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Research report 45. The State of Guinea-Bissau. African socialism or socialism in Africa?
318
BOOK
REVIEWS
Development and Dependence in Lesotho, the Enclave of South Africa, by Gabriele Winai Strom, Uppsala, 1978. 186~~. Price: Swedish Kr. 45. A Demographic Analysis of East Africa-A Sociological Interpretation, by Mette Monsted and Parveen Walji, Uppsala, 1978. 211 pp. Price Swedish Kr. 40. Science, Ideology and Development. Three Essays on Development Theory, by Archie Mafeje, Uppsala, 1978. 86pp. Swedish Kr. 25. Research Report 44. Zambia: Impact of Industrial Strategy on Regional Imbalance and Social Inequality, by M. R. Bhagavan, Uppsala, 1978. 76pp. Price: Swedish Kr. 10. Research Report 45. The State of Guinea-Bissau. African Socialism or Socialism in Africa? by Peter Aaby, Uppsala, 1978. 35pp. Price: Swedish Kr. 10. This group of relatively short books has been published under the aegis of the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, Sweden, and brings together a wealth of material, insights, concepts and ideas which should be of use to the agricultural administrator. They cover, between them, a wide range of countries, political systems and subjects. Some of them, or parts of them, may only be of limited agricultural administrative interest. But this does not reduce one’s admiration of the width of vision of the sponsoring Institute. Three of the books, if taken together, effectively contrast the different political and self-help approaches found in Kenya, Tanzania and Lesotho. Mbithi and Rasmusson, in SelfReliance in Kenya: The Case of Harambee, define Harambee as self-help development projects with a ‘bottom-up’ and not the familiar ‘top-down’ approach. It is based on the use of local resources, on collective rather than individual gain, and on substantial Harambee-generated financial contributions to national development expenditure. Harambee, which means ‘collective effort’, is not new to Kenya. It is an indigenous concept which Jomo Kenyatta formally recognised and, as it were, officially promulgated when Kenya became independent. In 15 years it has made great strides and attracted considerable financial support from foreign governments, business firms, charities, etc. Its progress and its failures are well documented, with supporting surveys and statistics, by the book’s authors (p. 137). Harambee projects range widely from nursery schools, health centres, roads and water projects to cattle dips, compost making, early maturing maize, maintaining irrigation works, etc. Of course, some projects have not succeeded; the reasons for failure are analysed realistically and seem to have been human and administrative rather than technical. Possible remedies (e.g. better training of chiefs and sub-chiefs) are outlined. In brief, a good, readable, impartial account of an important constructive social institution. Like the remaining books reviewed here, the book has no index. If Harambee is a ‘bottom-up’ approach, Ujamaa in Tanzania is, as the title of the book implies, a ‘top-down’ approach. Ujamaa is President Nyerere’s concept of Tanzanian socialism and ‘has a strong emphasis on state-controlled or collective
BOOK
REVIEWS
319
production’. Ujamaa--Socialism from Above reports a study of the West Lake Region (of Tanzania) which is mainly agricultural. The key crops are banana, coffee, beans, maize, vegetables on the shamba (homestead) and shifting cultivation with sorghum, etc. on the farm/village peripheries. The social organisation, the land tenure status, etc. of the people, their private sector (p. 64) and the communal sector (p. 68) in Ujamaa villages are well outlined. The area under each crop, yields per hectare, the labour input, etc. are recorded and show that absenteeism from communal farm work (mainly by hand) was a major problem, so were administrative failures-for example, to deliver seed coril on time. However, these defects were at least partly offset by the educational/extension ‘dividends’ to local agriculture generally. Since the field work for this report was done five years ago, events may have outrun some of its conclusions. Nevertheless, the book is worth reading for the insights it gives into the problems of’required’ or ‘compulsory’ farm production and, to the agriculturalists, for its incidental data on local crops and practices. If Kenya provides an example of a ‘bottom-up’ social development that has been successfully encouraged from above and if Tanzania illustrates the problems of ‘topdown’ collective agriculture, then Lesotho (an ‘independent’ enclave in South Africa) provides, with its ‘open economy’, a contrasting ‘neo-colonialist’ case study. Farming and stock raising is a secondary occupation; 80 % of the incomes of ‘farm households’ comes from off-farm production, as the wage-earners mainly work in South Africa. Moving from South Africa to East Africa, A Demographic Analysis oj’East Africa is more likely to interest the long term planner than the agricultural administrator. But the sections on urbanisation (p. 148) which is relatively low in East Africa, on the high infant mortality rate of farmers’ children (p. 72) and on the low pressure of population on land resources (p. 29), force one to question some long accepted (Malthusian) views. Perhaps the views of Ester Boserup (The Conditions of Agricultural Growth, Aldine Press, London, 1967) and of Simor Amin, Arthur Lewis and Gunnar Myrdal (whose relevant papers are listed therein) justify reexamination in the light of present trends in Africa. Next comes Science, ideology and Development: Three Essays on Development Theory. It is a book which ranges far outside Africa and compares countries with ‘neo-colonialist’ strategies with those that have socialist strategies in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia and, in the last essay, contrasts science-based with ideological approaches to development problems. The problem, however, as this reviewer sees it, is: How to develop science-based technology within, or in double harness with an ideology which, socially and economically, successfully promotes technical progress, higher living standards, longer life expectation at birth, etc‘? ‘Ideological commitment, scientific knowledge and organisational ability’ the author states are ‘critical variables . . . in development’. We agree. But he says little (a) about how these needs are to be integrated in the field-which is what interests the agricultural administrator or (b) about the critical weather and disease problems
320
BOOK REVIEWS
which are no respecters of ideologies or science but have to be dealt with fairly, firmly and often fast by agricultural officers. Finally come two short Research Reports on the industrial strategy of Zambia and on socialism in Guinea-Bissau. Their full titles are self-explanatory. To sum up. This batch of publications does more than their titles imply. Each volume is well written and stimulates interest at least to a reader whose basic profession is agriculture or its administration. They are relatively free of sociological or other jargon and provoke self-examining thought. The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, therefore, deserves our gratitude. A.N.
DUCKHAM
BOOK
REVIEWS
Development and Dependence in Lesotho, the Enclave of South Africa, by Gabriele Winai Strom, Uppsala, 1978. 186~~. Price: Swedish Kr. 45. A Demographic Analysis of East Africa-A Sociological Interpretation, by Mette Monsted and Parveen Walji, Uppsala, 1978. 211 pp. Price Swedish Kr. 40. Science, Ideology and Development. Three Essays on Development Theory, by Archie Mafeje, Uppsala, 1978. 86pp. Swedish Kr. 25. Research Report 44. Zambia: Impact of Industrial Strategy on Regional Imbalance and Social Inequality, by M. R. Bhagavan, Uppsala, 1978. 76pp. Price: Swedish Kr. 10. Research Report 45. The State of Guinea-Bissau. African Socialism or Socialism in Africa? by Peter Aaby, Uppsala, 1978. 35pp. Price: Swedish Kr. 10. This group of relatively short books has been published under the aegis of the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Uppsala, Sweden, and brings together a wealth of material, insights, concepts and ideas which should be of use to the agricultural administrator. They cover, between them, a wide range of countries, political systems and subjects. Some of them, or parts of them, may only be of limited agricultural administrative interest. But this does not reduce one’s admiration of the width of vision of the sponsoring Institute. Three of the books, if taken together, effectively contrast the different political and self-help approaches found in Kenya, Tanzania and Lesotho. Mbithi and Rasmusson, in SelfReliance in Kenya: The Case of Harambee, define Harambee as self-help development projects with a ‘bottom-up’ and not the familiar ‘top-down’ approach. It is based on the use of local resources, on collective rather than individual gain, and on substantial Harambee-generated financial contributions to national development expenditure. Harambee, which means ‘collective effort’, is not new to Kenya. It is an indigenous concept which Jomo Kenyatta formally recognised and, as it were, officially promulgated when Kenya became independent. In 15 years it has made great strides and attracted considerable financial support from foreign governments, business firms, charities, etc. Its progress and its failures are well documented, with supporting surveys and statistics, by the book’s authors (p. 137). Harambee projects range widely from nursery schools, health centres, roads and water projects to cattle dips, compost making, early maturing maize, maintaining irrigation works, etc. Of course, some projects have not succeeded; the reasons for failure are analysed realistically and seem to have been human and administrative rather than technical. Possible remedies (e.g. better training of chiefs and sub-chiefs) are outlined. In brief, a good, readable, impartial account of an important constructive social institution. Like the remaining books reviewed here, the book has no index. If Harambee is a ‘bottom-up’ approach, Ujamaa in Tanzania is, as the title of the book implies, a ‘top-down’ approach. Ujamaa is President Nyerere’s concept of Tanzanian socialism and ‘has a strong emphasis on state-controlled or collective
BOOK
REVIEWS
319
production’. Ujamaa--Socialism from Above reports a study of the West Lake Region (of Tanzania) which is mainly agricultural. The key crops are banana, coffee, beans, maize, vegetables on the shamba (homestead) and shifting cultivation with sorghum, etc. on the farm/village peripheries. The social organisation, the land tenure status, etc. of the people, their private sector (p. 64) and the communal sector (p. 68) in Ujamaa villages are well outlined. The area under each crop, yields per hectare, the labour input, etc. are recorded and show that absenteeism from communal farm work (mainly by hand) was a major problem, so were administrative failures-for example, to deliver seed coril on time. However, these defects were at least partly offset by the educational/extension ‘dividends’ to local agriculture generally. Since the field work for this report was done five years ago, events may have outrun some of its conclusions. Nevertheless, the book is worth reading for the insights it gives into the problems of’required’ or ‘compulsory’ farm production and, to the agriculturalists, for its incidental data on local crops and practices. If Kenya provides an example of a ‘bottom-up’ social development that has been successfully encouraged from above and if Tanzania illustrates the problems of ‘topdown’ collective agriculture, then Lesotho (an ‘independent’ enclave in South Africa) provides, with its ‘open economy’, a contrasting ‘neo-colonialist’ case study. Farming and stock raising is a secondary occupation; 80 % of the incomes of ‘farm households’ comes from off-farm production, as the wage-earners mainly work in South Africa. Moving from South Africa to East Africa, A Demographic Analysis oj’East Africa is more likely to interest the long term planner than the agricultural administrator. But the sections on urbanisation (p. 148) which is relatively low in East Africa, on the high infant mortality rate of farmers’ children (p. 72) and on the low pressure of population on land resources (p. 29), force one to question some long accepted (Malthusian) views. Perhaps the views of Ester Boserup (The Conditions of Agricultural Growth, Aldine Press, London, 1967) and of Simor Amin, Arthur Lewis and Gunnar Myrdal (whose relevant papers are listed therein) justify reexamination in the light of present trends in Africa. Next comes Science, ideology and Development: Three Essays on Development Theory. It is a book which ranges far outside Africa and compares countries with ‘neo-colonialist’ strategies with those that have socialist strategies in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia and, in the last essay, contrasts science-based with ideological approaches to development problems. The problem, however, as this reviewer sees it, is: How to develop science-based technology within, or in double harness with an ideology which, socially and economically, successfully promotes technical progress, higher living standards, longer life expectation at birth, etc‘? ‘Ideological commitment, scientific knowledge and organisational ability’ the author states are ‘critical variables . . . in development’. We agree. But he says little (a) about how these needs are to be integrated in the field-which is what interests the agricultural administrator or (b) about the critical weather and disease problems
320
BOOK REVIEWS
which are no respecters of ideologies or science but have to be dealt with fairly, firmly and often fast by agricultural officers. Finally come two short Research Reports on the industrial strategy of Zambia and on socialism in Guinea-Bissau. Their full titles are self-explanatory. To sum up. This batch of publications does more than their titles imply. Each volume is well written and stimulates interest at least to a reader whose basic profession is agriculture or its administration. They are relatively free of sociological or other jargon and provoke self-examining thought. The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, therefore, deserves our gratitude. A.N.
DUCKHAM