Attitudes to the Census and Vital Registration in East Africa.

The difficulties encountered by those responsible for carrying out censuses and vital registration in colonial territories are, perhaps, not unfamiliar, and several accounts, such as those of sociologist P.G. Edge, have been given of the physical and administrative problems, the reticence and suspicions, which confront the administrator. These problems are well exemplified in East Africa. Sociologist C.J. Martin has described in detail the careful organization necessary to overcome them in 1948, when the first census in the full sense of the term was carried out in the British East African territories. The shortage of literate persons to act as enumerators, people's ignorance of their ages, and the natural suspicion of the African, are among the factors mentioned, and they are taken for granted in what follows. The problem of suspicion, while perhaps more immediately daunting, seems to be more susceptible to short-term remedies. It seems likely that even the extensive and careful publicity which took place before the 1948 Census was not sufficient to prevent many people from having a false idea of its real aims and probable consequences. Suggestions made in the article for overcoming these difficulties fall into four categories. As a long-term policy, education was favored. A number of suggestions were made for more effective publicity and explanation. The improvement of communications was urged; and some mention was made of the desirability of abating interracial and intertribal animosities, which are at present sources of suspicion about the census.