FOREWORD BY THE AUTHORS
THIS book was planned as a successor to Fortes’ and Evans-Pritchard African Political Systems. That volume, Evans-Pritchard The Nuer, Fortes’ The Dynamics of Clanship among the Tallensi, Forde’s papers on the Yakö and a few other short essays provided a basis for the study of the politics of African peoples, and subsequent work in this field has been an elaboration and refinement of that of the authors of those books. However, it seemed clear that the simple classification of political systems made in African Political Systems, which we took for our starting point, had become out of date. We decided to make a more refined terminology and classification, and also in an introduction to attempt to consider some of the basic assumptions and findings of the research done in Africa since 1940. This volume consists of six essays on the political systems of African peoples, and an introduction based largely upon these essays.