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PAN-AFRICAN CONGRESS ON PREHISTORY 
Famous Scientists At Nairobi Opening
(The East African Standard, 15 January 1947
In the presence of one of the most distinguished gatherings of scientists ever assembled in Africa, His Excellency the Governor of Kenya (Sir Philip Mitchell), yesterday afternoon formally opened the first Pan-African Congress on Prehistory. 
The event is one of world-wide signifiance, and the keen local interest which it has aroused was evident from the packed Council Chamber of the Nairobi Town Hall, where the initial proceedings took place.
It was intimated that but for the opening of Parliament in Cape Town this week and the impending visit of the Royal Family, General Smuts would personally have led the South African delegation. 
His Excellency pointed out that the Congress was being held as the result of the enthusiasm of a small band of workers in the African field. The burden of the organisation had fallen on the shoulders of Dr. Leakey, who had first become interested in the Stone Age of this country when he was 1" years old, and whose detailed scientific investifations had started in 1926. 
Governor's Welcome
"I must admit," stated His Excellency, "to being amongst the most ignorant of men upon the whole subject, and I see no prospect of my ignorance ever diminishing, for I am so over-burdened with the present, and with endeavouring to devise means for coping with the immediate future, that I have not the slightest hope of ever finding the time to learn anything about the remote past. I fear, therefore, that you must not expect from me much more than a recitation of things which I have been told for the occasion. I am told, for instance - and I have no doubt it is so - that the Congress marks a very important milestone in the study of the origin of man. Findings of Stone Age tools were made in various parts of Africa, notably the Congo, South Africa and East Africa, during the closing stages of the last century and in the last 15 years. 
"As a result of more intensive work all over the Continent, Africa has come to be recognised as having the most important contribution to make to the whole problem of man's evolution. It is doubtful if any other Continent holds so many secrets, the discovery of which may lead to the unravelling of the full story of man's past.
"Indeed, I understand that scientific opinion throughout the world is tending towards the opinion that the centre of the origin of mankind was Africa.
"The East African Territories have been very much to the forefront in regard to the whole question of the study of Stone Age man, and workers in the East African field have contributed a great deal of new light on problems that have long awaited solution. In fact, in the words of a Sub-Committee which

Revision: Congrès de Nairobi 52 (#52)

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