The Royal African Society

Blindness in Colonial AfricaAuthor(s): John F. WilsonReviewed work(s):Source: African Affairs, Vol. 52, No. 207 (Apr., 1953), pp. 141-149Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal African SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/719459 .Accessed: 21/06/2012 19:15

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BLINDNESS IN COLONIAL AFRICA I4I

Blindness in Colonial Africa By JOHN F. WILSON

This lecture was given on the s7th November, with the Rt. Hon. A. Creech Jones tn the chair. Mr. Wilson, who is himself sightless, is secretary to the British Empire Society for the Blind, and the lectxre was delivered from a manuscript in Braille.

tWICE, in Northern Nigeria, I have visited the blind beggars of Rano. X There are some 800 of them-blind men with blind wives and often

blind children and they live as an exclusive guild in a part of the city traditionally reserved for the blind. In the morning they make their way, often with almost baffling skill, through the cobbled twisting streets to the mosques, the markets, and the houses of wealthy traders. In the evening they return and their takings are shared out by the Treasurer in accordance with the ancient rules of the guild. If you talked to the blind chief of this strange community- Sarakin Makafi (the King of the Blind) as he calls himself- he would tell you, with courtly sincerity, that his guild serves a vital function in the city. The Koran enjoins the faithful to give alms to the needy and, amongst the needy, the blind are particularly meritorious. A gift to a blind beggar, in return for a blessing, will bring virtue to the giver. The beggars' cry "Alms for the love of Allah !" is a call to duty no less than an appeal. If all the blind became craftsmen, to whom would the faithful give alms? As we left, we asked whether we might take a photograph of the blind elders. After much consultation the interpreter said: "The King will allow you to take his photograph so long as you don't use it to restore his sight. Allah has made him blind; it is not for men to interfere."

Amongst the multitude of blind people in Africa, this little guild, and communities like it in neighbouring cities of Northern Nigeria, are the only examples r have been able to find of blind people combining to find an answer to their problem within the framework of native society. For the most part, a blind man has to face his problem in isolation; in the towns, where Christian or Moslem teaching has created an alms-giving public, he may beg, but, usually, he will be a family or clan dependant. That system, where it has not already been disintegrated by the corrosion of modern life, provides his basic need for food and shelter except in times of general hard- ship, when he will be one of the first to go to the wall, or in places where the whole community is afflicted by a blinding disease.

There are two districts in Colonial Africa which are locally called 'tCoun- tries of the;Blind". One is in the Kodera valley of Kenya, the other in the Northern Gold Coast. In both places the same blinding disease, onchocerciasis (as ugly as its name is unpronounceable) has brought about conditions of life as strange as a piece of horrifying fiction.

Recently I went to "The Country of the Blind" in the Gold Coast. It is in the remote northern valley of the Sissili. The guide, himself practically blind, after a season on the ford, led us to the chief's compound where we

I42 AFRICAN Ar FAIRS

met 50 people like specimens from a medical museum. In the first village, Nakong, Io% of the people and zo?/O of the adult males were blind. Along the left bank of the Sissili are the overgrown ruins of eleven deserted villages, humps under the grass. A government eye surgeon, earlier this year, esti- mated that I00,000 people in the region are victims of the disease. The river communities are dying losing their fight for survival against the tiny fly which carries the disease-and yet these rivers are tributaries of the Volta shortly to be harnessed for the hydro-electric scheme. Each year thousands of people from the region travel south to labour in the mines and cocoa plantations; do they carry the threat of the disease to places where the fly breeds but is not yet infected ?

From this grim prospect, let us turn to the broader picture. Nobody knows, with any certainty, how much blindness and eye disease there is in Africa. Census retums usually under-estimate the blind population. Hospital and clinical records are often unrepresentative. The impressions of local people, even of local doctors, are often misleading. You do not see the blind until you do something for them, as the South African Government found when, some years ago, it instituted a small blindness pension and 30X000 blind people, not previously recorded, came forward to receive it.

Despite these difficulties, it is possible, by piecing together the available information and by drawing on the results of a number of intensive surveys, to get a broad picture and to produce estimates which statisticians are prepared to regard as provisionally sound. In that way it has been estimated that the West African Colonies have a blind population of at least 300,000 and that the four East African territories contain not less than 50,000 blind people. On this showing, these two regions have a blind population roughly five times that of the United Kingdom. It has been estimated that at least one person in ten in Africa has fairly serious eye disease.

As these figures are startling, even against the background of health statistics in Africa, let me give you some of the evidence on which they are based. Last year the Government of Kenya surveyed the extent of trachoma in its territory. Previously it was believed that blindness was not a serious problem in Kenya but the investigator found that from 30?/O to 80% of the children in primary schools had their eyes affected by trachoma and that more than go?/O of Suk tribesmen had eye disease. School examinations in Tanganyika have revealed a similar state of affairs. A survey amongst the Masai some years ago showed that 60% of adults and 80% of children suffered from coxjuncttvitis and that one person in I0 was blind in one eye.

In West Africa, blindness is worst in the northern territories. Samples taken for a census in Northern Nigeria showed that one person in 70 was blind and that one person in seven had eye disease. Even before the discovery that upwards of I00,000 people in the Gold Coast have onchocerciasis it had been estimated that 50,ooo people in the territory were blind.

In Nyasaland it has been officially estimated that at least 20)000 people are blind and that 6,ooo of them are young people and children of school age; that is more than three times the number of blind school children in England and Wales. A fact, borne out by much other evidence, is that, whereas blind-

BLINDNESS IN COLONIAL AFRICA I43

ness in Europe mainly occurs in late life, blinding diseases in Africa in- capacitate great numbers of people of working age.

I know statistics are rather dry so may I give yon just an example to show the way in which these things are seen at the other end ? We had a letter not long ago from a planter in Central Africa in which he said: "Some months ago I read a newspaper article about the work for the blind and was frankly sceptical about the Sgures which it gave for eye disease amongst Africans. In September a medical man spent a few days as my guest and I got him to examine the eyes of the African workers, then numbering 53, on my small estate. We selected these workers carefully and r was fairly sure he would find their eyes normal, so it was a great surprise to me when he reporte d that I6 of them had contagious eye disease and that many of the others had eye scars probably resulting from early disease. With the help of the district dispensary r am doing what I can by way of treatment) but, if my experience is anything to go by, then every planter and miner in Central Africa should wish God-speed to this work."

The main causes of eye defect in Africa are kIlown with some certainty. This talk has no pretensions to being a scientific paper and all I shall venture to do is to give some facts on which the experts seem to agree.

Trachoma, and conjunctivitis in various forms, are the principal causes. Bred in insanitary living conditions and spread by flies, contaminated dust and by physical contact, they are at their worst along the coasts, in arid regions and amongst nomadic cattle people. Their effect is insidious. Speak- ing of trachoma, one distinguished surgeon wrote: "The patient does not attract attention to himself by dying; he usually gets infected in childhood, spends the first half of his life in considerable discomfort and the second half in blindness or near blindness."

More localisedJ but more dramatic in its impact, is onchocerciasis. As you cannot expect people to take an interest in a disease they cannot pronounce, we have renamed it river bltndness. The black and silver, hump-backed flies which carry it breed mainly, but not invariably, in swift flowing water. It is found only in Central America and in Africa where its main breeding grounds appear to be the VoltaX the Congo, and the upper reaches of the Nile. It is now being found, with depressing assurance, by doctors all over Colonial Africa and alarmingly near some of the main centres of population.

Cataract and glaucoma cause much blindness. Small-pox, syphilis, leprosy, measles and tuberculosis destroy many eyes though blindness is, of course, merely one of their comp]ications.

r have gone into these facts in some detail because they lead to one out- standing conclusion on which practically all the authorities agree; it is that most, probably three-quarters, of the blindness and eye disease in Africa could be prevented. Two examples may help to show that this is a realistic assessment.

Six years ago, two scientists{;arnham and McMahon investigated the Kodera district of Kenya (one of the "Countries of the Blind" mentioned earlier) where up to 70?/O of the population suffered from onchocerciasis. They added D.D.T. to the head waters of the river andS this year, the in-

I44 AFRICAN AFFAIRS

fection rate of onchocercxasis amongst children aged four to seven years was found to have dropped from 37?/O to I%

Last year, Dr. Phillips, a Northem Rhodesia Government eye specialist, obtained rough case histories of I,600 blind people in the territory. In practically every case blindness resulted from a disease which could easily have been prevented, and, mainly by straightforward cataract operations, he was able to restore sight to s30 of the people examined.

But, whatever is done to prevent blindness, there will, for generations to come, be great numbers of Africans who are irrevocably blind. At present they are carried as just another of the economic burdens of African family life, except where the tribe or clan is disintegrating. With adequate training great numbers of them could become self-supporting.

The medical and welfare facilities which are the practical answer to the problem do not yet exist in Africa. Working in over-crowded clinics, a handful of eye specialists in the Colonies save thousands of eyes each year, but great numbers of people still go blind for lack of simple treatment. No Colony yet has more than a token ophthalmic service and, in the whole of Colonial Africa, there is only one exclusively ophthalmic hospital.

Despite gallant efforts by missions (supported by Governments) welfare facilitiesiare still pitifully inadequate. In the whole of Colonial Africa there are only six small training centres for the blind and they together accom- modate only s50 blind people. There is no workshop or rural employment scheme and no facilities in the Colonies for printing Braille books in the vernacular.

For economic no less than humanitarian reasons, something had to be done about this situation. Once the facts were brought to light the need for action was accepted both here and in the Colonies. Apart from the human suffering which they cause, eye diseases, on this scale, are a major cause of low eaming, ineEcient production and poverty. An effective system of welfare for the blind is not just a humane necessity; it can be a national asset. I0,000 blinc! people, about one-third of the blind of working age in Britain, are employed in a great variety of work; our sheltered workshops alone produced goods last year worth ?2,000,000.

When something has to be done in the Colonies, people usually assume that Government will have to do it: yet, the social services of Britain owe their origin to a more dynamic conception of pllblic responsibility. Four- fifths of the workshops for the blind in this country, and practically all our schools for the blind, were founded by, and are still under the control of, voluntary committees. It is strange that, though in this country we have voluntary organisations for practically everything from lost dogs to lunar exploration, there had not previously been a charity specifically created to serve the Colonial Empire.

In January, I950, the British Empire Society for the Blind was formed by the Colonial Office and the National Institute for the Blind with the support of every Colonial Govemment. It is a voluntary organisation under the direction of a Council consisting of people with experience of Colonial administration and of every aspect of work for the blind. Its area includes the

BLINDNESS IN COLONIAL AFRICA I4S

whole Colonial Empire. It works with international agencies, Governments, missions and voluntary bodies to prevent blindness and to bring help to the blind. The Society, and its associated organisations overseas, have received substantial grants from Governments and are raising funds through appeals in the United Kingdom and throughout the Commonwealth and Empire.

In your opening remarks, as no doubt a Chairtnan must, you exaggerated the part I played in this affair. However good our cause, however adroit our propaganda, we would have got nowhere had not the Secretary of State for the Colonies in I949 been the kind of person who saw people behind statistics. You, Mr. Chairrnan, and Lord Ismay are the real founders of this organisation, and the Governments and Governors who responded so spon- taneously to this idea and the officials of the Colonial Office who proved to be so able at Snding ways through their own precedents. A lot of the credit must also go to Lord Halifax who is our President who has been far more than a ceremonial Presidentl and to Sir Bernard Reilly, that most genial of Chair- men, Sir Stewart Symes and Sir Eric Machtig who have directed our policy, General Sir Bemard Paget, who, with arguments directed to the strongest of hearts and the hardest of heads, is commander-in-chief of our appeals cam- paign, and to Mr. Eager, our Vice-Chairman, who has the respect and affection of blind people all over the world. I am just one of that team and I have been very proud to serve with them in an effort to convert a funda- mentally good idea into a practical organisation.

Our first task, in which we had substantial help from the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Governors, was to build up, in each territory, an organisation to make and carry out a local plan. During the last two years local organisations of this kind have been set up in z6 Colonial territories. In Kenya, Uganda, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland they have taken the form of branches of the Society; in West Africa we ha^te a regional centre working through independent societies in Nigeria, the Gold Coast and Sierra Leone.

The Society's primary concern is to prevent blindness and, in that field, the first step is thorough-going ascertainment of the facts. We want to know where the blind people are, why they are going blind and exactly what measures can be taken to reduce the problem. We decided, after taking much advice, to undertake a series of field surveys, each elaborately organised and expertly staffed in the main regions of the Colonial Empire.

Last week two scientists an eye surgeon and an entomologist-- reached the Gold Coast with four specially adapted vehicles and two tons of equipment. With locally recruited teams they will, in the next three years, conduct, in the Gold Coast and Nigeria, the most extensive survey of blinding diseases ever undertaken in Africa.

The cost of this survey, some ?3?,???, has been mainly subscribed by firms in the United Kingdom with interests in the Colonies.

Similar surveys in East Africa, financed by our branches in Uganda and Kenya and by the Government of Tanganyika, are being planned for next year. When the results of these surveys are available we should, for the {;rst time in Africa, have the basic knowledge on which to plan a comprehensive 10 AA 52

I46 AFRICAN AFFAIRS

scheme of prevention and treatment and the evidence on which Govern- ments can decide the degree of priority which they can give to this task.

On the welfare side our immediate object is limited and attainable. We are starting with young blind people and, by establishing a sma]l training centre in each Colony, we want to demonstrate conclusively that they can be trained and re-absorbed as working members of their village or town com- munity. Nothing in this plan involves segregating the blind into institutions. That would be contrary to the whole purpose of blind welfare and would be fatal in Africa where the natural loyalties of family and clan are the blind man's surest protection. This is a training scheme, not a relief operation.

There are of course many problems: the reluctance of parents to send blind children away for training, the rival attractions of begging, and the need to organise an after-care system. With a knowledgeable local committee directing this operation these problems should not be so formidable as they seem. When a blind man goes back to his village able to grow his own food, to support his own family and to make goods which sell in local markets, he will become part of the tradition of that village and his example will be the surest foundation on which the scheme from these modest beginnings can grow into a diversified system of education and welfare.

Obviously more important than the plan is the quality of the people who will carry it out. Blind welfare workers in Britain have an unrivalled store of expert knowledge which is now drawn on internationally. That knowledge can save much waste effort but it must be applied discriminatingly; the mai complication of any work in Africa must surely be Afnca itself. An important function of our Society is to give technical advice but it is no good sending high-powered experts on jet-propelled missions from capital to capital. We want to provide experts who, by living and working in the Colonies, will adapt their technique to the locality and thus produce something which is not only professionally elegant but is also workable. Our first regional office was established last year in West Africa. Its director is an experienced blind administrator and I am sure that much of his success comes from the fact that he is himself a convincing example of what a trained blind man can do. Next year we hope to have o*lcers working interterritorially in Central and East Africa. One of their functions will be to train teachers, some of whom will be brought to the United Kingdom for additional training.

I have left until the end the question of Braille. It is the basis of any system of education for the blind and immensely widens the range of occupations open to the blind. There is no serious technical problem in teaching Braille to Africans or in printing Braille books in any African vernacular. But we are yet at the beginning and the emphasis must be on vocational training in which literacy may or may not be an important factor. We must produce some African school text books in Braille but, until we find a kindly disposed millionaire, we cannot produce an adequate range of Braille literature in even the main African languages.

Meanwhile We can save future generations of Braille readers in Africa from the confusion which has resulted in other parts of the world from inconsis- tencies in Braille alphabets. With U.N.E.S.C.O. and the School of Oriental

BLINDNESS IN COLONIAL AFRICA I47

and African Studies, we have devised a standard system of Braille for Africa. The system contains 52 different signs, covering all the letters, tone marlss and clicks which occur in African languages. A blind East African, who reads Swahili, Arabic and English, or a West African who reads Hausa and Yoruba will be able, using a single set of letters, to read in any of these languages. That is more than any sighted African can do and, that it is possible, is a singular tribute to Louis Braille, that blind Frenchman who died unknown and unnoticed in lFrance just a century ago.

In this talk I have tried, as objectively as r can, to describe a problem and an enterprise whose importance, in the whole complex perspective of Africa, many of you will be better able to judge than I am. May I end by em- phasizing that this problem of blindness, though formidable in its size and in its consequences, is not one of the vast inescapable problems of Africa which can be solved only if the gods transform the tribesmen into tech- nocrats and the wilderness into a welfare state. It can be tackled now and I venture to think that the effort which is being made and the spirit which inspires it have an importance far beyond the immediate objective.

. .

Lotscusszon A Member paid a tribute to Mr. Wilson for his most interesting talk. He had seen

Muslim children with flies round their eyes and when he had asked the mothers why they did not brush the:n alvay they said it would be impious to do so because Allah sent them and wlth regard to the pagans it was a great difficulty to get them to attend the clinics because the local medicine man, not the witch doctor, told them that if they went to the white man's dispensary they would be killed and made into chops. He was interested to hear that Yoruba was being written in Braille. Yoruba was a tonal language with at least three different tones, low, mediurn and high, and it seemed rather difficult to know how these would be interpreted in Braille.

Mr. Wilson replied that the problem of getting people to clinics did not arise only in this campaign but in others. \Mherever he had seen a clinic open in Africa for the blind he had seen queues hundreds of yards long waiting outside. In Tanganyika travelling in a car he took the trouble to watch for blind people and saw some in a village waiting in the sun with their goats, wives, children and cooking-pots. He asked what they were doing and they said they were waiting for an eye surgeon coming from the coast. He decided to wait and watch the surgeon at work, he waited two hours. He then asked the Chief when the surgeon was coming and was told "A week on Monday !" On the question of tonal markings he understood that in all African languages provision was made for I I tones and that could be done in Braille. There was a system which would provide up to 63 different combinations and anybody who knew what the tones meant and the language and had learnt Braille could read the tone marks from the Braille script.

Lady Darson asked for a little more information about the experiments with D.D.T. for flyborne diseases in water. It was very useful if it did not kill the flora and fauna as well.

Mr. W:ilson replied that spectacular results had been achieved against this disease with insecticide in KerXya, Uganda and the Congo. It was hoped to use D D T. in the northern Gold Coast in the next three years, but it was much more intricate there because in other places there was a fairly well-defined channel moving fast while in the Gold Coast there was a vast spread of water. This fly completely disappeared in the dry season. As soon as the rains came it appeared again and the question was what happened in the meantime. If one could find that out and attack the hibernating grounds with some effective insecti- cide it might be a powerful way of getting at it.

Colonel Ponsonby said that about 25 years ago when the biggest bridge in the world was being built over the Zambezi, the Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Co., for the first year through the Ross Institute worked on the elimination of the anopheles mosquito and the contract was completed, as a result, nine months before the expected time because there was no malaria. There was this great Volta scheme in the Gold Coast and he rather gathered from Mr. Wilson that a great volume of water might also spread onchocerciasis....

I48 AFRICAN AFFAIRS

He would like to know whether by D.D.T. or other methods it was possible to ensure that the eiisease would not be spread and he would also like to know whether the fly worked only in the quick running water or whether it was also found in the surrounding marshcs which presumably fringed the river

He would also like to hear something about the Uganda Committce of the Society how it was functioning and what rcsults it had had

Mr. Wilson said that Colonel Ponsonby knew much more about both t)zese things than he diel. About the habits of the fly, knowledge of these was quite obviously being built up. People started off by thinking that the Simulium breei only in fast, well oxygenated waters at a high altitude. It was then suggested that the water had to be where there was an outcrop of granite, but that idea had to be dropped because the fly was found in other p!aces and the idea that it could only breed in swift-flowing water had been modified slnce it had been found breeding in sluggish salt:y water in the Gambia. One species of the fly in Kenya appeared only to be able to breed where there was present a certain fonn of freshwater crab on which it adhered during one phase of its life cycle. The experts differed as to the extent to which the Volta scheme or anything like it could spread the fly The first expert who studied it said that if they interfered with the flow of the water in the main Prea in the northern Gold Coast, they could spread the fly through the whole of West Afrlca with devastating effects. Another surgeon said not long ago that it might be 1ikened to the effect of malaria on the men who built the Suez Canal. The Volta people themselves did some research and Dr. Berner who carried it out said that it was a matter of considerable importance to eliminate or isolate this disease. That was about as far as it had got. The Society's own team was now out there and it was undertaking a widespread and detailed study of the disease and there was good hope that once they knew the facts they could suggest ways of stopping the devastating growth and possibly of eliminating it.

The Uganda Committee was one of 26 overseas Committees which were making territorial appeals. It had raised more than ?4?sooo already a really magnificent achieve- ment. The Society's East African Committee in the United Kingdom, on which Colonel Ponsonby had served with such distinction, under Sir John Hathorn Hall's Chairmanship, was sllpporting the East African efforts. The other appeals were doing well. Whereas this started as an eflSort to raise money in this country, the whole thing had taken hold in most Colonies, although not in all and it was now moving on its own momentum.

Mr. Swanzy said that the Governor of Uganda had very recently announced that the Simulium fly had been pretty well eliminated on stretches of the Nile near the Jinja project at a cost of ,66,ooo. In relation to A1r. Wilson's references to Belgium he asked if there was any international work in Afnca in this connection. Did the other nations and territorial administrations work on any similar schemes ?

Mr. Wilson replied that the Belgians and the Fre nch were working on the preventative side on onchocerciasis, and there was the United Nations effort against tracZlonza in North Africa. On the welfare side, outside the British colonies and the Union of South Africa, he did not think there were more than two or three very small schools for the blind in Africa south of the Sahara.

Captain Cooke said that a great deal of the success of the work must depend upon popular support. Could Mr. Wilson say what was being done in this country to achieve that popular support?

Mo. Wilson said that the Campaign Against Blindness was launched on Empire Day I95I and it was an attempt to focus attention on this and to raise a substantial fund here in the Colonies and in certain Dominions. That effort was directed by a powerful com- mittee under General Sir Bernard Paget. There had been appeals to the great number of firms trading with the Emp re, and the money was being sought particularly from people ir} organisations who had interests in the Colonies concerned. That was the most likely source and the one which it was felt could best be tapped. It was going fairly well, far more support was needed but it was coming gradually. It took a long time to organise an effort like this. Various cities were joining in, there was a campaign in Bristol and another in Southampton was taking place fairly soon. There was a substantial public interest in this. He did a broadcast some time ago and was quite surprised by the number of people who wrote letters.

Asked whether the D.D.T. campaign was carried out by aeroplanes or by dumping it in the rivers, Mr. Wilson said that he understood that in Kodera, the D.D.T. was sprinkled in the head waters of the river which gave it sufficient distribution. In the Congo it was done by plane and he thought probably that might be the way to do it in West Africa. The technique of distributing D.D.T. was widely understood now.

Another question was how the fly carried the disease, how did it get infected and what knowledge was there of its spread.

J IE MARRIAGE J IE MARRIAGE I49 I49

.7Wr. Wilson replied that the life cycle was not thoroughly known. The agent seemed to be a little fly which was called the buffalo gnat in East Africa. It bred in the rivers and when it bit its victims it injected a tiny microscopic worm which multiplied and in the course of its life cycle it sooner or later attacked the eye. The reasorl seemed to be that at one stage in its development it needed light, it was not so much crossing the eye that the worm did the harm but in dying in or around the eye. The authorities did not seem to know a lot about its spread, it was suggested that the Northern Gold Coast was the original home; there were tsvo species of the fly, one in i:ast and one in West Africa and it was fairly obvious that it was taken to Central America by the slave traders, that being the only other place where it was found and where it was very much like the western African species. One of the differences was the extent of blindness, in West Africa it was much higher than in East Africa and that mightbhave something to do with changed environ- ment, but the whole thing was very mysterious.

Dr. O. K. Ogan, an African member, said that one of the main effects of a talk such as this must be to impress individuals that there was a way in shich they could support this work. He would like to know whether there was any specific way in which a person who was a doctor in the Colonies could be associated more directly in the work.

A. Wilson replied that there were many ways. In most of these territories there was a Central Committee and such a person could attach himself to that and do most valuable work. It was desirable to get the facts more widely known and to obtain more knowledge and that could best be done by people belonging to the territory. In Nigeria there was a great need for that sort of thing and a doctor could give invaluable help by joining that Committee; the same remarks applied to any of the African colonies

Asked if anything could be done to facilitate the studies of African students in this country, Mr. Wilson said that there were a number of students here studying work for the blind. A series of courses had been worked out and more students would be coming over. l'he training was technical, some were blind and they had their problems and if any of the organisations or individuals who cared for students could help in the way needed, his Society would be delighted to put students in touch with them.

The Chatzman said he was sure it would be the wish of the meeting that he should thank Mr. Wilson for his most interesting lecture. He thought all were impressed with the fact that here was a tremendous field of work in which all too little was being done. The figures given by Mr. Wilson showed the appalling extent of the disease and of the problem which had to be coped with. Mr. Wilson had brought home the importance of survey work and more exact knowledge in regard to the spread of the disease. Moreover it was obvious from the answers he had given that there was room for considerable re- search into some of these problems. The British Empire Society for the Blind had been built up on the basis of reports which had come to hand and for the purpose of trying, in co-operation with the Colonial Governments, to bring these grave and difficult problems to a solution. It was necessary to bring the diseases of blindness under control. But a great deal of the work could only be done by the individual and through voluntary societies. .NIany had certainly given most generous support and for that, all must be grateful. It only remained for him to express again thanks to Mr. Wilson- it had been a fascinating lecture. All were grateful to him, to all the members of his team, and to all those who had been working so hard over the past few years. Mr. Wilson had given great inspiration for carrying on this great work.

Jie lVIarriage By P. H. GULLIVER

The althor is a sociologist at present attac]zed to the Tawtganyika Government. The present stzfdy of a small Uganda tribe is part of a general survey, shortly to appear on booli-form.

FOR the Jiel maxTiage is not just the act of making a girl the wife of a certain man, but is a lengthy process (beginning with formal preparation

1 The Jie tribe inhabit part of the Karamoja District of north-east Uganda, and number about I8,000. Cf. my paper, "The Karamajong Cluster", Africa, sxii, Jan. I952.

.7Wr. Wilson replied that the life cycle was not thoroughly known. The agent seemed to be a little fly which was called the buffalo gnat in East Africa. It bred in the rivers and when it bit its victims it injected a tiny microscopic worm which multiplied and in the course of its life cycle it sooner or later attacked the eye. The reasorl seemed to be that at one stage in its development it needed light, it was not so much crossing the eye that the worm did the harm but in dying in or around the eye. The authorities did not seem to know a lot about its spread, it was suggested that the Northern Gold Coast was the original home; there were tsvo species of the fly, one in i:ast and one in West Africa and it was fairly obvious that it was taken to Central America by the slave traders, that being the only other place where it was found and where it was very much like the western African species. One of the differences was the extent of blindness, in West Africa it was much higher than in East Africa and that mightbhave something to do with changed environ- ment, but the whole thing was very mysterious.

Dr. O. K. Ogan, an African member, said that one of the main effects of a talk such as this must be to impress individuals that there was a way in shich they could support this work. He would like to know whether there was any specific way in which a person who was a doctor in the Colonies could be associated more directly in the work.

A. Wilson replied that there were many ways. In most of these territories there was a Central Committee and such a person could attach himself to that and do most valuable work. It was desirable to get the facts more widely known and to obtain more knowledge and that could best be done by people belonging to the territory. In Nigeria there was a great need for that sort of thing and a doctor could give invaluable help by joining that Committee; the same remarks applied to any of the African colonies

Asked if anything could be done to facilitate the studies of African students in this country, Mr. Wilson said that there were a number of students here studying work for the blind. A series of courses had been worked out and more students would be coming over. l'he training was technical, some were blind and they had their problems and if any of the organisations or individuals who cared for students could help in the way needed, his Society would be delighted to put students in touch with them.

The Chatzman said he was sure it would be the wish of the meeting that he should thank Mr. Wilson for his most interesting lecture. He thought all were impressed with the fact that here was a tremendous field of work in which all too little was being done. The figures given by Mr. Wilson showed the appalling extent of the disease and of the problem which had to be coped with. Mr. Wilson had brought home the importance of survey work and more exact knowledge in regard to the spread of the disease. Moreover it was obvious from the answers he had given that there was room for considerable re- search into some of these problems. The British Empire Society for the Blind had been built up on the basis of reports which had come to hand and for the purpose of trying, in co-operation with the Colonial Governments, to bring these grave and difficult problems to a solution. It was necessary to bring the diseases of blindness under control. But a great deal of the work could only be done by the individual and through voluntary societies. .NIany had certainly given most generous support and for that, all must be grateful. It only remained for him to express again thanks to Mr. Wilson- it had been a fascinating lecture. All were grateful to him, to all the members of his team, and to all those who had been working so hard over the past few years. Mr. Wilson had given great inspiration for carrying on this great work.

Jie lVIarriage By P. H. GULLIVER

The althor is a sociologist at present attac]zed to the Tawtganyika Government. The present stzfdy of a small Uganda tribe is part of a general survey, shortly to appear on booli-form.

FOR the Jiel maxTiage is not just the act of making a girl the wife of a certain man, but is a lengthy process (beginning with formal preparation

1 The Jie tribe inhabit part of the Karamoja District of north-east Uganda, and number about I8,000. Cf. my paper, "The Karamajong Cluster", Africa, sxii, Jan. I952.