Black Africa Handbook

This study contains data on the political, social, economic, religious, ecological, and demographic characteristics of 32 Black African nations in the late 1950s and 1960s. Data are provided on political regime characteristics, such as the existence and nature of political parties, elections, the nature of the judicial system, the extent of government influence, and the occurrence of riots, civil violence, terrorist activities, civil wars, irredentist movements, and coup d'etats. Economic variables provide information on government revenues, government expenditures, gross domestic capital formation, public investment as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP), gross national product (GNP), defense budgets, energy, investment, labor, number of wage earners as a percentage of active population, industrial production, electricity production, per capita energy consumption, educational expenditures, economic welfare, consumer price index, international economic aid, total international trade, imports and exports, agriculture, and membership in major African multilateral economic organizations. Also included is information on the military and security systems, Africanization of the army officer corps, international relations, membership in nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), communication and transportation, and social welfare. Other variables provide information on population estimates and characteristics, population density, settlement patterns, cultural pluralism, language, religion, primary and secondary school enrollment, family organization, patrilineal kin groups, class stratification, and the number of physicians per population.