The organisation was established at the instigation of Louis Leakey in Kenya. Leakey became the organising secretary of the 1st Congress, which took place in Nairobi in January 1947. Fifty-four delegates from 27 countries attended what was then known as the Pan-African Congress on Prehistory. A brief constitution was passed and published in the journal Man (1947: 86-87). The French prehistorian Abbé Henri Breuil was elected the first president and Dr Robert Broom of South Africa the first vice-