Journal of Social Development in Africa (1996), 11,1,97-109 
Book Reviews 
State of the Environment in Southern Africa, a Report by the Southern African 
Research and Documentation Centre in collaboration with the World Conservation 
Union (IUCN) and SADC, Andrea Booth, John McCullum, James Mpinga & 
Mutizwa Mukute, edited by Munyaradzi Chenje and Phyllis Johnson. Harare, 
SARDC, 1994, ISBN 0-7974-1374-X, 332p. 
Why is it that books on the environment tend to be so much better presented than 
books on, say, politics, gender, or other social issues? This, the first offering of 
SARDC's environment resource centre, is no exception. It represents a major 
departure from SARDC's previous publications, and it also gives the institution as 
a whole a more concrete image and direction. 
The book is presented in three parts. Part One sets out background information 
on Southern Africa, its physical environment and the way it has been managed 
throughout history to the present. The first chapter in this section gives a regional 
overview in the context of related socioeconomic issues, such as population growth 
and economic development, which affect people's interaction with the environment 
The chapters on history and policy deal respectively with traditional 
environmental management techniques and the laws, policies and institutions that 
regulate the Southern African environment today. The next chapter describes the 
different ecozones in the region - large natural units which are controlled by a set 
of common processes, mostly climatic, and dominated by life-forms with similar 
physical adaptations to those processes. The chapter on climate reviews the role of 
weather patterns, particularly drought, as an important context for understanding 
environmental issues. 
Part Two sets out a series of environmental issues of interest to Southern Africa. 
The issues covered here are the most topical, selected (as the introduction states) 
after discussions with: 
"...literally hundreds of people in the environmental field throughout 
southern Africa...mentioned as foremost during visits to all 11 countries, 
and further highlightedat a conference of environmental personnel from all 
countries in the region...". 
The issues discussed range from soils and land use, woodlands and forests, and 
wildlife and protected areas, to freshwater and marine resources, pollution and 
armed conflict.
98 Book Reviews 
The last section of the book, Part Three, looks toward the future. The chapter on 
global atmospheric changes considers the possible impact on the region of global 
warming and depletion of the ozone layer, and reviews the actions being taken, 
regionally and internationally, to contain this. The final chapter on regional trends 
and scenarios takes the major trends identified in the overview and projects them 
into the future. These scenarios were developed at a workshop which considered 
the region's en vironmental strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and problems. 
As a librarian, I was interested in the book as a process, emanating from the 
S ARDC environment resource centre and its databases. This process offers endless 
possibilities to other documentation centres, as to how the invaluable information 
they contain can be made available to people in an easily-consumable format. This 
work goes a long way to solving the librarian/documentalist's problem of how to 
make people use the information they store. 
As mentioned before, the presentation of this book is excellent - dare I say 
perfect? It uses illustrations, maps, and above all, boxes, somewhat like the UNDP 
and World Bank reports, to great effect, all forming a highly readable and 
interesting product The linkages between chapters is a most useful innovation, 
arising no doubt from the book's inception in a database. 
It also does great service by starting with a clear definition of what, exactly, 
sustainable development actually is. 
The purpose of the book is stated to be "...a tool for decision-makers to use in 
developing appropriate agendas for action...", but "...not a policy study". The 
level of the language in which it is written would be highly appropriate for a school 
textbook, and I for one would recommend that it be adopted in the secondary school 
syllabus. But the level and depth of discussion might be a little too simplistic for 
the decision- or policy-maker. 
It would have been nice to see the issue of gender and the environment awarded 
a chapter in the book rather than the occasional box. In Southern Africa women are 
the principal users of and dependers on natural resources in their daily lives: they 
are the fanners, the drawers of water and collectors of firewood, and also the main 
victims of pollution, drought and deforestation. 
In its final chapter, the book does address some policy issues and future 
scenarios, and in earlier chapters advocates the use of indigenous/traditional 
solutions to environmental problems, but it offers no radical new solutions. As Prof 
Mugadza recently stated, we may need to change our entire economic base in the 
region in order to confront the problems of drought and depletion of natural 
resources. Perhaps we should be looking at developing new industries as an 
alternative to agriculture so that we can import food that we can no longer grow 
ourselves.
Book Reviews 99 
Following this valuable overview of the environment in Southern Africa, we 
look forward to other products from SARDC's resource centre and congratulate 
them on this one. 
Reviewed by Anne Derges, Librarian, School of Social Work. 
Social Policy and Administration in Zimbabwe, School of Social Work, Harare, 
Zimbabwe, Journal of Social Development in Africa, ISBN: 0-7974-1468-1 
(1995), 212pp, Price: Z$60, US$25 (p/b). 
The book discusses the history of social policy in Zimbabwe from the pie- 
Independence period up to the present time. The book looks at major factors - 
ideological, cultural, political, availability of resources and regional and international 
organisations which determine the direction of social policy. The book also 
considers poverty and inequality in developing countries with particular emphasis 
on Zimbabwe. One result of poverty has been that "..increasingly great numbers 
of peasants annually drift into urban squatter compounds and swelling the ranks 
of the unemployed" (p 40) This trend does not apply to Zimbabwe alone, but other 
African countries are also going through. Different aspects of social policy and 
administration in Zimbabwe are also discussed. These are rural development, 
social welfare, social security, health, housing and education. The last chapter is 
an overview of the above topics. 
During the pre-Independence period, social policies regarding the above 
aspects were discriminatory to blacks. Not only were the social policies discriminatory, 
they also forced blacks to lose some of their traditional practices. For 
example, health policies discouraged the indigenous people from using traditional 
healers. The policies transformed formerly self-sufficient medical practices and 
made them dependent on foreign medical practices which the people scarcely 
understood and which were, in any case, largely inaccessible (especially to those 
who lived in rural areas). All other aspects of life were similarly affected. It was 
sadly noted that during the pre-Independence period, when the country had more 
resources, the quality of life for whites was much better than that for blacks, and 
it was only after Independence that the quality of life for blacks began to improve. 
Unfortunately the economy then started to go down, hence the introduction of the 
structural adjustment programme. The programme has resulted in a low quality of 
life again for black people, and up to now, Zimbabwe is still going through this, 
with its negative consequences for the majority. 
The authors did well by starting with the definition and analysis of social policy. 
This is vital because definitions of concepts vary from one scholar to another. It 
discusses factors which shaped the development of social policy in Zimbabwe
100 Book Reviews 
(both internal and external). These include: ideology, availability of resources, 
politics, culture and international and regional organisations. The book mentioned 
that lack of resources undermines the importance of ideology as a determinant of 
social policy. While lack of resources undermines the importance of ideology, it 
creates a danger in the sense that it encourages dependency - for example, the 
structural adjustment programme, which does not only affect Zimbabwe but other 
African countries too. As an alternative to structural adjustment, the authors 
suggest an African approach, but leave us in the dark as to what that African 
approach entails. 
The book did a good job by concluding each chapter with recommendations. To 
effectively implement the authors' recommendations, not only in Zimbabwe, but 
in other African countries, the right technology and manpower are needed. I am 
aware that lack of resources is another problem facing developing countries, but 
I feel that lack of technology and manpower are the major problems. Lack of 
manpower in developing countries is exacerbated by the fact that when the 
economy of a country goes down, intellectuals migrate to countries where the 
economy is still better. 
Overall the book is quite enlightening on social policy and administration in 
Zimbabwe. It clearly outlines a wide range of social policies which affect the 
quality of life for the majority in Zimbabwe. 
Reviewed by Mrs Tapologo Afaundeni, University of Botswana, Gaborone. 
Alleviating Hunger in Zimbabwe: Towards a National Food Security Strategy, 
M Rukuni & T S Jayne, University of Zimbabwe Publications, Harare, 
Zimbabwe, ISBN.0-908307-18-7,1995,62pp. 
Just a few years ago, Zimbabwe could feed her population and export grain to 
neighbouring countries. Thus she was dubbed the "breadbasket of Southern 
Africa". Zimbabwe was charged with the responsibility of coordinating the food 
security programme in the region. Objectives of the programme were to satisfy the 
basic food requirements for all people who need it and to eliminate periodic food 
crises. This meant the need to maintain adequate feedstocks at all times and 
ensuring accessibility of the food to all. 
While the grain silos were full and overflowing with food, there were cases of 
suffering from what one may call artificial famine. Some people did not have 
enough food to eat It is against this background that Alleviating Hunger in 
Zimbabwe: Towards a National Food Security Strategy is written. The book looks 
at "a food security paradox" in Zimbabwe where "at national level, the country 
isfoodsecure.butathouseholdlevel.thereareseveralcasesoffoodinsecurityand 
malnutrition".
Book Reviews 101 
The book is a critique of food production and distribution systems in Zimbabwe. 
It discusses the food security situation in the country by examining the marketing 
system and grain availability at household level and evaluating government efforts 
to ensure that everyone has food. It reviews government-sponsored drought relief 
and supplementary food production programmes and the child supplementary 
feeding schemes. In the last chapter, the book recommends how to promote 
household food security. 
Like many other countries in Southern Africa, Zimbabwe has been caught in a 
vicious cycle of recurrent droughts. The 1994/95 agricultural season saw an 
outbreak of army worm in some districts, in addition to a dry summer. The season 
was thus described as worse than that of 1991/92, then called the worst drought in 
Zimbabwe's living memory. Most small-scale farmers did not harvest anything 
from their fields and many were forced to turn to government for food handouts. 
Rather than leave individual ministries to grapple with the problem, Rukuni & 
Jayne recommend a holistic approach to hunger and malnutrition. 
On drought relief, the book reports how the information on deserving cases is 
obtained and how the decision on how much food to allocate is arrived at. Rukuni 
& Jayne say the decisions are not based on "...available malnutrition indicators or 
food production shortfalls". They report that". ..there is a huge gap between what 
is needed and what is provided". Transport is also a big problem. 
On the child supplementary feeding scheme, the book reports that it is difficult 
to pinpoint specific areas of need as the information at national level, where 
decisions are made, is aggregated. For example, one cannot isolate "...areasofhigh 
malnutrition, assess the primary cause of the problem or to target appropriate 
assistance to these areas". 
One way of being food secure at the household level is to produce more food. 
In view of the recurrent droughts that the region is experiencing, it is difficult to 
produce more or enough food from the land. The authors give a few tips on how 
to produce or acquire food and store it for longer periods. The book suggests the 
supplementary food production programme as one way of addressing the problem 
of food shortage and malnutrition. However, it does not dwell much on food 
production, instead concentrating on what happens after (enough) food has been 
produced, that is, marketing and distribution of the food to those needing it The 
book critically analyses the situation where the "...large stocks in grain marketing 
depots dotted around the country do not necessarily translate into grain availability 
in communal areas", and advises on how to reduce the cost of government 
stockpiling and drought relief programmes. 
To keep the grain at low prices which are affordable to the poor rural farmer, 
Rukuni & Jayne propose restructuring of the grain marketing system and promotion 
of competitive, low-cost rural markets. According to them: "The Grain
102 Book Reviews 
Marketing Board (GMB) should maintain its positive functions such as holding 
buffer stocks to guard against drought and provide a floor price for surplus 
producers". On grain movement, they say the GMB should not take grain out of 
deficit areas, only to be brought back as more expensive mealiemeal which the poor 
communal farmers do not like and cannot afford: "Communalpeople like straightrun 
meal, mugaiwa". 
Competitive, low-cost rural markets can be promoted through "...better lubricated 
rural credit schemes", developing road networks to link one communal area 
directly with another so that grain goes from a high producing area to a needy one 
and not through a town, thus reducing transport costs; promoting better storage 
facilities and the development of grain varieties resistant to attack by storage pests. 
Rukuni & Jayne also recommend rural industrialisation so that people can make 
money to buy what they cannot produce. 
On credit/finance for rural development, the book analyses the conditions which 
led to the development of urban-based industries, but stifles development of rural 
entrepreneurs and off-farm industries, and the constraints that the Small Enterprise 
Development Corporation (SEDCO), a parastatal established to encourage development 
of rural areas and small towns, faces. 
It is no doubt that the subject being discussed in the book is important Equally 
important, and especially in communication and marketing, is the presentation and 
appearance of the book. The title is catchy and only a few people will miss the book 
on a bookstall. The simple language used and the font used makes the book a 
pleasure to read. The book is packed with facts and figures which clearly depict the 
nature and extent of malnutrition and hunger in Zimbabwe. It is an important 
reference book and will be read over and over again. However, the cover is black 
letters on a white background and hencewill get dirty quickly. An illustration 
would have made the book much more attractive. A stronger or thicker material for 
the cover would ensure a longer shelf-life with the cover still intact. Therefore, the 
book needs careful handling. I hope the publishers will consider this when they 
order reprints. 
Policy-makers, especially the Ministries of Agriculture, Health and Social Welfare, 
students of agricultural economics, parastatals and organisations involved in 
the production and distribution of food, nutrition and drought relief programmes, 
women's organisations and donors, will find the book resourceful. Nations of 
Southern Africa need not travel the same long road to identify the problems of 
centralised grain marketing and malnutrition. A leaf from the book will be good 
advice. 
Notes: 
Not long ago Professor Rukuni was chairman of the Land Tenure Commission, advising the 
nation on how to share its most important natural resource, the land. Ronald Watts, in his
Book Reviews 103 
article "Donors BackZimbabwe" in African Farming, March/April 1995, pp 25-6. writes: 
"(The) man with a vision of how Zimbabwe's agriculture might develop is Prof Rukuni. He 
is an agricultural economist (and senior lecturer) in the University of Zimbabwe and has 
recently been appointed chairman of the land tenure commission charged with finding 
solutions to the massive problem of the communal lands.... Hopefully, the government will 
take up recommendations of the Rukuni Commission and help the professor to realise his 
vision of a new type of Zimbabwean farmer''. Recently, Professor Rukuni was appointed 
chairman of the Food and Nutrition Commission to advise the nation on how to share food 
to reduce starvation and malnutrition at the household level. Addressing the question of 
hunger may stem the rising tide of urban migration and squatting. 
Reviewed by L C Matarirano, Editor: Science and Technology, University of 
Zimbabwe, Harare. 
From Another Place: Migration and the Politics of Culture, Gillian Bottom ley, 
Cambridge University Press, 1992,183 p, ISBN: 0-521-41014-2 
From Another Place: Migration and the Politics of Culture is one of the few books 
where the author challenges intellectuals to be aware of the extent to which some 
of their work is already written and the subsequent understandings pre-formed. In 
order to progress, perhaps, the most intellectuals can do, is to remain skeptical of 
available representations, while continuing to ask questions about what, and who, 
is not being represented. 
In this book, Gillian Bottomley examines the role of culture in the process of migration, 
which she notes is rarely examined in studies of political economy of 
labour migration. Various perspectives on class, gender, ethnicity and identity are 
interwoven throughout this discussion of work, health and state intervention in the 
lives of non-English speakers in Australia, particularly Greek-Australians. 
The book explores definitions and understandings of the relations between migration 
and cultural processes, calling into question the interrelation between 
circumstance and cultural practice. It is a timely attempt to move away from the 
limitations of dichotomous explanations of migration, using the insights derived 
from sociology, political economy and literature in the discussion of cultural 
beliefs and practices. 
There is no doubt that the book is a result of at least twenty years research and 
teaching. This can be gleaned from the extensive interrogation and critical 
engagements Bottomley shows in this book in the form of debates and reviews of 
major existing works on the subject. The book mainly focuses on the developments 
in Australia, where over 20 per cent of the inhabitants were born in another country 
and 23 per cent are of non-Anglophone origin. The biggest challenge the study
104 Book Reviews 
poses is in developing a contrast between the diversity of the Australian population 
and prevailing Anglocentrism of discourses and practices of knowledge leading 
one to raise questions about knowledge and power, as well as forms of resistance, 
adaption and transformation that can enable people to weave through and across 
- perhaps even above - these structured power relations. 
There is a further extensive comparative research on international migration 
mainly in Chapters 2 and 3. The framework developed here includes an argument 
for an international perspective on migration and a comparative understanding of 
such notions as tradition and ethnicity. The rest of the book concentrates on Greece 
and Greek-Australians within this comparative framework to allow for some 
illumination of both ends of the migration story as well as of the social, economic 
and cultural networks of the diaspora. The author argues rightly, that such a focus 
enables one to explore the rich resources of Greek artistic work - including dance, 
music and literature - and ethnographies of Greece, particularly those concerned 
with gender and politics of ethnicity. The broader aim is to interrelate subjective 
accounts of migration with the experience of difference. Finally, the account 
successfully blurs the boundaries between various specialist studies, separately 
defined according to ethnicity, class, migration, gender, culture and so on. 
Most readers of this book will be intrigued by the way "culture" has been used 
and how also the politics of culture operate as part of the struggle for symbolic 
power and part of the constitution of specific ways of life. One will note in the 
chapters 4,5 and 6 how the discussions on dance and music, and of dowry reveal 
some aspects of the operation of social power in practices that tend to be regarded 
as apolitical. 
One of the book's major breakthroughs is its attempt to grapple with available 
paradigms for understanding the cultural construction of gender relations - specifically 
for Greece and some of the contradictions and resistances that emerge from 
anthropological and sociological studies. In addition to this, there are general 
questions raised regarding gender and power relations, making the book quite 
relevant for most students and researchers engaged in similar academic pursuits at 
this point in time. 
There is no doubt that a lot of scholars still resist the postulation that culturallyconstructed 
gender relations operate as one of the major axes of social power in 
most, if not all societies. Men have more formal power than women, and in many 
cases, the forms of this power are among the most significant diacritical features 
of a specific cultural formation. For example, Bottomley demonstrates convincingly 
that the seclusion of women, their submissiveness, the embodiment of power 
relations in their dress and bearing, can signify the cultural distinctiveness of a 
society. Under conditions of less extreme political favour, gender is intricately 
connected to other forms of social relations.
Book Reviews 105 
Many people who will find this book useful will no doubt be challenged to read 
extensively because of the author's attempt to inter-weave perspectives of class, 
gender, and ethnicity. A good example is shown in the discussion on connections. 
Bottomley observes that political economists of migration simply identified 
foremen and leading hands of the working class as "a labour aristocracy" but left 
virtually unexplored statistical realities such as the implications of simple facts like 
the Australian working class is mostly non-Anglophone. 
The whole import of this account is to stress that assumptions that culture is coterminus 
with ethnicity can prevent commentators from examining the processes 
by which people are incorporated, subjected or mobilised to resist. Ethnicists, for 
example, emphasise a kind of ahistorical and apolitical culturalism, while political 
economists tend to deduce action and interactions from structures, under-estimating 
the significance of pre-migration experience and continuing contact with, and 
understanding of the world beyond a geographical area under study, in this book 
Australia. 
There is no doubt that this book is of great value to students and staff in institutes 
of higher learning especially those in social studies and humanities. It is not the type 
of book one expects to be a cover-to-cover fast reading material. One needs to take 
their time in order to absorb its contents because the author challenges readers to 
re-negotiate certain givens in the process of raising new questions. 
Reviewed by Thomas Deve, Assistant Editor, Sapes Trust, Harare, Zimbabwe. 
The Black Elderly: Satisfaction and Quality of Later Life, Marguerite Coke & 
James A Twaite, The Haworth Press Inc. New York,1995, 126 pp with index, 
ISBN: 1-56024-914-5 (h/b). Price: $14,95. 
Coke and Twaite's findings present the practical situation in which the black 
elderly in America live in the context of the conditions and factors that affect their 
lives. Theirs is a comparative study of the experiences of black and white seniors 
in the States. The findings are chronologically laid out so that the facts brought up 
highlight the actual situations and life events of the black elderly. There is no 
question that readers from developing countries will find the information brought 
up in this book not only to be empirically valid but also a true presentation of what 
is happening in America among the blacks, as well as in Africa and elsewhere. 
Chapter One reflects the situation of the black elderly (referred to as senior 
citizens in later chapters) in relation to the socioeconomic indicators that were used 
to compare their lives with white senior citizens. The black elderly were found to 
live in hardship because of lack of adequate income, poor health conditions, lower 
levels of educational attainment and occupational status which is a result of the
106 Book Reviews 
design of American policies. Their coping capacities depends greatly on the status 
the society accorded them. The reason for carrying the study was that the number 
of elderly are quite significant as the life expectancy rate has greatly improved; 
another reasons being that attitudes are generally biased against the elderly as most 
people regard old age as a form of illness; hence the need to exam ine their situation 
in some detail. 
In Chapter Two demographic factors as correlates of life satisfaction are discussed. 
Respondents were asked to rate the degree of their distress, with health 
problems ranking highest because most blacks voluntarily preferred to utilise their 
traditional resources of support (families and kinship networks) to being bundled 
in white nursing homes. This means that they do not have full access to the health 
services. It is an interesting chapter in which researchers bring out views brought 
by different sources on how blacks in America value their own elderly. 
Glazer & Moynihan (1993) were referred to in Chapter Three as having 
championed the debate on whether the African culture had an impact on blacks in 
the United States. Their assertion that blacks in the United States are just 
Americans were challenged by other authors like Herskovitz (19S8) and Billingsley 
(1992) who catalogued elements like art, family roles, primacy of blood 
ties, the importance of extended families and the value placed on children as 
important when considering the influence of African culture. This is a crucial 
chapter as it helps one to understand why after so many years the blacks and whites 
in America have not been able to come up with a unique culture. 
Chapter Four discusses the importance of the church since it had a great 
influence on the style of life of most African Americans. An interested individual 
examining how the church has had an influence on slavery would find this section 
very valuable as it reveals how religion is rooted in the past when the slaves were 
bound by the white man's catechism which made them accept that they were 
inferior to whites whom God had given authority over them. The importance of the 
existence of the black church is discussed here. 
Chapters Five and Six are a revelation of the empirical investigation on 
predictors of life satisfaction. Factors that predict life satisfaction are discussed 
using dependent and independent variables in order to establish the needs in life of 
the black senior citizens. 
The last part of the book deals with additional findings which helped to 
strengthen the research. This helped in concretising the recommendations in the 
last chapter. 
This is not only an important book to gerontologists and social workers but to 
historians and researchers because facts and information brought up in the research 
are laid out in a useful and academic way. The findings and recommendations are 
important and could guide other researchers in the same area of study.
Book Reviews 107 
Reviewed by Mrs Violet Matimba, Lecturer, School of Social Work, Harare, 
Zimbabwe 
Markets, Civil Society and Democracy in Kenya, Peter Gibbon (ed), Nordiska 
Afrikainstitutet, The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, 1995, 
283pp, ISBN: 91-7106-371-4. (p/b) Price: SEK140, £12,95 (p/b). 
The struggle for democracy in Kenya has created a very polarised society in the 
wake of demands for political and economic reform from both the donors and 
Kenyan peoples. Pressures for demanding change are motivated by a variety of 
reasons and at times conflicting interests. But the reality covered by contributions 
in this book, generally capture the fact that major struggles have been seen around 
the issues of economic and political reform, in a context of generally deteriorating 
economic performance, heightened ethnic tension and often poor relations between 
government and donors. 
As noted by Peter Gibbon in his summary of the book, the studies deal with 
central dimensions of grassroots development and change in Kenya over the last 
decade and a half. The first concern covered by Gerrishon Ikiara, Mohamud Juma 
and Justus Amadi concerns continuity and transformations in the cereals marketing 
chain, the centrepiece of the World Bank, European Community and USAID 
efforts during the 1980s and early 1990s to liberalise Kenyan economic institutions 
on the basis of aid conditionality. 
The second contribution by Karuti Kanyinge, examines development institutions, 
before and after the re-emergence of multi-party politics in 1991-92. The 
third, by Mutahi Ngunyi, examines the political developments and religious 
organisations characterised elsewhere as the most important institutions in contemporary 
Kenyan civil society. 
In the development discourse, Kenya is now often seen as a problem child rather 
than a success story, and from these accounts, ample evidence is provided which 
allow us to reflect on the convincibility of the donor diagnosis of central policies 
and practices which preceded economic liberalisation. Ironically, Kenya had been 
eulogised for most of the 1980s by 'donor friendly' western academics who saw 
it as one of the Africa's few economic and political ornaments, a country to be held 
up, admired and analysed mainly in order to detect what might be transferable in 
its "exceptional" performance. 
In the chapter on "The Cereals Chain in Kenya: Actors, Reforms and Politics' 
the reader is made to understand the politics surrounding cereals production and the 
marketing chain. The chain as noted by the contributors, is extremely important to 
the Kenya government since it is the main conduit for the country's food supplies 
and also an activity which became central to the national political patronage system 
developed since the death of President Kenyatta.
108 Book Reviews 
For donors, in their preoccupation with the development of a market economy, 
it became also a source of anxiety because they viewed it as the last remaining 
significant distortion in an otherwise well-functioning market economy. For the 
contributors, the main problem arising out of this chain is not only the way 
patronage has been grafted, but to distinguish "national economic" as opposed to 
"class-promotional" objectives in an environment where public resources are habitually 
put to private uses, while the private sector is simultaneously smothered 
and nurtured in the public sector's interstices. The complications that have been 
triggered off by liberalisation created distortions which in the eyes of the contributors 
confirm that there is no straight path to a free market, and possibly no path to 
a really free one at all. 
Kanyinga's study lays bare the dynamics of Kenyan politics and demonstrates 
that it is not the presence, or even the extent, of social pluralism which determines 
whether democracy can emerge - but rather the type of this pluralism. For example, 
in Kenya's countryside - self-help groups, harambee project groups, cooperatives, 
NGOs, etc - share a common corporate form, whose governing principle is the 
cultivation of highly restricted and parochial economic interests. Consequently, 
the articulation of these interests not only leaves intact divisions between localities, 
but those between decision-makers and decision-takers, between patrons and their 
subjects, and between the "big" decisions and little ones. In conclusion, the former 
remain beyond popular control and the population remains obstructed from 
organising around or in relation to these. 
It has become too commonplace a cliche to refer to civil society as the way 
forward for African society beleaguered by repressive regimes on one hand, and 
a weak opposition on the other. In Ngunyi's contribution the question of democracy 
is placed on the agenda as decision makers are grappling with conditionalities 
from donors. Ngunyi focuses mainly on the role of religious institutions in the 
process of Kenya's liberalisation, but highlights differentiation resulting from 
ethno-regional and social class basis of those institutions. He further argues that 
analysts should shift from positing civil society as intrinsically always opposed to 
the state and raise issues arising from the organic relation between civil society and 
the division of labour in the social formations in which they are founded on the one 
hand, and the continuous fundamental pattern of interaction between civil society 
and the state, on the other. He concludes on a very important note that Kenyan civil 
society is characterised more appropriately as structurally differentiated rather 
than as simply pluralistic, and that it has systematically been subject to state 
initiatives of a disorganising nature - although these have generally no more than 
reinforced or rationalised its existing polarisations.
Book Reviews 109 
This book is well written and offers a very sound analysis of Kenya's problems 
and reactions of donors. From a political discourse point of view, the book notes 
a very important point, notably that most donors and western-based scholarship 
used to believe that Africa's main problem was its flirtation with "socialism" in 
different forms. In this current conjuncture, the case of Kenya as discussed in this 
book presents donors as mainly positing that there are certain deeply rooted 
"organic" features of African social and political organisation which are responsible 
for its economic and political difficulties. Hence, the shift of donor agendas 
to include political democratisation as well as economic liberalisation. 
Reviewed by Thomas Deve, Assistant Editor, Sapes Trust, Harare, Zimbabwe.