survey of the ethnic factors present in the Western Sahara 
and Sudan in the period a.D. 600-1400, distinguishing between the stocks 
known as Sarakolle, Jolof, Tuculor, Sereres, Mandinka, etc., the primitive 
Saharan stock known as Nemadi. 
