IDS has been involved in study, research, teaching and advising on sub-Saharan African development since its inception over two decades ago. Some IDS Fellows' experience in Africa goes back a quarter of a century. In the late 1970s most IDS members working in Africa were optimistic. Problems, mistakes and areas of uncertainty were clear, but the general impression was one of growing knowledge, more and - perhaps - more equitable development. SSA as a whole had apparently weathered the 1973-75 global economic shocks fairly speedily and appeared (as GDP figures later confirmed) to be doing better over 1976-79 than in any previous four-year period. Some countries were exceptions, and in 1979-80 IDS members tended to see the signs of an overall reversal of trend in the context of specific countries. Growing doubts were increased in the autumn of 1981 by the appearance of the World Bank's Accelerated Development Report.