Journal of Social Development in Africa (1992),72, 71-90 
Book Reviews 
Journal of Progressive Human Services Vol 1. 1 1990, M Abramovits, M. 
Bombyk (eds) Haworth Press Inc, New York. 
(Subscriptions on a per volume calendar year basis.) 
This is the first volume of the biannual Journal of Progressive Human Services, 
which lays claim to being the only US Journal using a "progressive framework to 
examine political, professional and personal issues in the human services". 
The Journal was published just before the demise of East European 
Socialism. Leonard, in one of the articles "Contesting the Welfare State in a Neo 
Conservative Era," examines the growing dilemma of the left as how to remain 
critical of the Liberal Welfare State without giving further support to the Right in 
confronting for example, a neo conservative era in UK and the advent of glasnot. 
Thus Leonard argues that some who belong to the Left have begun to look more 
sceptically at the highly centralized socialist state as opposed to the rights of the individual, 
decentralisation and participation as well as pluralism. He sees the 
analysis of past problems of the old welfare state and an understanding of the 
ideological successes of the right (increased attention to the rights of the individual 
and expanding real individual choice) as providing one basis for a new progressive 
politics of social welfare. 
Despite the Journal's determination to be "progressive" at all costs and 
the therefore somewhat restrictive choice of material reflecting the jargon and 
ideology of the so called "Left", I found it made interesting reading, covering a 
number of topics even within its ideological limitations. 
The Journal itself is a successor to Catylyst - the socialist Journal of the 
Social Services which was started in 1978 by a group of radical social workers in 
New York City, on a voluntary basis. Its aim is to develop knowledge that reflects 
and responds to progressive concerns and it incorporates in this volume six articles, 
including those from Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed", Peter Leonard 
(as mentioned), and others on "Rethinking Empowerment", "Culturally Transmitted 
traumatic Stress in an Appalachian Community", "Social Control and 
Community Care" and "Labour Negotiations in Battered Wives' Programmes". 
The Journal also features a column "from the Archives" which "preserves 
the progressive heritage by featuring reprints of significant articles and documents 
from the past". Lastly there is a selection of Book Reviews.
72 Book Reviews 
Freire's article, "A Critical Understanding of Social Work", a paper 
delivered at the IFSW Conference in 1988, discusses the qualities of (again) a 
progressive social worker, learnt, Freire claims, from his social work students and 
colleagues in Recife, Rio and Sao Paulo at the end of the 40's and early 50's. His 
theoretical contribution in any case remains a strong one with Freire, himself an 
educator, reminding us that social work practice is substantively educational, 
"pedagogical" and political with the social worker not just a technical neutral 
agent, compartmentalized from the wider social context. 
Levy Simon re-examines the concept of empowerment in another useful 
article. Empowerment has become one of the most popularly evoked concepts in 
social work theory and practice in the 80s but often fails to fully address the 
dilemma of how professional help can aid in another's independence especially 
over the issues of official authority and dependency. 
Levy draws an ontological distinction between "empowering people" and 
"helping people empower themselves", one possibility of which he sees as through 
a "collaborative alliance" with the social work professional. Compatibility of 
interests between client and worker cannot always, however, be assumed. 
Another paper by Cattell-Gordon which starts off as a case study of one 
of his former students who committed suicide, explores the Appalachian inheritance 
where distinct patterns of exploitation are seen as having shaped cultural 
tendencies similar to clinical manifestations of groups experiencing traumatic 
stress. 
Labour andTrade Union negotiations in collectively orientated workplaces 
(20 Battered Wives Programmes in US and Canada), is the subject of the next 
paper, where "consensual bargaining" is seen as offering a model for unionization 
of other small "feminized" service organisations. 
A final article takes issue with the traditional view of community mental 
health as a self determinate system characterized by care, treatment and control 
based in the community, as opposed to more segregative forms of treatment/ 
control prevailing since World War 2. 
An historical and political analysis is made of the process of social control 
identifying processes that link community mental health in the post war period to 
"basic tendencies of US capitalist formation". Nevertheless the authors say it is a 
mistake not to recognise that the practice still contains the possibility of real care 
and change as well as regulation and control, and sees some possibility of collective 
action in the face of decaying services and increasing social control. 
"From the Archives" features Jacob Fisher in the 1930's describing the 
developmentof the social work movementcalled the "rank and file", whose 15 000
Book Reviews 73 
membership emerged as a response to social and economic conditions in the US 
during the depression. Fisher, himself a Jewish social worker from New York, 
went on to become the first editor of their journal, Social Work Today. 
Finally three books are reviewed by Assistant Professors or Professors of 
well known US University Schools of Social Work. The books again reflect the 
Journal's typical subject preferences and include: Social workers and Labour 
Unions (1988), H Karger; The National Welfare Rights Movement (The Social 
Protest of Poor Women) (1981), G West; and The Future of Work (1987) G and 
EGil(eds). 
While the Journal is well presented and discusses some issues of real 
concern, personally I found a lot of it to be rather "old hat" and almost more of 
historical interest, despite its relentless claim to be "progressive". 
Reviewed by Norma Hall, CONNECT - Zimbabwe Institute of Systemic Therapy 
(formerly Family Counselling Unit), Harare, Zimbabwe. 
In Defence of Socialism. Four Speeches on the 30th Annivesary of the Cuban 
Revolution, 1989, Fidel Castro, (edited by Mary-Alice Waters), Pathfinder Press, 
London, 142pp, Price £4,95 pbk. 
This is a collection of four rousing, polemical speeches by Fidel Castro to mark the 
30th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. There is an introduction by Mary- 
Alice Waters. The English translations were originally published in Granma 
Weekly Review. The speeches were delivered to different audiences in Cuba 
between December 5th 1988 and January 1989. 
The titles of the speeches indicate their orientation: "As long as the empire 
exists we will never lower our guard". "The Cuban people will always remain 
loyal to the principles of socialism"; "Thirty years of the Cuban Revolution;" and 
"The young generation must improve and defend socialism". 
Castro describes both the revolutionary nationalist war to overthrow the 
Batista regime, and the subsequent economic revolution to transform the capitalist 
economy. He fully acknowledges the difficulties faced en route, in the face of imperialist 
aggression and antagonism, and, in particular, the continuing US blockade. 
He exhibits the ferve, charisma and moral principle that have characterised 
his leadership. 
Itmust be acknowledged, however, that the speechesdo not giveany detailed 
analysis of the problems facing Cuba, including bureaucracy .corruption, technoc
74 Book Reviews 
racy, nepotism and disillusionmen. Castrol exhorts his audiences to support the 
rectification process, to learn from the mistakes of the past, and to build and 
improve the socialism that has al ready been developed. 
Celebratory speeches on thirty years of the revolution, despite the US 
embargo, may not be the appropriate forum for a detailed critique. However, this 
reviewer, in the hope of possibility gaining insights into the Cuban revolution, 
would have valued a more critical analysis based on the daily realities of people's 
lives and the very concrete problems inherent in transforming both an economy, 
and a people's political consciousness. 
Considering the subsequent break up of the Soviet Union, pluging Cuba 
further into crisis, the rhetoric, and the lack of critical analysis, become all the more 
stark and anachronistic. At the same time, in the light of the global crisis of socialism, 
it is in some ways revitalising to be reminded of the intensity of conviction of 
one of the world's greatest revolutionary leaders. 
Reviewed by Helen Jackson, Director of Research, School of Social Work, 
Harare, Zimbabwe. 
AIDS and Alcohol/Drug Abuse • Psychosocial Research, D G Fisher (ed) The 
Haworth Press, 1991, London. 
A monograph published simultaneously as Drugs and Society, Vol 5 Nos 
land 2. 
This short book (97 pages) contains seven articles addressing the issue of HIV/ 
AIDS and substance abuse in the USA. Two articles focus on ethnic issues, two 
on intravenous drug use in Alaska, one on gay men, one on procedures in "shooting 
galleries", and one on the role of health psychologists in AIDS education amongst 
drug injectors (IVDUs). They present material that will be of use primarily to 
professionals in the field in the USA. 
Several articles are reviews of existing literature, and give an overview of 
the current situation. Others provide some original research findings. 
Fisher et al stress that drug injecting in Alaska is a major problem that 
needs much wider study. The mean age of first cocaine use in females was reported 
to be 12,5 years, indicating the urgent need for intervention with adolescents. 
Leoutsakas reports that the scale of drug injecting in Alaska is not well 
documented, and more research is needed into who injects, what is injected, and 
how behaviours can be modified. Rowell reports that American Indian/Alaskan
Book Reviews 75 
native people have high levels of alcohol consumption and high levels of sexually 
transmitted diseases. HIV/AIDS is still low inAlaskabutlikelytorise. Heconcurs 
with Leoutsakas that much more data is needed on the extent and role of drug 
injecting.
Des Jarlais et al warn of the expectation of racial prejudice by Blacks and 
Hispanics/Latinos and other minorities with respect to interventions to make drug 
injecting safer. They see a lose - lose situation in which interventions targeting at 
risk minorities will be seen as racist, while non-intervention will be seen as neglect. 
Blacks and Hispanics have double the reported rate of AIDS of the Whites in the 
USA, with intravenous drug use reported to be the major primary risk factor. It is 
linked with high levels of heterosexual and perinatal transmission. The authors' 
stance is best illustrated by their quoting of Primm of the Presidential Commission 
on the HIV Epidemic (P6): "If you do something now, you will be accused of 
racism, but if you do nothing now, in the future you will be accused of genocide". 
An article by Martin and Hasin examines the link between alcohol 
consumption and sexual behaviour among gay men. They report on earlier studies 
that show a complex relationship between the two. Their own study finds that fairly 
low risk sexual behaviour (oral sex) increases with reported alcohol consumption, 
but that high risk activity (anal-sex) does not. However, their study only measures 
rates of alcohol consumption, and not alcohol use specifically during sexual 
activity. 
Insight into risk behaviours at the time of injection is given by Page et al. 
They observed first hand the process of selling injectibles and providing needles 
in a private house used as a "shooting gallery". They confirm that sustained interventions 
with the proprietors of the "shooting galleries" may potentially reduce 
risk of HI V. The authors point out that proprietors do not want to see their clientele 
die of AIDS. The article provides valuable insights into the specific behaviours and 
risks involved. 
In the final article of the book Sorensen advocates the role of health 
psychologists in HIV/AIDS prevention. He gives a brief overview of the scale of 
the epidemic among drug injectors, and of the risk factors for HIV/AIDS: needle 
transmission, sex, drug weakened immunity, disinhibition when "high" and 
perinatal transmission. 
He cites estimates that between 83 800 and 119 100 new cases of AIDS 
will occur among drug users, presumably in the USA, between 1989 and 1993. 
Health psychologists have an important role to play. Sorensen supports Rosenstock's 
(1974) health belief mode, which suggests that knowledge, perceived
76 Book Reviews 
personal risk, belief in health care guidelines, belief in personal ability to keep to 
guidelines, and social support to keep to guidelines, are critical factors in achieving 
health behaviour change. Sorensen's well written overview could usefully have 
come at the start of the book and provided a framework for the other articles. 
Overall, the collection is worth reading although, with a few exceptions, 
the articles stress the need for further data and research rather than presenting in 
depth findings of their own. The content is considerably better than the general 
presentation of the book itself, which rates very low on attractiveness and 
originality. This is a great pity. Sorensen's three photographs of awareness campaign 
media enli ven the final pages of the book, but for the most part the layout and 
presentation are dull. This detracts from the articles themselves, and is a contradiction 
of the oft-repeated message within the book of the need for appropriate, 
engaging strategies to break the HIV - drug injecting link. 
Reviewedby Helen Jackson, DirectorofResearch,Schoolof Social Work, Harare, 
Zimbabwe. 
The Politics of Race and Gender in Therapy, Lenora Fulani (ed), The Haworth 
Press, New York, 1988 (120pp, US$24,95 hbk, O 86656 723 2). 
A monograph published simultaneously as Women and Therapy, Vol 6 No4. 
This book is written for societies where there is racism, and where women are 
treated as second or third class citizens or worse, not only because they are women 
but also because of their skin colour. The book acknowledges that some of the 
issues discussed as the specific struggles of 'women of colour' are also experienced 
by whitewomenandmen. These issues include powerlessness in an elitist society, 
where people are seen as lower grade persons because they belong to a different 
race, culture, are poor, unemployed and lack education. 
This book will be valued by feminist therapists and people who work with 
women in development. Therapists who use psychoanalysis may find the book 
particularly interesting and challenging, especially the section on Marxism, 
Psychoanalysis and Feminism. This section challenges Freudian ideas concerning 
women's sexuality and motherhood. 
How applicable will this book be to Zimbabwe and other African 
countries? First, our women do not experience the same problems that women of 
colour in the USA, experience as a group. Even if a few do, there are strong 
traditional and cultural ways of dealing with most of the problems that women
Book Reviews 77 
might be experiencing. In some cases governments have developed policies to 
protect all women despite their colour. 
Second, psychoanalysis is expensive, and if taken up would not be for 
those people who most need the service. 
Third, it is slowly becoming obvious that the systemic approach to 
counselling, and engaging clients in brief therapy, leeds to the best results from 
therapy. 
However, having said this, non feminist therapists and non psychoanalysts 
could still benefit from reading this book, if it is read with a view to gaining 
a different perspective on therapy with women, despite their colour. As the book 
is emotionally charged (dealing with the emotive issues of politics, race and 
gender), those who want to benefit from it must remain objective. 
Reviewed by Eunice R Muzenda, Executive Tutor, Family Counselling Unit, 
Harare, Zimbabwe. 
Women, Development and Survival in the Third World, Haleh Afshar (ed), 
Longman Group UK Limited, London, 1991. 
This book might better have been titled Women, crisis and survival, as the 
examples given show women reacting to forces which work against development 
- repressive fundamentalism in Iran, the American destabilisation crisis in Nicaragua, 
and the economic and political crises of Nigeria. Women are shown to be 
affected as consumers, as workers and most seriously as the ones on whose 
shoulders falls the increasingly heavy burden of maintaining the family unit. At 
best, as in Mary Stead's Nicaraguan example, gendered needs and concerns such 
as childcare policies and contraception have been put on hold by the state because 
they are seen as potentially divisive in the context of a national emergency; at 
worst, as Carolyne Dennis shows in Nigeria, the social problems created by a 
deteriorating economy are off-loaded from the state to women, who are forced to 
"manage" the crisis at the household level. 
The differential impact of national crises on women because of their 
special role as household managers is not news. Where this volume is more 
innovative, however, is in those contributions which discuss programmes and 
policies that are more truly developmental, ie deliberately conceived and carried 
out to advance the national good, rather than as a response to disaster. The most 
interesting such discussion is Delia Davin's study of China,which describes the 
impact of "development" of the sort being widely touted after the recent turmoils
78 Book Reviews 
and reforms in the socialist world; namely, the promotion of the free market as the 
prime mover of economic life and the withdrawal of the state from many fields. 
Davin has the advantage of a historical perspective on this process as she examines 
the decollectivisation of Chinese agriculture begun in 1978. As she relates it, the 
replacement of the commune with household as the main productive unit in the 
rural areas was meant to promote entrepreneurship and invigorate economic life. 
Unfortunately for women, control of productive forces and of the social 
environment of production was removed from the state-sponsored commune 
leadership and reinvested in the traditional family head. Many rural women, 
accustomed to personal recognition and remuneration for their labour as part of a 
work team and to the camaraderie of collective work, now found the profit 
generated by their labour was claimed by their father or husband, in the name of 
the family. 
actors are men - a perception says Davin, which was reinforced by the tendency towards 
sex discrimination in the new free market China on the grounds that 
education and employment are for men, while home and family are for women. 
Anne Akeroyd's study of SADDC women farmers. She describes government 
policies in, among other areas, Musengezi and Mount Darwin, which seem to 
assume that the only active peasant farmers are men. 
This gave rise to the inaccurate perception that the only real economic 
This same perceptual problem is also found closer to home, according to 
Despite official commitments to successful resettlement and the promotion 
of household entrepreneurship in the peasant agricultural sector, women are 
refused access to credit and denied land tenure under both governmental and 
customary procedures. As in China, although the household unit as a whole may 
seem to prosper, women's status within the household deteriorates as men are 
tacitly encouraged to appropriate the fruits of women's labour. Akeroyd mentions 
malnutrition, stress, isolation, the abuse of polygamy (in order to provide more 
workers for one man) and the replacement of women's traditional subsistence 
crops by "men's" cash crops as gendered results of ill-designed rural development 
schemes.
Similar patterns are observed by Cecelia Ng in Malaysia, where the state 
has encouraged modernisation and mechanisation of agriculture. Control and 
ownership of technical innovations has become a male preserve, and the development 
of skills and training has been defined as male knowledge. 
Women are thus locked out of this particular form of development, and are 
regarded largely as "housewives", a process which Ng calls "the masculinisation 
of agriculture" (p 195). Interestingly, she reports that both men and women
Book Reviews 79 
see lack of involvement in "modern" agriculture as an elevation of women's status, 
and that as a family's wealth increases, female participation in crop production 
decreases. Le Thi Nam Thuyet, from Vietnam, describes the opposite processmovement 
away from the household as the main rural economic unit and towards 
the collectivisation of agriculture - and associates it with benefits to women 
ranging from increased age at marriage to the eradication of illiteracy. Unfortunately, 
Thuyet's piece is uncritically adulatory of the Vietnamese government 
which makes it difficult to objectively compare the experience of Vietnamese 
women with that of their counterparts under different rural development models. 
A more up-to date article, dealing with the impact of dot moi (new thinking), the 
Vietnamese perestroika, would probably have been more interesting. 
The book concludes with a collection of articles on India. These accounts 
come closer to embodying the title of the book as they depict women actively trying 
to create a good life for themselves and their families rather than as objects acted 
on by ideological and economic forces. Contributions include pieces on women 
in trade union struggles and on the efforts of the traditionally outcast devdasi 
women, with the support of sympathetic civil servants, to create for themselves an 
economic base other than prostitution. Of particular interest is Jana Everett and 
Mina Savara's discussion of the utilisation of lower-value credit by women smallcommodities 
producers, with suggestions on how the delivery of credit could be 
redesigned to improve women's economic autonomy, and help them avoid the 
invisibility and impotence that plague their farmer sisters in the SADCC and 
elsewhere. 
This volume is not without faults. The arrangement and selection of 
articles is sometimes inscrutable - for example, a rather abstract discussion of 
Western misconceptions about Third World women appears in the middle of the 
book rather than at the beginning, where it might have provided a theoretical 
framework. Some of the articles are only tangentially relevant to the theme of the 
book, such as Bina Agarwal's very technical discussion of mechanical wheat 
cultivation in Punjab which devotes only three short descriptive paragraphs to the 
impact on women. Similarly, Dennis's account suffers from an abundance of 
information on recent Nigerian history and a relative dearth of non - impressionistic 
information on the daily struggles of Yoruba women. Haleh Afshar's account 
of nineteenth and early twentieth century Iranian fighters for women's 
emancipation,while inspiring in its own right, contributes little to empirical 
knowledge of the lives of women in Iran today. 
Despite its shortcomings, this book is a useful contribution to the study 
of gender and development, largely because it enables comparisons to be made
80 Book Reviews 
and similarities to be observed between societies as disparate as Nigeria, Malaysia 
and Nicaragua. I hope that the empirical data contained here can nourish some 
future, more theoretical work which may produce some useful generalisations 
about the 
differential impact of both crises and development policies on Third World 
women. 
Reviewed by Amy Kaler, Chindunduma GHS, Shamva, Zimbabwe. 
Women in the World Economy, United Nations International Research and 
Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), prepared by 
Susan Joekes, Oxford University Press, 1989 (161 pp, price not stated, ISBN 0-10- 
506315-5 pbk). 
This ambitious book sets out to locate the position of women in the world economy 
and to examine how changes in international relations over the past 40 years have 
affected women in the developing world. 
a changing world, as well as changes in trade patterns, financial market activities 
and technology and their impact on women. It also looks at employment trends for 
women in agriculture, industry and services. 
as they affect women. It incorporates an annex highlighting excerpts on women 
in development from the International Development Strategy for the Third UN 
Development Decade. 
The book is divided into four parts, which examine women's position in 
Part four summarises the emerging trends in the international economy, 
In a broad sense, international exchanges have been favourable to 
women' s economic position, the book contends. Particularly in industry, there has 
been an increase in the gainful employment of women. Thus women have 
advanced most, economically, in countries that have developed as successful exporters 
of manufactured goods, mostly in East Asia. 
But recent protectionist barriers in industrialised countries, deep international 
recession and the debt crisis have brought economic devastation in some 
areas of the developing world and now threaten the economic advances of women 
over the past 40 years. 
The book concludes that the present international economic climate is
Book Reviews 81 
"fundamentally inimical to development" and points out that employment prospects, 
particularly for the younger generation and for women, have fallen markedly 
since 1980. 
The book puts forward a number of proposals aimed at redressing these 
negative trends by promoting women's economic participation, including measures 
to improve women's position in these activities.lt recommends implementation 
of the "Foward-Lookmg Strategies" adopted at the 1985 Nairobi conference 
to mark the end of the UN Decade for Women.The breath and scope of the topic, 
it is necessarily a collection of generalisations, or pointers, rather than a conclusive 
study of the economic advancement of women in Africa, Asia and Latin America. 
The book is strengthened by a historical perspective which traces how the 
Great Depression of the 1930s deepened trade restrictions as developed countries 
erected trade barriers to protect their fledgeling industries. The impact of the Post- 
World War 11 Marshall Plan in stimulating the fastest growth of industrial output 
in 80 years and creating job opportunities for women is explored. 
But the work is spoilt by a number of irritating generalisations and a 
reluctance to present firm conclusions or offer any kind of theory to advance the 
study of women's work. Many of the more irksome assumptions are related to 
women's domestic role. 
In her introduction, Susan Joekes describes, convincingly, how the 
introduction of capitalism led to intensification of the division of labour between 
the sexes, identifying men with the productive sphere and women with the 
reproductive sphere. 
She notes the resurgence during the 1980s of traditional values and the 
notion of the home as the "proper place" for women, even in the developed world. 
But apart from noting that women's identification with domestic work leads to 
their limited contribution to material progress, Joekes appears to accept as given 
women's domestic role, which she qualifies as "of central value to society". 
To illustrate this, one would have liked at least to see some attempt at 
evaluating the economic development. But instead Joekes focuses entirely on the 
more visible wage employment, which she argues, correctly, is the first step 
towards economic emancipation. 
In discussing women's longevity, she cites "more moderate female 
consumption patterns" as a factor in women's resistance to certain diseases 
associated with smoking and dietary habits in more affluent societies. Without 
supporting this view with statistics, she appears to subscribe to notions of women 
as the "fairer" or "weaker" sex. There is no mention of how women have been
82 Book Reviews 
socialised into certain behaviour patterns. 
In another example of generalisation, she highlights the success of Asia 
in bringing down birth rates without anywhere mentioning that in China, the most 
populous Asian country, government policy under Mao Zedong forced the restriction 
of births to one per couple - a highly unpopular policy with no parallels 
elsewhere in Asia. 
Despite such flaws, the book is a valuable attempt to chart the influence 
of international economic factors on women in the developing world. In helping 
to set agenda issues, it will be of particular interest for women's groups and policymakers. 
Reviewed by Dede-Esi Amanor, Inter Press Service (Third World News Agency), 
Harare, Zimbabwe. 
Urban Low Income Housing in Zimbabwe, Christopher J. C. Mafico, Avebury, 
Aldershot, England, (203 pp, ISBN 1 85628 226 0, price £32.00). 
The provision of low income housing is a problem that has confronted the 
Government of Zimbabwe since independence and remains largely unresolved. 
This book by Christopher Mafico is an interesting historical perspective to the 
provision of urban low income housing in Zimbabwe. It is divided into eight 
chapters. Mafico begins by giving a brief literature review of literature Zimbabwe'slow 
income housing and also by examining some perspectives. Although 
he attempts to review literature on Zimbabwe's low income housing this is, 
however, done very superficially as the author simply identifies previous research 
without stating the conclusions of these studies. 
In Chapter 2 the author examines the beginning of urban low income 
housing as a consequence of the process of urbanisation. The author also examines 
the measures taken by the colonial settlers to weaken African agriculture and 
therefore force the Africans to migrate to urban areas in search of employment 
These measures included the Hut Tax, Native locations Ordinance Act of 1906, 
Land Apportionment Act of 1930, Industrial Conciliation Act 1930, Native 
Registration Act of 1936 and the Vagrancy Act of 1936. The author argues that 
African workers were considered temporary visitors to urban areas, who were 
therefore expected to go back to their rural homes at old age or at the cessation of 
employment 
Consequently, the provision of housing for African workers was never 
taken seriously and as the author observes "the lack of a clearly defined housing
Book Reviews 83 
policy that housing lagged behind demand and overcrowding was a common 
feature." The common practice was for employers to accommodate their domestic 
workers within their premises and for industrial workers to receive tied accommodation.
In an effort to help us understand the problems surrounding low cost 
housing in Zimbabwe the author attempts to answer the question "What is housing? 
He adopts the defination of the Government of Zimbabwe that housing is "a stock 
of shells for the provision of shelter against the weather and alternately process by 
which that stock is created". He condedes that housing goes beyond the physical 
structure and that it has a social and economic meaning. This is a very pertinent 
point that the author makes for the form and structure of housing is largely 
dependent on the meaning put to housing. The author makes a very interesting 
analysis of traditional housing in Zimbabwe and makes an equally interesting 
conclusion that "the traditional housing system of housing is very much a process 
intimately related to the users' needs and very much in the user's control". There 
was therefore no housing backlog in traditional society, the author observes. 
The author is quite forthright in his evaluation of government policy on 
low income housing. He argues that government has not been as innovative and 
committed as it should have been to low income housing and that the question of 
affordability has not been sufficiently addressed, hence the mushrooming of 
housing projects which low income groups can not participate in. 
He goes on to criticise government's policy of demolishing squatter settlements 
and thus, "merely disguising the problem and giving it time to become 
bigger and more complicated". 
The author writes very convincingly and is able to articulate the weakness 
of Zimbabwe's policy on low income housing. One cannot help bu agree with hime 
that urban low income housing cannot be realised unless there is a major overhaul 
of the housing policy. The housing standards adopted are artificial and do not take 
cognisance of the social, political and economic realities of Zimbabwe. What need 
is needed therefore is an appropriate response to the problem of low income 
housing. Christopher Mafico's book exposes in a brilliant manner, the problem of 
urban low income housing in Zimbabwe and thus challenges policy makers to be 
more innovative in addressing this problem. This book therefore provides useful 
reference material for policy makers and social policy students interested in urban 
Reviewed by Edwin Kaseke, Principal, School of Social Work, Harare, Zimbabwe.
84 Book Reviews 
Rural Transformation in Tropical Africa, D Rimmer (ed), Belhaven Press/ 
Printer, London, 1988 (177p, price and ISBN not stated). 
On the whole the book is very informative. 
I have some reservations, but these could be misleading as I am unsure of 
who the target readership is. First the lack of a clear definition of rural 
transformation in the various papers. This shortcoming makes it difficult to follow 
some discussions and a clear definition would assist the reader to focus and digest 
the information presented. 
Second, the lack of an in-depth analysis of the topic. Most papers tend 
to provide facts and information. An in depth analysis of some factors would have 
been more stimulating and would have promoted understanding of the issues in 
rural transformation, for example, an historical background would have put some 
of the issues and constraints into perspective; as would a discussion of the role of 
extraneous factors such as drought, the world recession, the politics of 
reconciliation,reliance on donor aid tied to capital equipment and technical 
expertise/expatriates, the process of industrialisation, the effects of the mass 
media, a lack of education on the part of policy makers, implementers and 
recipients, cultural inequalities, etc. 
Third, rural transformation is said to be different from rural development, 
but I had difficulty in identifying the major differences between the two concepts. 
However, having said this, rural transformation appears to call for adaption 
socially, politically, economically and culturally. According to who the target 
readership is, recommendations for ways in which this adaptation could be 
encaused could have been given by each author. 
Fourth, I wonder if the various authors, as academics suffer from what 
Chambers has called "The Rural Tourist Syndrome", ie people who do not reside 
in rural areas but visit them to carry out studies and prescribe solutions to problems. 
There is a 'them and us' gap. Solutions and prescriptions suitable for urban areas 
differ from those of rural areas both qualitatively and quantitatively. 
Fifth, I would have appreciated the inclusion of a chapter on the human 
resource development necessary to effect social, economic, political and cultural 
change. Transformation takes place in people who are the active participants. 
Human resource development should be aimed at policy makers, donors, change 
agents and consumers. They must be prepared for technological change through 
education. 
I have enjoyed reading this publication and would recommend it to
Book Reviews 85 
students of economics, adult education and rural development, with my views 
taken into consideration. 
Reviewed by E Matenga, Masters in Adult Education Student, University of 
Zimbabwe, Harare. 
Reference 
Chambers R (1983) Rural Development: Putting the last first, Longman, London. 
Urban Inequality Under Socialism: Case Studies from Eastern Europe and the 
Soviet Union, David M. Smith, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 
Although written before the fall and ultimate demise of state socialism in much of 
Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union _ indeed before the political restructuring of 
that entire region _ this book provides a useful and important reference in helping 
students of Geography and Urban Studies better understand the nature and 
characteristics of urban areas rarely studied by Western scholars. Comprehensive, 
concisely written and complete with detailed maps of many of the study areas, ii 
relies primarily on geographical perspective. Drawing on secondary research 
sources (including some by the author) of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, 
Hungary and Poland, the bulk of the book is devoted to the Soviet and Polish city 
case studies. With a focus on the spatial distribution of indicators of inequality, ii 
is strangely prophetic of the events which have transpired in the two years since the 
book was published. Particularly haunting is theconcludingparagraph of the book, 
referring to the case of Poland: "the disaffection of the masses has at least some 
of its origin in the inequality of urban life...". 
Nonetheless, the changing geopolitical realities of the region do not by 
any means render the book irrelevant or even out of date. As students of urbanism 
are well aware, the built form of any city tends to be very enduring. In this way, 
just as the socialist cities of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union inherited an urban 
form from the previous capitalist era, so will the emergent regimes _ however they 
eventually define themselves - inherit certain physical realities from the socialist 
period. 
With the collapse, both literal and symbolic, of the barriers dividing East 
and West, what the author describes as the "relative inaccessibility of some of the 
countries concerned" along with the "difficulty which Western scholars and 
teachers often have in dealing with socialism dispassionately and objectively if at 
all" may dissolve as well.
86 Book Reviews 
This will, perhaps, open a new door to more extensive study of some of these cities 
in the years to come; thus the book will continue to be a major source of information. 
What relevance does the book have for Zimbabwe or Africa in general? 
Many African countries have adopted socialism as the ideological force driving 
planning and policy formulation in all sectors and have, throughout the political 
transformation of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, claimed that their form of 
socialism is distinct from that found in other continents. Whether this is true is not 
debated here. There is room, however, for careful investigation of the flaws 
revealed in the practice of socialist urban planning as it is described in this book, 
particularly given that we are now aware of the possible consequences of these 
flaws. 
The author begins the book with an attempt to define the ideal socialist 
city. Quoting from Demko and Regulska (1987:290), he refers to such attributes 
as "non-discriminatory, non-spatially differentiated housing" and "public services 
of all kinds, including transportation ... of equal quality, availability and accessibility" 
as those which distinguish the socialist from other types of cities. It is 
against these general yardsticks that the measures of inequality are later made. 
Following a brief description of the population growth patterns and 
historical development of many of the major urban areas in Eastern Europe and the 
USSR, the author launches into the case study of Moscow as the "showpiece of the 
socialist city". Since pre-revolutionary Moscow was limited in size, most of the 
city is representative of the socialist period. Smith's review of the research 
literature concludes that although less pronounced and more complex a pattern 
than that found in typical capitalist cities, there is evidence of inequality in living 
standards in Moscow, with the better services and higher-quality housing found in 
the central part of the city, the area more heavily inhabited by the intelligentsia and 
other members of the Soviet elite. Smith attributes some of this inequality to the 
"hierarchical structure of service provision", which refers to the need for some 
central services to be located where population densities are highest, and thus 
further away from lower-density populations. The spatial differentiation of 
housing, often associated with residential groupings by occupation, is related 
primarily to period of construction, according to Smith. These patterns are more 
or less reinforced in the descriptions of the case studies of three other Soviet cities: 
Ufa, a city of over a million east of Moscow and west of the Urals; Kazan, roughly 
the same size and located almost halfway between Moscow and Ufa; and finally, 
Akademgorodok, the site of the Siberian Branch of the Soviet Academy of
Book Reviews 87 
Sciences and largely an academic town. 
In the Czechoslovakian capital Prague, housing is described as the source 
of the greatest differentiation. Although partly attributable to the built form 
inherited from the capitalist era, Smith identifies housing tenure as the factor most 
responsible for this, the four types being state, enterprise, co-operative and private. 
Since co-operative and private housing tend to be more expensive, it is these types 
of housing tenure which attract the urban elite. The situation is similar in the three 
Hungarian cities described in the book: Pecs, Szeged and Budapest. However, the 
distinguishing factor in Hungarian cities, according to Smith, is that up to threequarters 
of the housing stock is privately owned, much higher than in most other 
socialist countries. Nonetheless, the pattern which emerges, like the other 
countries, is one where "the higher-status groups received the better housing, with 
the highest subsidies". 
Warsaw provides an example of a city which had to be largely rebuilt after 
World War 2, having lost two-thirds of its population and 85% of its buildings. 
Once again, the research reveals that the co-operative housing, which is of higher 
quality and is more expensive, tends to be occupied by the professional groups. 
Data available on ten other Polish cities confirms this pattern. Although residential 
grouping by socio-occupational status is strongly demonstrated in the research literature, 
the spatial character is described as that of a mosaic rather than the strong 
segregational patterns typical of western capitalist cities. 
The final chapters in the book are devoted to an attempt to explain the 
processes behind the patterns of inequality presented in the previous chapters. 
Briefly, the most important of these are: socio-economic disparities arising from 
the division of labour; variabilities in housing stock as determined by period of construction 
and tenure (the co-operative was consistently identified as a source of 
differentiation); and housing shortages. As a way of synthesising all of this 
information, Smith proposes a systems model which incorporates all of the component 
factors contributing to urban inequality. 
What is not described in any detail is the political process by which 
members of the elite manage to procure the better quality housing and services. 
This is one of the ironies arising out of the research reviewed in the book: that the 
allocation of housing, which is supposed to be an equalising factor in socialist 
societies, appears to create and reinforce inequalities. Particularly relevant for 
African countries is the tendency of co-operative housing, involving heavy 
government technical support and subsidies, to be provided not to the lowerincome 
sectors of the population, but rather to the professional groups. Zimbabwe, 
Botswana, Tanzania and Kenya are among the African nations promoting housing
88 Book Reviews 
co-operatives as a means of improving the access and quality of housing to poor 
people. The lesson of the Eastern European and Soviet cities described in this book 
seems to imply that governments may not be the appropriate institutions to 
administer this process. 
The concluding section of the book predicts the "future of the socialist 
city", describing the growing materialism evident in urban life and the increasing 
tendency of "Soviet and other socialist citizens...to ape their Western counterparts". 
Although the author acknowledges a "convergence" between the Soviet 
and the Western city, his prediction that "the socialist city, its past as well as the 
distinctive nature of its own changing society will ensure that it remains different", 
now seems questionable. Nonetheless, his book, along with its very useful 
bibliography, is a must for those interested in urban life in Eastern Europe and the 
Soviet Union at the height of the socialist era. 
Reviewed by Anna Vakil, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. 
Thomas Sankara Speaks. The Burkina Faso Revolution 1983-87, Thomas 
Sankara (translated by Samantha Anderson), Pathfinder Press, London, 1988, 
26Opp, price #6,95, ISBN 0-87348-526 paper. 
Coups have become part of Africa's crisis. While some coups have been 
condemned by the world in general, others have been celebrated by the citizens and 
in some cases the international community has been happy to see regimes fall. 
When Sankara came to power, the whole world took little attention of what had 
happened in Upper Volta. Sankara was virtually unknown outside West Africa 
hence the indifference he was greeted with. However, after a year "revolutionary 
minded people started to follow what was happening there (Burkina Faso) ...a deep 
revolution was unfolding". The preface of the book tells us The August 4 coup was 
not just one of the numerous coups experienced by the impoverished nation during 
the year.
As the title says,Thomas Sankara Speaks is a compilation of 25 speeches 
and interviews which were delivered by Sankara between 1983 to 1987 just before 
he was assassinated. The first speech is a fiery attack by Prime Minister Sankara, 
on the enemies of the people both at home and abroad. He identified the enemies 
as the bourgeois, men in politics, people who keep the people in ignorance under 
the guise of spiritual guidance and tradition - all who are seen as furthering the 
interests of the imperialists. "When the people stand up, imperialism trembles" he
Book Reviews 89 
told the audience (this was to be his slogan/trademark later). Two months later he 
was arrested and freed on August 4 by troops loyal to Compaore after demonstrations 
which rocked Ouagadougou.Sankara emerged more powerful than ever. He 
took overpower and became President. The deep revolution began to unfold. Committees 
for the Defence of the Revolution were created and these were to penetrate 
through all social facets of Burkina Faso. The August 4 speech is followed by 
another compelling speech, in which he warned the 1300 delegates against 
corruption and abuse of power, condemning those who glorified the President to 
cover up for their corrupt practices. 
Sankara's commitment to honesty and integrity is reflected in several 
speeches. Speaking to his country- men he warns that "Honest citizens have no fear 
even if you own 1000 villas. But you the dishonest, even if you own a two-roomed 
place in a rundown part of town... Start to tremble...". On the international arena 
he criticised the hypocrisy of many leaders who only paid lip service to the fight 
against apartheid,thus endangering the lives of the oppressed blacks in South 
Africa and the Frontline States. He asked the leaders at the Non-Aligned 
Movement 8th Summit in Harare," Is it not criminal to exacerbate a struggle in 
which we cannot participate?"(pl88) A month later Samora Machel of Mozambique 
was killed in a mysterious air crash inside South Africa. 
Oppression of women by men in his country was a thing of the past, he 
reminded his fellow country men on the commemoration of International Women's 
Day. So wide were Captain Sankara's interests that he also attended the First International 
Tree and Forest Conference in Paris, where he outlined his government's 
strategy in the fight against desertification. The conscientization process of the 
fight against desertification was reinforced by the fact that all happy events in 
Burkina Faso were celebrated by a tree planting ceremony - marriages, christening 
services, awards presentations, visits by well known dignitaries. At the same 
conference he briefly outlined the achievements of the Revolution. (Burkina Faso 
was a French colony. Several economic measures were used by the French to 
frustrate the Revolution.) 
The book helps the reader to know and understand Sankara the man 
better. Some of his critics said he was mad,to which Sankara answered with aretort 
on page 144, that this was a necessary ingredient for revolution - "for no fundamental 
change can be carried out without a certain amount of madness...". He saw 
himself "as a Third World youth, an African youth, a youth of Burkina Faso" (p 
68). Sankara gives statistics to tell the world who this Burkinabe youth is(pll8), 
he is one of the lucky survivors of the 500 children out of 1000 who survived during 
the first three months, one of the 10 children out of 100 who went to school and 18
90 Book Reviews 
out of a 100 who completed high school and one of the two soldiers out of 100 who 
are priviledged army officers. Probably this self-image and that of his country 
explains why he chose to receive diplomat's credentials out in the villages where 
he introduced them to the marginalized, for they were the people they were serving. 
The all revealing "Dare To Invent the Future" interview is probably the 
most informative of all. He covers the achievements and hurdles met by the 
revolution, and states his country's position on international matters. He explains, 
albeit briefly, that he turned down the Soviet Union because itdidnotmeetBurkina 
Faso's expectations. He adds, "we have our dignity to protect". He also explains 
the huge sacrifices the people had to make to improve the economy. Some of which 
he says helped to reduce government expenditure. Sankara was aware that hecould 
come to a violent end (or end up as an old man somewhere in a library reading 
books). Knowing he had enemies he had accepted the reality of having to end 
violently. "It will happen today or tomorrow." All his major speeches ended with 
an emphatic :"Homeland or death, we will triumph". 
Thomas Sankara Speaks in an interesting book for the reader who is 
prepared to labour through some of his long speeches. The cover is quite attractive 
and so are the pictures inside. The man had the image and charisma which African 
youths identified with, to such an extent that when he died students of the 
University of Zimbabwe joined the progressive world in condemning his assassination. 
The CDRs were dissolved immediately. He was buried in a mass grave 
which the people of Burkina Faso turned into a shrine, much to the chagrin of the 
coup leaders. Probably as the imperialists read his speeches they tremble... even 
in death Sankara triumphs. 
Reviewed by Tasara Tuturu, School of Social Work (BSW Student).