he number of scholars involved with the study of African sculpture and related aspects such as painting, decoration, architecture, oral literature, dance, music, costume, gestural symbolism and drama, is still very small.' Within the total body of scientists who place the study of African cultures and societies in the center of their scholarly analyses, students of the African arts constitute a minute group. Within the disciplines of art history, anthropology, comparative literature, and so on, they represent an even smaller fraction. The amount of primary scientific materials and documents available to these few scholars in libraries, archives, museums, private collections, and in the field, is immense. Although uneven in quality and coverage, the materials at our disposal are extremely rich and diverse in scope and content.2 The primary documents are not easy to handle, for they are scattered in many places. Published and unpublished sources, extending over a long period of time, are written in several European languages and, increasingly, in some African ones as well. A substantial number of these sources