Journal of Social Development in Africa (1997), 12,2,99-103 
Book Reviews 
The Eritrean Struggle for Independence: Domination, Resistance, Nationalism 
1941-1993, Ruth Iyob, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1995) JSBN: 
0-521-47327-6, 198pp inc index, Price: £30, US$49,95 (h/b). 
Ruth Iyob'saccount of the 1941 to 1993 struggle forindependenceinEritreacharts 
a new path of analysis in our assessment of the country's nationalist movements, 
programmes and capabilities of the parties contending for power. This is a very 
important intervention in the academic discourse of Eritrea which has generally 
been dominated by two perspectives. 
The first one posited that the Eritrean conflict was a secessionist insurgency or 
sectarian nationalism directed against the historic unity of greater Ethiopia. The 
most prominent scholarly representation of this approach is seen in Donald N 
Levines's work, "Greater Ethiopia" which basically noted the existence of an 
organic unity of the peoples of Ethiopia by ascribing to modern Ethiopia, "...the 
image of a vast ecological area and historical arena in which kindred peoples have 
shared many traditions and interacted with one another for millennia." Ruth Iyob 
argues that the use of selective facts - ethnic, linguistic, and historical affinities - 
blended with the legendary exotica to produce the doctrine of "Greater Ethiopia," 
obscured as much as it revealed. This thesis influenced many scholars to acknowledge 
grievances of Eritreans, but left no room for redressing or significant 
reconfiguration of the status quo. 
The second body of thought examined the structure and function of the 
Ethiopian state and its exercise of colonial domination over occupied territories. 
This school identified the Eritrean resistance to Ethiopian rule as essentially an 
anti-colonial movement The late A Babu suggested that the conflict was deliberately 
portrayed as a war of secession in order to camouflage Ethiopia's expansionist 
policies and the justification of those policies within the OAU. Scholars like 
Edmond Keller, Lionel Cliffe and Roy Pateman shared the same opinions. 
Ruth Iyob's work identifies a third body of scholarship that focused on the 
development of nationalism, the revolutionary achievements and transformation 
of Eritrean society, and most importantly, the nature and dynamics of the postcolonial 
African regional order. Its most prominent scholars - Richard Leonard, 
John Markakis, Nzongola Ntalaja and Michael Chege - exposed the elements of 
conflict which epitomised the rise of the dissident nationalism in contemporary 
African society as a revolution: thus portraying the Eritrean Peoples's Liberation 
Front (EPLF) as a guerrilla organisation and its emergence as an effective popular 
liberation movement.
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Ruth Iyob adds her voice to these scholars by effectively analysing the process 
which gave rise to Ethiopia's traditional position of prominence in the Horn, 
especially, the role of major international actors who helped the state to develop a 
well-trained army, an impressive arsenal, and crucial diplomatic leverage in the 
international community. In this regard, Ruth Iyob's work gives us major insights 
into the issue of regional hegemony, notably, the fact that it is a logical outgrowth 
of the consolidation and codification of regional and international norms and 
values. This is a very important point to note as it demonstrates how the formation 
of the United Nations and later the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), 
formalised a consensus around overriding principles of non-aggression, sovereignty, 
and security of nation-states, and the right of peoples to choose their 
destiny. 
Ruth Iyob's work outlines different phases of struggle and notes that organised 
Eritrean response to Ethiopian hegemony began in the late 1950s. The main task 
of the nationalists involved reconciling political parties in the 1940s and late 1950s, 
constructing a national identity and finally, mobilising the nationalist forces 
against Ethiopian hegemony. The politics of protest permeated a wide constituency 
and popularised the nationalist struggle through a creative mobilisation of 
social and economic grievances against Ethiopian violations of federal guarantees. 
The struggle for Eritrean independence has been characterised differently and 
it is important to note that Ruth Lyob's account will not satisfy everybody as it is 
commonly agreed that no scholarship is value free. For our review, Lyob's account 
appears relatively balanced especially when we consider the questions that she set 
out to answer. What really happened to cause a people to fight so tenaciously for 
three decades? Why did it take the Eritreans so long to realise their dream of a 
nation of their own? 
Efforts to answer these questions makes this account bring out vividly the ugly 
and harsh realities of state rivalry, greed and the corruption power. For those who 
are not acquainted with the conflict and how it was resolved, it is very instructive 
to initiate one into this discourse by focusing on the Eritrean David against the 
Ethiopian Goliath. However, as noted by Iyob, in this modern version of the classic 
confrontation between a small territory and its giant neighbour, it appeared, until 
the very end, that God favoured Goliath and not David. 
The book is compulsory reading for all people who are engaged in the activities 
of Africa, notably, the multiple challenges of economic, social, and political 
reconstruction. To the Eritreans themselves, the challenge the concluding remarks 
in the book posit are encompassed in the question: how can pluralism be 
maintained? This is a very important question because Africa has very few if any, 
successful pluralist polities which maintain self-conscious social groups in tolerant 
accommodation to each other. 
Reviewed by Thomas Deve, Assistant Editor, Sapes Trust, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Book Reviews 101 
The Culture of Politics in Modern Kenya.Angelique Haugerud, Cambridge 
University Press, Cambridge (1995), ISBN: 0-521-47059-5, 266pp inc index, 
Price: £40, US$59,95 (h/b). 
Kenya has often been portrayed by liberal scholars as a success story, but 
AngeliqueHaugerud'saccountchallengesthatrepresentation. The analysis in this 
book ranges from telescopic to microscopic fields of vision - from national 
political culture, oratory and the staging of politics to everyday struggles for 
livelihood among people in one rural locale during the past century. 
As the author notes in the preface, the final book was influenced by the 1990s 
winds of change in Africa. For Kenya, Haugerud's attention was focused on the 
vigorous new political contests and heterodox political voices that now stormed the 
public domain - through popular music, theatre, sermons, court battles by human 
rights lawyers and politicians' speeches. 
To provide the reader a sense of immediacy, this book gives one the contours 
of the public assemblies that were usually held outdoors, ranging from huge rallies 
of several thousand people to smaller gatherings of a hundred or so individuals 
seated on grass in the countryside and the city. The largest included gatherings in 
the capital city, Nairobi, held on patriotic national days and addressed by the 
president and other officials. As a unique political feature of Kenya, the book 
correctly notes that these assemblies or "baraza" are some of the few occasions 
for the public display of elite group cohesion and exclusiveness. 
This study of Kenya is compulsory reading for all those focusing on donor 
politics, the state and the post-cold war regional politics in Africa. The author 
systematically analyses Kenya from the popular images and scholarly paradigms 
that have over the years been shaped by global forces that have ascribed the country 
a "success story" status based on progressing small-holder agriculture and absence 
of any coups which had become a routine means of transferring power elsewhere 
in Africa. 
To understand Kenya in the post 1990 era, this book suggests that institutions 
like the "baraza" should be focused on to understand the nature of contending 
political and social forces in the country. It is submitted that the gatherings are an 
amalgam of security and danger, predicability and surprise, cohesion and conflict, 
conformity and creativity. Whilst most people have never really understood how 
a degenerating regime maintains itself as a contending force in politics, Haugerud's 
account shows how national political culture, as conveyed through the "baraza" 
is a prism that refracts local realities. Official rhetoric does not necessarily "fool" 
citizens, though it sometimes symbolically neutralises social divisions that might 
threaten social order.
102 Book Reviews 
The book, which is divided into six chapters, covers democracy issues, forms 
of domination before 1990, the colonial economy of central Kenya and finally, 
Kenya's political communities in a state of rapid flux in the early 1990s, formed 
around the shifting local, ethnic, regional and religious identities that are sometimes 
manipulated from above. 
It is interesting to note that author identifies the post-1990 forces which called 
for a better democratic culture and respect for human rights and notes that the leftwing 
voice was missing. Given the unfolding processes and brutality of the regime, 
one would have been interested to know whether this voice would have changed 
anything. In my view, this analysis would have been very important given the fact 
that she acknowledges in the final chapter that the struggle for the control of the 
state in Kenya was not a battle over any proposed fundamental restructuring of the 
economy. 
The strength of the book lies in its use of theatrical metaphors to illustrate why 
politics of spectacle, fantasy and image-making dominate this "post-modern" era. 
In this respect, the book becomes compelling reading. As correctly noted in this 
book, the daily dramas of state politics inn Kenya invite artistic satire. The state as 
a political theatre conveys more tragic outcomes as well: lives lost, rights denied, 
poverty perpetrated. 
Reviewed by Thomas Deve, Assistant Editor, Sapes Trust, Harare, Zimbabwe. 
Children, Medicines and Culture, Patricia Bush, et al, Pharaceutical Products 
Press, an imprint of The Haworh Press, Inc. (1996), New York, ISBN: 1-56024- 
937-4, 420pp inc index, Price: US$39,95 (h/b). 
Children, Medicines, and Culture provides a multicultural, multidisciplinary look 
at how children in nine European countries and the United States are socialised into 
medicine use. The team of authors, comprised of social and medical scientists, 
takes a sociocultural approach to understanding why the use of medicines varies 
among countries. Their premise is that beliefs, expectations, and behaviours about 
medicines are learned in childhood and are influenced by families and the wider 
culture. Authors interviewed children and their families and discuss children's 
knowledge of medicines, their autonomy in medicine use, the attitudes of children 
and their parents about medicines, how children act as decision-makers, medicines 
kept at home, treatment of childhood fever, and alternative therapies. 
Chapters in the book represent individual country reports and cross-national 
comparisons as the authors seek to understand how children are socialised into 
medicine use in Denmark, England, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, 
Spain, the former Yugoslavia, and the United States. It would be useful for
Book Reviews 103 
scholars in anthropology, social pharmacy, social sciences, community health 
educators, paediatricians, and medical staff, providing a unique exploration of 
children and medications supplies; cross-national comparisons of household 
medicines; comparisons of the treatment of childhood fever from the child's and 
parent's perspective; comparisons of children's views of the role and benefits of 
medicines in health and illness; children's knowledge of medicines relative to 
source, efficacy, mechanism of action, and characteristics; and the respective 
advantages and disadvantages to qualitative and quantitative methods and triangulation 
in cross-cultural research 
The book provides health policymakers, educators and professionals with 
information on which to base and plan health information for children and families. 
It also provides an entertaining look at how children and families deal with 
childhood illnesses in different countries, what kind of medicines families in 
different countries keep at home, and how children and their parents in different 
countries view the benefit of medicines and doctors in general. 
What is interesting about this book is its multicultural base. Different sections 
of the book explore contextual and structural factors that account for differences 
in medicine use; details of the local studies; children's perceptions of illness and 
medicines; and concepts of illness, childhood, medication, and family life in 
different cultural settings. Authors note that underlying cultural differences shape 
the way that parents and children perceive and define illness and its treatment. 
Children, Medicines, and Culture is an unusual book that provides a revealing 
insight into how medical anthropology can provide surprising and revealing 
insights into the overly 'rational' medical world. It is also a considerable tribute to 
the work of the scientists who took part and a valuable contribution to crosscultural 
work in this field. 
Reviewed by Nigel Hall, Editor, Journal of Social Development in Africa