Journal of Social Development in Africa (1989) 4,2,75-84 
Book Reviews 
Agricultural Development in Southern Africa: Farm Household Economics and the Food Crisis, 
Allan Low, James Currey, London, 1986 (217 pp, £19,50). 
This book has been promoted as 'another landmark in the literature on African development'. It is 
undoubtedly an important contribution, drawing on 10 years work in rural agricultural development 
Low presents a perspective on the causes of the poor agricultural productivity of farm households in the 
Southern African Region. Farm households are often not solely or primarily farmers, especially where 
wage employment and other non farm opportunities exist. In the absence of any landless households 
farm production suffers due to out-migration. For reasons of social security and the benefits of cheap 
non-market production in rural areas, overall household welfare is maximised by maintaining a rural 
base even though it may be associated with reduced farm production. The persistent food crisis in the 
region is explained by the inherent tendency for food production per person to decline under this system. 
The book is structured in three parts. Low starts by developing a conceptual model of household 
economics in the Southern African context. Part two makes an analysis of evidence from the region, 
focusing on a number of contemporary development concerns, and part three concludes by drawing out 
some of the major implications for policy and research. 
Low claims that his decision making model of the indigenous farm household provides a better 
explanation than conventional theory and analysis of the (non) development experience in the rural areas 
of the region. To those not initiated in the short-hand of algebraic utility functions, resource and income 
constraints and the impact of changing a log-log labour return curve to a sigmoid one, parts of the book 
will be obscure! Many may simply balk at the two critical chapters 2 and 4, which present the theory 
and elaboration of the model. Beyond any air of mystification, Low's book needs to be critically located 
as 'a perspective* within what is an open debate on the nature, dynamics and consequences of both 
planned and broader socioeconomic change in the rural economy of the Southern African region. 
The model is based on an extension of neoclassical paradigms of the farm household as a decision 
making unit. His adaptation of the new household-economics theory of consumer choice to the 
indigenous farm household in the region, includes an account of both non-market production and of 
cyclical demographic processes. Based on results which Low himself freely recognises "cannot be said 
to be conclusive", the model none-the-less rejects the assumption of decreasing returns to labour on the 
family farm for an alternate assumption which is assumed to be universally applicable! 
In the absence of an adequate data-base the model is not tested nor analysed rigorously (in an 
econometric sense) but is used to explore a number of issues affecting development Evidence 
supporting the broad propositions of the model is selectively drawn from numerous reports and surveys 
of Swaziland and relevant documentation elsewhere in the region. Low's interpretation of issues such 
as the adoption of improved crop technology, non-market benefits of land-use rights and cattle 
ownership, labour migration and the broader aggregate implications of these and other features for 
development initiatives, are then explored at the household level through an elaboration of the 
relationship between market and non-market production. 
This methodological approach includes three broad levels. The first is the level of the paradigm, the 
second concerns the details of the assumptions of the model itself and the third involves the choice of 
statistics and types of quantitative analyses used in support of the broad argument
16 Book Reviews 
At the level of the paradigm - decision making models of indigenous farm households - the spotlight 
is on decisions at the household level. These tend to take place in a (less precisely specified) 'context' 
which none-the-less gives rise to certain constraints and opportunities. Despite the six page chapter on 
'Historical developments re-examined and other historical references, the perspective is such that one 
aggregates up from farm household surveys. In this process a dangerous reversal of cause and effect can 
take place. The 'context' is seen as the aggregation of all (free?)decisionmaking at the micro level rather 
than vice versa - ie the historically structured context being determinant in constrained household 
decision making. In this regard, the 'realities' of the Labour Reserves - land expropriations, forced 
location into ecologically marginal areas, and discriminatory labour laws etc, as portrayed in the political 
economy perspectives of white settler colonialism - are replaced with a rural household version of 
'economic man' in the 1980s. 
Secondly, modelling implies an analytical reduction of the immense diversity of reality into the 
'typical' or by definition 'model' farm. Both conceptually and analytically the facts of a socially and 
economically differentiated rural economy tend to be eliminated from investigation or compressed into 
averages. It is perhaps not surprising therefore that Low convincingly presents the similarities in 
economic opportunities and constraints faced by households across the region. His narrow typological 
approach to variations in household structure, and emphasis on the integrity of the household as a 
decision making unit tend to imply a greater homogeneity of material circumstances than is#actually the 
case. Furthermore, there is no attempt to identify any clearly divergent gender or class-based interests, 
through analysis of relations between and within households. 
Thirdly, while Low's analysis is richly illustrated with detailed disaggregated breakdowns of 
information, especially for Swaziland, the ceteris paribus proviso needs to be more loudly signalled 
before' evidence' is applied universally to the entire region. The use elsewhere of survey research tables 
(which present arithmetic means for broad groupings within relatively small samples) further contributes 
to the impression of homogeneous types of households and situations. It is now widely recognised that 
the very same evidence grouped and analysed differently might well suggest and support alternative 
hypotheses. 
It would be truly surprising to find no linkages between economic and cyclical demographic 
processes withinrural households in SouthernAfrica. Low'sreviewof the literature and analysis is more 
than adequate proof that this broadly recognised phenomenon exists in the region. While one can 
sympathise with his reaction to the worst types of stultifying rural class analysis, understanding the basis 
of socioeconomic differentiation is not, as he infers, solely a function of 'ideological imperatives' and 
'political leanings'. Low seems happy with the economic differentiation found in the indigenous rural 
sectors of Southern Africa. Some 'residual' inequalities are acknowledged but not considered worth 
explaining. 
While purporting to being scientific, neutral and non political or ideological. Low ends up being 
precisely the opposite. His analysis clearly abstracts itself from examining many of the 'concrete' 
aspects of socioeconomic differentiation and thereby takes on more of an 'ideological'than 'scientific' 
value! He ends up implicitly affirming that in the social sciences the value free approach is at its very 
core value-laden, and reactionary at that. One wonders firstly, what degree of residual inequalities might 
attract his attention as being worthy of some alternative explanation, and secondly, whether he is willing 
to acknowledge that the cyclical basis of economic mobility, on which he places so much emphasis, is 
in part methodologically derived? 
Clearly the demographic and socioeconomic dimensions of mobility interact - a point recognised 
by most scholars of Southern African studies. For those looking for a creative analysis of the dynamic 
relations between gender, socioeconomic differentiation, structural processes at the macro level, and at 
the level of household organisation and development cycle, the book falls short The challenge of
Book Reviews 77 
separating out the causes and effects of these different dimensions of differentiation are not addressed. 
Not until Partfflof the book does Low begin to hint at this dynamic. Specifically he advocatesabroader 
implementation of farming systems research which would more fully account for gender and on and offfarm 
activities in assessment of the production and distribution impacts of technological developments. 
Reviewed by Jeremy Jackson, Department of Rural and Urban Planning, University of Zimbabwe, 
Harare. 
Popular Participation in Planning for Bask Needs. Concepts, Methods and Practices, Franklyn 
Lisk (ed), (ILO-WEP), Gower Publishing, Aldershot, 1985 (277pp, no price quoted). 
Those readers familiar with the Basic Needs Approach (BNS) to development will be aware of the fact 
that this approach divides basic human needs into such categories as consumption goods, service goods, 
employment and mass participation. Thus the Basic Needs Approach to development, as endorsed by 
the International Labour Organisation (ILO) 's World Employment Conference held in Geneva in 1976, 
assigns a key role to popular participation as a means of action for improving the human condition. This 
book is about the concept of popular participation within the general context of the Basic Needs 
Approach as endorsed by the International Labour Organisation. The publication is the outcome of a 
World Employment Programme (WEP) project and is based on research undertaken within the 
framework of the ILO - a major proponent of the idea. 
The book is in three parts. Part one looks at definitions, concepts and typology. Judging by the tone 
of the book, there is no doubting that the authors are very much in favour of popular participation as a 
tool for development Hence they argue, for instance, that popular participation is an important 
condition for achieving sustained economic growth and social progress and a fundamental goal of 
development in its own right. Thus, in a sense, they see popular participation not only as a means to an 
end but as an end in itself. As the authors put it, "Popular participation is therefore an end goal of 
development as well as a means of attaining more equitable development" (pl7). 
In this section of the book attempts are made to define various relevant words - terms salient in 
people-oriented development endeavours. The concept of participation is defined, as are other concepts 
such as employment, consultation, self reliance, decentralised planning, and decision making, to name 
the major ones. The concept of cooperation is also mentioned, and on this score the authors argue that 
popular participation can include cooperation between decision-makers and those affected by their 
actions, without any formal surrender of power to participants, although they may be allowed to modify 
decisions in order to retain their cooperation. 
Part 2 of the publication is entitled 'Participatory Development National Experiences' and it looks 
at specific country experiences in terms of efforts to incorporate popular participation in development 
activities. Countries looked at includeChina, Tanzania and Kenya, in that order. The China case study 
attempts, inter alia, to show how popular participation can be used to promote economic and social 
development among the entire population and ho w the Chinese government actually makes use of mass 
participation to achieve basic needs and other related socioeconomic objectives of development The 
authors maintain that popular participation must be complemented by the provision of an appropriate 
institutional/administrative structure as well as a political system and socioeconomic framework that 
allows for the active involvement of the people in the decision-making process at all levels (p97). 
Tanzania serves as an appropriate example since aspects of its experience are borrowed from the 
Chinese model. In Kenya, the Harambee (Self Hehi) movement is looked at, and provides some very 
useful lessons. The Kenyan experience,manutsheH,showsthatwhenuiei»isarnismatchbetweentne 
wider political system on the one hand and the administrative and institutional structures of the planning 
system on the other, serious problems are bound to occur.
78 Book Reviews 
What is interesting about the choice of case studies is that they represent, broadly speaking, two 
different political persuasions, with China and Tanzania (socialist) on the one extreme and Kenya 
(capitalist) on the other. The authors seem to suggest that the political ideology of a country is important 
for popular participation to be successfully effected. For the overall development process, the political 
dimension of popular participation is equally important for facilitating the attainment of socioeconomic 
objectives (pl6). However, if die examples looked at are anything to go by, men it might not be far 
fetched to suggest that the application of popular participation as a method transcends political 
ideologies. What should be viewed as paramount is the government's commitment to the idea. 
Part3 addresses the topic 'Participatory Practice: Local-level Experiences'. This is concerned with 
attempts to translate the concept of popular participation into practice focusing on the participation of 
disadvantaged groups in specific development programmes and projects as a means of improving their 
well-being. In this section, experiences from different corners of the world, particularly Latin America 
and Asia are highlighted. Perhaps an interesting lesson to emerge from the Latin American case study 
isthatthedesireanddemaiKifOTparticipationbydisadvantagedandoppressedgroupscouldunfortunately 
eventually be expressed in rather violent forms, especially when confronted with fierce opposition by 
the elite who dominate the decision-making structures. 
Another case study is that of China. In this case study, participation of Chinese women in the 
development process is looked at One of the main conclusions drawn from the case is that women in 
China had to struggle to overcome discrimination based on traditional biases and prescriptive 
behavioural norms in order to defend then" rights. 
Finally, participation is looked at vis-a-vis planning, andBangladeshisusedasacase study. A selfhelp 
canal digging project is selected for scrutiny and the experience here seems to show that without 
a significant degree of popular influence on decision-making it becomes extremely difficult to motivate 
the poor to take an interest in such projects. Indeed, the poor, naturally, want to know what is in it for 
them before they can be 'lured' into participating in such projects as canal digging. 
Perhaps the greatest contribution of the is book is that it defines quite clearly not only the roles of 
the state, the politicians and the administrators (and other technocrats) in effective mass participation 
but that of the prospective beneficiaries, the peasantry, as well. On this score, the book urges that 
vertically meaningful consultations be held between national, regional and local authorities and that 
horizontal communication takes place between communities with regard to the identification of basic 
needs, particularly where needs and interests might coincide. This will allow for the coordination of 
development efforts with implications for the saving of scarce resources. 
This book is a must for those interested in the topic of popular participation, empowerment and 
capacity building among underprivileged groups. It is a well-thought out, focused, informative and 
fairly well-balanced work. It is good value for money. 
Reviewed by R S Mupedziswa, School of Social Work, Harare. 
Five Hundred Million Children. Poverty and Child Welfare in the Third World, Stewart 
MacPherson, Wheatsheaf Books, Sussex, 1987 (226pp, £32^0 hbk). 
"Four comma three million African children die every year", with little hope for improvement over the 
next decade; "98% of the deaths of children under five are in the poorest countries"; "99% of all maternal 
deaths are in developing countries"; "there are between 100 and 200 million abandoned and street 
children in the world". 
These and other statistics abound in Stewart MacPherson's book, Five Hundred Million Children. 
Not that the book is a statistical dossier, but that such statistics constitute a question to which there are
Book Reviews 79 
no easy answers. Whyischildwelfarenotsuchatopicalissueintoday'sworld? Politicians, economists 
and social scientists spend their time discussing nuclear weapons, the Thud World debt and AIDS. 
Granted that these are all important issues in human existence, it is hard to understand why 
disproportionately little international effort is being directed towards alleviating the living conditions 
of the majority of children across the globe. 
MacPherson's book lays bare some startling facts about child welfare in the Third World. It 
examines a broad spectrum of the main negative socioeconomic factors which are at play in the life of 
the average child in the developing world, without pretending that there are easy solutions. The book . 
relies mainly on empirical experiences in developing countries in Asia and Latin America to put forward 
its case, with minimal reference to the African experience. 
Traditional approaches to child welfare are strongly challenged. They are generally seen as alien 
and western, urban-biased, expensive and therefore unable to provide a realistic answer in the cashstarved 
societies of the developing world. Strategies which seek to build on what communities already 
know and have have a greater chance to succeed, he argues. 
MacPherson' s book, while undoubtedly depressing, shows that it is possible, even in poor countries, 
to improve the living conditions of the poorest Tanzania, regarded as one of the world's poorest 
countries, has been able to achieve what no other African nation has done in terms of bringing social 
services to its population, thanks to government policy. But Tanzania is now experiencing its worst 
economic crisis in history, resulting in the loss of some social gains. It is not clear whether there is any 
relationship between the deteriorating economic conditions and the egalitarian policies of the past. 
It is a pity that MacPherson does not attempt to look at the political and military context in which 
some Third World children live. This is particularly relevant in Southern Africa where apartheid has 
devastating consequences on the lives of millions of children, especially over the last decade. Coming 
at a time when common sense seems to be breaking out throughout the world, this book raises issues 
which deserve to be put in the forefront, on the agenda, of a more peaceful world. MacPherson's book 
need not be another voice in the wilderness. 
Lay people, academics, child welfare activists, and all people interested in advancing one of the most 
legitimate causes of the twentieth century will find this book both refreshing and stimulating. 
Reviewed by Allan Masomere, Harare. 
Development Psychiatry: Mental Health and Primary Health Care in Botswana, David Ben- 
Tovim, Tavistock, London, 1987 (233pp, £12.95 pbk). 
This book can be seen as a milestone in the literature of mental health in Africa, describing, with 
considerable empathy, skill and conciseness, the results of the author's experience in the integration of 
primary health care and psychiatric services in rural areas, and as a lone psychiatrist with the Botswana 
Ministry of Health. Until the late 1970s Botswana's only psychiatric facility was an isolated mental 
hospital, which had become grossly overcrowded. After collaborative work with the WHO and other 
international agencies, Botswana embarked on a programme of integration of psychiatric care with 
existing primary health care services. Development Psychiatry places this bold experiment in a clear 
perspective in a national, African and international context 
It should, however, be said at the outset that although Ae work describes how a psychiatric system 
can move from a curative and institutional health service to a wider service that incorporates primary 
healthcare, it does so from an overt commitment to the physical disease model of mental disorders. "It 
is my view that none [of the models] have been found to have a wider range of applicability man the . 
[physical] disease model", and, Ben-Tovim goes on to say, that "treating psychiatric disorders as
80 Book Reviews 
diseases entities, if not completely secure, is at least a widely recognised working hypothesis, and it is 
one that will be adopted here" (p9). Unfortunately it becomes clear later in the book that the disease 
model is not really a working hypothesis to be proved effective or otherwise by the author, but rafter 
the model is assumed effective and this assumption remains unchallenged throughoutthebook. Notonly 
is the physical disease model the preferred theory, but drug therapy seems the preferred practice: "Once 
a depressive disorder had been identified by whatever means, our standard treatment was the 
prescription of the tricyclic anti-depressant Amitriptyline in the dose 125-175 mg daily. Treatment often 
seemed effective (sic)" (1987:134). 
Ben-Tovim offers a taxonomy of psychiatric conditions that are echoed in his chapter titles: 
emergencies and alcohol; epilepsy, schizophrenia and depression; and what he calls "headaches and 
heartaches", the symptoms relating to "non-psychotic distress". Although he admits mat "nonpsychiatric 
distress" is the one most amenable to non-drug therapy it proved difficult for the author to 
offer non-medical treatment or help. In fact rarely do interventions described in the book refer to helpers 
other than nurses or doctors. Social workers are mentioned in passing four times and psychologists 
twice, and even then without any description of an interventive role. 
With the caveat, then, that this book is a fairly explicit description of a purely medical approach to 
diagnoses and treatments, it is a valuable pioneer work in a field that badly needs indigenous literature. 
Reviewed by Joe Hampson S J, Harare. 
Sex Roles, Population and Development in West Africa, Christine Oppong (ed), Heinemann, London 
1987(242pp,£25hbk). 
This book is a collection of thirteen diverse and highly informative studies of women in development 
The common theme focuses on the crucial roles women play in both the informal and formal sectors, 
and the contributions emphasise that, for effective development planning in general, women's existing 
roles, their needs and their potential must be central considerations. 
The papers are presented under four headings: Women's Work (two studies, of Muslim women in 
Nigeria, and women in Bamaka, capital of Mali); Fertility, Parenthood and Development: Yoruba 
Experiences (five papers on the Yoruba in Nigeria); Population Policies, Family Planning and Family 
Life Education: Ghanaian Lessons (three studies); and Government Plans and Development Policies 
(three papers, examining policy in Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Ghana). 
It can be seen that although the book purports to cover West Africa, in reality it examines only four 
of the eighteen countries that might have been included. Of the thirteen papers, seven concern Nigeria, 
with the major focus on the Yoruba. Thus the book in no way attempts to give a balanced over view of 
the whole region, butpresents selected, detailed studies whose orientation and conclusions have amuch 
a wider geographical relevance. Indeed, their relevance is in many senses global, and not restricted to 
West Africa as a region. 
The various papers reflect different academic disciplines and research methodologies. The latter 
include household surveys, individual and group studies through participant observation and structured 
interviews, and the use of census data and other official statistics, policy documents, and other existing 
material. These are presented Within the framework of international developments, such as UN, ILO 
and OAU initiatives, for example the Lagos Plan of Action 1981. 
The studies are all of countries with a significant incidence of extreme poverty, and many common 
problems of development These include socioeconomic flux as traditional ways and values compete 
with modernisation; the disruption of the family; illiteracy; and a young population structure and rapid 
population growth, despite continuing high mortality (at 139, the infant mortality rate of the region is 
the highest recorded in the world). Fertility is, predictably, extremely high.
Book Reviews SI 
There are differential rights, expectations, access to education, training and employment, status, 
independence and power, between men and women. This aspect, a focus of the book, is seen as 
constituting a central contradiction and difficulty in development. The authors illustrate that family 
decisions, and, crucially, women's roles in the family and in production, are of great relevance to the 
success or failure of development policies at a national, as well as at a local, level. Therefore it is vital 
for planners and others to understand the basis for individual decision making and day to day activities 
with the family, and the constraints and influences on them. 
One paper (by Oppong) also examines men's importance in the family, as fathers and in relation to 
child spacing. These issues are as often neglected as are women's contributions to the economy through 
their family roles and informal production. 
The book is aimed at a wide readership, including planners, politicians, social researchers, 
demographers, and practitioners in many aspects of development Some of the studies are fairly 
technical, and between them include a substantial amount of hard data, as well as detailed discussion and 
analysis. The whole cannot be called an easy read, but it contains a wealth of well-researched material 
that rewards perseverance. It should prove a valuable resource book for development workers and 
planners in general. 
Reviewed by Helen Jackson, lecturer. School of Social Work, Harare. 
South Africa: A New US Policy for the 1990s, Kevin Danaher, Institute for Food and Development 
Policy, San Francisco, 1988 (69pp, US$6.00). 
Kevin Danaher's short book is a model of crisp policy writing. It should be prescribed reading for 
everyone studying Southern Africa, whether or not they agree with him. It begins by quoting Martin 
Luther King in 1965, "the shame of the United States is that it is objectively an ally of this monstrous 
[South African] government in its grim war with its own black people" (pi). Danaher surveys the twenty 
years subsequent to this statement and concludes that "the United States remains the single most 
important protector of South Africa's apartheid regime" (pi). He continues "US policymakers were 
forced into a 'straddle' regarding apartheid: denouncing white minority rule while doing little to 
interfere with the support given to apartheid by major US corporations and security agencies of the US 
government" (p2). 
Danaher argues that US policy toward South Africa was "accumulationist safeguarding US 
corporate access to South Africa* s human and natural resources in order to accumulate capital" (p3). Li 
due course, "while verbal criticism of Pretoriass violence was designed to placate critics of apartheid, 
continued ties to white minority interests were designed to please corporate and national security 
interests" (p2f). However, five years into the Reagan administration, "public pressure forced the White 
House to declare limited sanctions" (p7). 
In Danaher's view, the central defect of the Reagan policy on South Africa was an obsession with 
East-West competition. In a secret memorandum Chester Crocker stressed that "the top US priority is 
to stop Soviet encroachment in Africa" (p8). Danaher believes the chief threat to stability in the region 
is South Africa, not Moscow. "The permissiveness of constructive engagement allowed Pretoria to 
create havoc throughout the region" (p9). Danaher quotes Robert Mugabe: "Those who judge Africa 
in terms of East and West do us a grave disservice and they display deep ignorance" (pi 1). 
On taking office, Chester Crocker knew little of Africa except the 'white' minority, on which he 
had published. "Crocker and his Rhodesian wife also owned thousands of dollars of stock in South 
African gold mines" (p9). Crocker said to Danaher in 1980, "All Reagan knows about Southern Africa 
is that he's on the side of the whites" (plO). But Danaher asserts that "Pretoria was a liability, not an
82 Book Reviews 
asset, for US policy in the region..Jt was South Africa's role [in Angola] that united African 
governments in denouncing US intervention while supporting Cuba.1 and Soviet intervention" (pl2). 
Danaher observes that "Pretoria's strength is negative. It has the power to destroy but it does not 
have thepowerto build" (pl3). WhenSouthAfricanseruptedinprotestin 1984-6, the US anti-apartheid 
movement won a victory by forcing the Comprehensive Anti Apartheid Act on Reagan in place of his 
executive order which was "designed to have as little impact as possible" (pl9). 
Danaher sees a contradiction: "most members of Congress seek a difficult goal: they would like to 
see apartheid eliminated without destroying capitalism. But...apartheid and capitalism developed 
together in organic unity. This is not to say that capitalism cannot survive in South Africa without 
apartheid" (p22). "There is a fundamental dispute over the definition of democracy" (p23). Most US 
policymakers would be satisfied by the vote for all in South Africa; "but millions of South Africans are 
demanding that the transition to democratic rule include a redistribution of control over property" (p23). 
Danaherproceeds into theory, andstresses: "it is nottheUnitedStatesasanafton mat owns property 
in South Africa" (p25). The ties between the two countries "are conducted by a relatively small group 
of mainly older, rich, white males, representing a tiny percentage of each national population" (p.25). 
But "the elite alliances are not limited to the rich " (p26). Poor black vigilantes are part of the elite 
alliance, for example. In Danaher's analysis, sanctions and disinvestment are not interruptions in 
relations between countries but between the elites. They should be judged not by whether they create 
unemployment or hurt the South African economy, but "by the extent to which they drive a wedge 
between South Africa's rulers and their supporters in the outside world. A white minority of 15 per cent 
cannot rule for long without powerful external allies" (p27). Reagan did not want sanctions, but 
"escalating outrage against apartheid created popular pressure in the United States strong enough to 
force a reluctant President Reagan to impose punitive measures against Pretoria" (p32). The lesson is 
that "the people can change US policy even with an unsympathetic president in the White House" (p43). 
Danaher's policy for the future is less convincing than his analysis of the past He believes that 
"Washington policymakers retain the strategic objectives of keeping South Africa nonsocialist and 
within the Western sphere of influence, but they are gradually realising that the white minority regime 
is not the best partner for achieving these goals" (p35). Is the last part of this argument not wishful 
thinking? 
A new US policy for South Africa, in Danaher's opinion, should (:36): 
"(1) help strengthen links between workers and peasants in South Africa and their allies in the 
outside world; and 
(2) weaken the international alliance of proapartheid forces by breaking links between South 
African elites and their inter-national supporters". 
Part two is plausible. The idea, in part one, that either President Bush, or Governor Dukakis if 
he had won the presidency, would be remotely likely to want to strengthen links between workers and 
peasants in South Africa and their allies, is fanciful. 
Danaher wants the US to force Pretoria to end state violence; to feed the starving; to end aggression 
against neighbours; to repeal the state of emergency and establish equal justice for all; release Nelson 
Mandela and other political prisoners; permit free political expression; set a timetable for elimination 
of apartheid laws; and negotiate with the opposition (p37). Danaher sees Washington achieving this by 
truly comprehensive economic sanctions; by support for mandatory UN sanctions; by weakening the 
South African military; and by planning for a naval blockade (p39). Quite simply, the United States is 
most unlikely to do these things in the next five years. 
Danaher asserts that "repression can postpone but not prevent a transition to majority rule" (p39). 
He goes on to say "A relatively non-violent transition to democracy in South Africa will only be possible 
if themajor powers exertpressure on Pretoria to compromise" (p40). Here he is on firmer ground: alarge
BookRnkws 83 
war in Southern Africa would suit neither super-power, and for that reason an eventual negotiation is 
likely to be forced on Pretoria. Yet no one should underestimate the length of time for which Pretoria 
can delay transition, nor the ability of South Africa's elites to use the gold to buy allies abroad. 
Consider Danaher's conclusion: 
"A foreign policy for the future must seek to be a majority policy: strengthening US ties to workers 
and peasants, not the generals, politicians and big businessmen who are the main beneficiaries of 
US policy. Abandoning a foreign policy mat hitches the US star to elite groups around the world 
will require a domestic restructuring of the Pentagon, the CIA, transnational corporations and the 
other powerful institutions thathave locked us into aforeign policy thatfavours minority rule" (p49). 
If Danaher knows how to restructure the Pentagon, the CIA and the largest business corporations 
in the world so that United States ties to South African workers and peasants are strengthened, he has 
not told us. Nevertheless, his hyperbole is not entirely intolerable, given the clarity of his earlier text, 
and given the strong likelihood that there will be some mechanism, orchestrated by both superpowers, 
whereby apartheid is eventually ended. 
Reviewed by Renfrew Christie, University of Cape Town, Cape Town. 
Multinational Joint Ventures in Developing Countries, Paul W Beamish, Roufledge, London, 1988 
(145pp, £27,50 hbk). 
Investment by multinational corporations (MNC) in 'less developed countries' has often been seen as 
a primary means of bringing capital, technology and technical skills into these countries. The effects 
of such investments, proponents argue, is to support government import substitution policies and to 
create employment (advantages for the host country) and as a means of obtaining access to foreign 
markets (advantage to MNC). Critics of multinational corporation investment show how their power 
(based on size, number of countries they operate in, and wealth - some MNCs have annual turnovers 
greater than national incomes of the developing countries they operate in) allows them to override the 
sovereignty of governments, and to distort their social and economic policies. In the end, of course, the 
aim of the MNC is to increase its profitability. 
The questions of capital development, technological advance and industrialisation are of course 
fundamentally important. For economic and social development to occur - for people's incomes, living 
standards and social wellbeing to improve - national wealth must increase and national productive 
capacity must grow. But it must be seriously questioned whether the sacrifices in national sovereignty, 
in particular of economic policy-setting by true representatives of national interests, are worth making 
for the minor gains that accrue from multinationals. Surely more important are serious efforts to tap 
and direct national sources of capital and to mobilise and motivate national initiative and creativity. 
This book by Paul Beamish does not, in fact, contribute much to a progressive discussion of 
strategies for economic development in the 'less developed countries'. Looking as it does, in a rather 
dry and academic, and occasionally turgid way, at equity joint ventures between American or European 
multinationals and private companies in LDCs, it is based on a presupposition that such joint ventures 
"speed up international development". Joint ventures involving direct participation of governments of 
LDCs are not considered, a fact which makes the book not very relevant in Africa. Though there is an 
interesting section on the experiences surrounding joint venture exploration with Chin* between 1979 
•nd 1986, it is certainly of more relevance to executives of MNCs thinking about setting up such 
structures and relationships, than for policy setters or analysts in the Third World. 
Of course, if in Zimbabwe the trade liberalisation now underway, and the long awaited and still 
'expected shortly' investment code, so direct, the book might become relevant here, but only in
84 Book Reviews 
boardrooms of local companies that might go into joint ventures, and for those critics who would be 
against selling out the nation. 
Reviewed by John Stewart, Harare. 
Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa 1880-1985, Patrick Manning, Cambridge University Press, 
Cambridge, 1988 (xii, 215pp, £8.95 pbk, £25 hbk). 
This book surveys French-speaking Africa from the southern border of Morocco (Mauritania) in the 
north-west to Zaire on the northern borders of Zambia to the south-east - an area covering some 40 
percent of the African continent The importance of the subject is obvious - 17 nations with over 100 
million people. 
The book will be useful to students because the most-up-to-date surveys by Coquery-Vidro vitch are 
in French and the books available in English (such as those of Brunnchwig and Hargreaves) are over 
twenty years old. Having said this, however, the reviewer must point out that Manning's book is not 
easy to follow for the uninitiated reader. No clear chronology emerges and the way in which the 
individual French colonies were acquired is not made clear. The approach is thematic and the style 
allusive and therefore requires not a little preexisting knowledge. One also wonders whether the French 
language, 'Francophonie', does give the subject real coherence, as the Belgian colonies of Congo 
(Zaire), Rwanda and Burundi had little history in common with the French Empire in Africa, whereas 
Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia had close contacts and similarities. 
Nevertheless some broad themes do stand out, particularly in contrast to the development of Englishspeaking 
Africa, for example the French preference for direct rule rather than Britain's indirect 
approach, and 'federations' ruled from Dakar and Brazzaville - successfully equalled in British Africa 
only by white-settler South Africa. The French 'federations' have disappeared, of course, with the 
granting of independence but great similarities (in law and government) and cohesion (in currency 
management) remain, more so than the former British colonies share. 
For such comparisons and ideas Manning's book is to be recommended. 
Reviewed by R S Roberts, Dept of History, University of Zimbabwe, Harare.