Famine in East Africa: Food Production and Food Policies by Ronald E SeavoyReview by: H. R. J. DaviesCanadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines, Vol. 26, No. 1(1992), pp. 178-179Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Canadian Association of African StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/485428 .

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178 CJAS / RCEA 26:I 1992

national institutions emerging in Benin. Sargent identifies four "agendas" that inform obstetrical choice(s): proverbial virtues, religious factors, medical concerns, and status aspirations.

Sargent analyzes how individuals determine priorities when obliged to choose among obstetrical care alternatives. She found that choices are a product of "juggling" among constraints posed by extrinsic economic and political parameters. Sometimes family members are involved in the process of decision-making. While traditional agendas, including proverbial virtues and religious factors, appeared the most influen- tial for rural women, status aspirations were more important among women in Parakou. These aspirations were influenced by education and the link between educa- tion and the opportunity for social mobility. The type of delivery was also found to be associated with the husband's occupational status and education as well as with the education and occupation of the woman's father.

Sargent offers further detail on these distinctions. For example, town women who deliver at home generally do not speak French and have not attended school. They find hospital deliveries inconvenient, expensive, and uncomfortable. On the other hand, it appears that "civilized" women find the patronage of government health services an important aspect of their urban identity. This shift is not entirely positive. Sargent found that urban Bariba women have lost some of their autonomy and some of their options in the domain of reproduction:

Public health policy, national institutions such as the army, police, and judiciary, and local governmental units have taken over the decision-making responsibilities of women and enhanced the role of male heads of household and other elders in the area of obstetrics and child welfare (209).

In this context, Sargent seeks to evaluate the future of obstetrical care for Bariba women and the role of Traditional Birth Attendants. It would seem important, how- ever, to go further, and attempt to analyze changing reproductive patterns against the philosophy and implementation of strongly supported national and international pro- grammes such as "Primary Health Care" or initiatives for the revitalization of "Pri- mary Health Care."

While this volume contributes to knowledge of the social management and the changing constraints on obstetrics among the Bariba of Benin, the book makes only limited attempts to link social science with the demands, opportunities, and praxis of international health and medical care. However, since Sargent is deeply involved with Bariba research, more linkages of this nature may be seen in the future.

Jane Ross Canadian Centre for Quality Improvement Camrose, Alberta

Seavoy, Ronald E. Famine in East Africa: Food Production and Food Policies. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989. 283 PP.

This book is rather disturbing. Ronald Seavoy diagnoses what he believes to be the real cause of famines in East Africa and presents his solution, only to conclude that the solution itself is impractical. Given the present situation in East Africa, Seavoy

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179 Book Reviews / Comptes rendus

believes that famines, large food imports, and dependence upon foreign food aid will increase. The basis of his conclusion is that food production will increase at best at rates slightly above those of population increase in rural areas, leaving the towns dependent upon imports.

He sees the cause as being the "subsistence compromise" of peasant societies. East African cultivators, like peasants elsewhere, are not interested in maximizing money income through labour inputs. Their desire is to produce sufficient food for family needs and enough beyond that to fund essential monetized social commitments. The failure of development economists to appreciate this reality is one of the main causes of failure of most rural economic development programmes and projects. The intro- duction of elements of the "Green Revolution" have not been as successful as expected in boosting food production because East African cultivators have seen inputs as a way of increasing yields per hectare and not per capita. In other words, they have provided an opportunity to reduce the amount of labour that has to be used to attain a sufficient level of subsistence. Similarly he argues that large families and high rates of population increase stem from desire of male heads of household to get some- one else (wives, children, or hired labour) to do their work. The motivating aim in such a society is how to maintain an acceptable level with the least effort. He believes that this attitude is typified in the Swahili greeting, "Pole na Kazi," which he translates as "I am sorry you must work."

Seavoy believes, in addition, that technological inputs and capital investments are secondary to increased production. The real need is to make cultivators work harder. In support of this view, he points to the much better results obtained from cultivation by prisoners on demonstration farms in Tanzania and the Mwea irrigation scheme in Kenya. In both cases, improved yields were obtained by different forms of coercion.

Seavoy advocates a strong national political will to commercialize, supported, if necessary, by military force to quell inevitable rebellion by subsistence cultivators and to protect those farmers who break away from customary food sharing systems. I am greatly disturbed by such suggestions. They smack of such discredited methods as the Belgian "Education System" whose philosophy was that, if the African cultivator is required to earn money, he will see the advantage of having it and will go on voluntar- ily to want to earn it. It did not work in the Belgian Congo, and it is doubtful if it would work any better in Tanzania. I am rather relieved to find Seavoy concluding that this solution is impractical in view of the political situation in Tanzania.

Although the title refers to East Africa, most of the book is about the situation in Tanzania. The ujamaa village programme is discussed in detail, in particular its fail- ure to fulfil the hopes for a large increase in food production. Seavoy believes that the factors frequently adduced for its failure are largely secondary, except for mismanage- ment which stemmed from failure to address the "subsistence compromise" attitudes among cultivators.

While I agree with Seavoy's diagnosis of the problem and have sympathy with his stress on the need for an end to communal forms of land tenure if the food problem is to be alleviated, I would distance myself from some of the more draconian remedies suggested.

H. R. J. Davies University College Swansea, United Kingdom

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