PREFACE
The first chapter of this book is really its preface, setting forth in full its genesis and its aim. But it remains to acknowledge here the generous help given from many countries, notably from North America, in the preparation and presentation of material. Government officials, missionaries, and others with knowledge either of African history or of the Africans whose stories are here told, have never wearied in giving counsel and aid. In particular several African friends, women and men, have in my own home gone over parts of the book with me, rendering service which no others could have given.
Mention must be made by name of several friends to whom special thanks are due, though I cannot shift my responsibility for what has been written to their shoulders. They are Canon Anson Phelps Stokes and Dr. T. Jesse Jones of the Phelps-Stokes Fund; Dr. C. T. Loram, Commissioner of Native Affairs in the Union of South Africa; the Rev. Edwin W. Smith, author of The Golden Stool, who was kind enough to
