Guerrilla Warfare: Then, Now and TomorrowGuerrillas in History by Lewis Gann; Guerrilla Struggle in Africa, an Analysis and Previewby Kenneth W. GrundyReview by: Edward A. HawleyAfrica Today, Vol. 19, No. 1, Guerrilla Warfare (Winter, 1972), pp. 26-29Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4185212 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 12:22

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Indiana University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Africa Today.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.89 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 12:22:33 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Guerrilla Warfare:

Then, Now and Tomorrow

by Edward A. Hawley

Lewis Gann, GUERRILLAS IN HISTORY (Stanford, Cal.: Hoover Institution Press, 1971), 99 pp., $3.95.

Kenneth W. Grundy, GUERRILLA STRUGGLE IN AFRICA, AN ANALYSIS AND PREVIEW (New York: Grossman, 1971), 204 pp., $12.50, $4.50 paper.

After seven years of residence in East Africa, working daily with the rank and file, and frequently with the leaders, of the major southern Africa liberation movements, I am convinced that the active and incipient guerrilla wars in that part of the world are certain to be an important, and probably a decisive, ingredient in the determination of the future of the entire area; and they deserve much more careful attention than has hitherto been given by scholars and the press. It is therefore gratifying to find these two recent titles added to the slowly growing body of literature on the subject.

Despite Lewis Gann's background of African scholarship (The Birth of a Plural Society, A History of Northern Rhodesia, etc.) anyone looking for information about guerrilla struggle in Africa will be disappointed when he turns to Gann's Guerrillas in History. Space is given to two Moroccan uprisings, Abd-el-Kader's in the 1840's and Abd- el-Krim's in the 1920's, to the Boer War, and to the white miners' uprising on the Rand in 1922, as well as a few other early colonial rebellions. "Mau-Mau" is also dealt with briefly, as is the Madagascar uprising (1947) and the Congo rebellion (1964). Somewhat surprisingly, even in a 77 page historical summary that begins with Gideon, David, and the Maccabees, the Algerian war is mentioned only in a passing reference. Of the southern Africa liberation movements only MPLA and UPA rate so much as a footnote.

Nevertheless, despite (perhaps in part because of) its brevity, the

Mr. Hawley has served as Pastor for Refugees for the Christian Council of Tanzania and as Refugee Officer for the National Christian Council of Kenya, under the auspices of the United Church Board for World Ministries. He is spending the 1971-72 academic year as an Associate of the Center for International Race Relations, University of Denver.

26

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.89 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 12:22:33 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Edward A. Hawley

book is deserving of the attention of those concerned with the practice of contemporary guerrilla war. The comprehensive survey of the wide variety of groups that have used guerrilla tactics throughout history is intriguing, and the author's somewhat pessimistic analysis of the efficacy of this form of warfare deserves thoughtful consideration. Even if one remains convinced that ultimate victory through this form of struggle is inevitable, or at least much more likely than Gann contends, his analysis may point out at least a few avoidable pitfalls that could delay the process, and call attention to some tactics that could lead to greater success. Regretfully, for those who hope for the success of the liberation movements in southern Africa, the book may well provide equally valuable lessons to the practitioners of counter- insurgency. In fact, at many points the text reads as if this were the audience for whom the book is primarily intended.

Kenneth Grundy's Guerrilla Struggle in Africa, in contrast, is a fairly comprehensive summary of the known facts about post-World War II African guerrilla warfare. Written from the point of view of the social scientist rather than the historian, it may contain more schematizing, conceptual analysis, and technical jargon than some will find useful or convincing. Nevertheless, it has the virtue of collecting inside a single cover more hard data on both the theory and practice of guerrilla warfare in Africa than can be found elsewhere.

As Grundy points out in his opening chapter, this volume may seem at first glance a strange companion piece in a World Law Fund sponsored series essentially concerned with routes to a future in which warfare itself need no longer play a significant role. To my mind, its major weaknesses derive from trying to compress the subject into this format. Nevertheless, it is refreshing to find the subject dealt with not only in terms of tactics and strategy but in terms of social and political aims as well.

Grundy, like Gann, does not accept the thesis that guerrilla warfare, even according to a broad Maoist model that regards political education and social organization as being as important as the military operation itself, is inevitably successful in the long run. In fact, judging from the "scenarios" in the last chapter where the author constructs a possible order of events (in the late 1980's and early 1990's) leading to the collapse of the present southern African regimes, he regards the guerrilla struggle itself as only one force among many in this process. Despite this, he does analyze with considerable sym- pathy and understanding the present structures and activities and the political aims of the major liberation movements.

It should be noted that the author deals not only with present.and

27

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.89 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 12:22:33 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

past (Algeria and Kenya) liberation wars, but with guerrilla struggle in independent states as well, distinguishing between those aiming at secession or governmental overthrow on the one hand and revolutionary movements on the other. The war in Chad, surprisingly, is mentioned in the latter rather than the former category. The Nigeria-Biafra struggle, primarily fought with conventional armies, is not considered. In general, the author sees little hope for speedy ter- mination of conflict where ethnic disparities, particularly those that straddle national boundaries, are involved. However, at least one of these supposedly intractable conflicts, that of the Somali "shiftas" in Kenya and Ethiopia, has apparently been rapidly and amicably resolved since Grundy wrote. The author seems to accept Chou's dictum "Africa is ripe for revolution," though he perhaps would put the verb in the future tense. He writes (p. 146) "In black governed Africa, conditions for violence persist ... What is necessary for this to be transformed into guerrilla struggle are generalized ideologies, astute leadership, and external assistance during the earlier stages."

One might wish that the author had been dissuaded from including his fanciful "'scenarios" in the final chapter. After having cited the dangers of prediction at the beginning of the book, he nevertheless proceeds, apparently under the pressure of the "World Order" format, to imagine, on a precise time-table, how the southern African regimes might collapse. Already the Smith-Home agreements call into question his major premise that sanctions will continue and that Rhodesia will give way first. While the chapter does give valuable suggestions of political options open to the western nations if they should become willing to support the struggle for change, the book could well have ended with the penultimate chapter "The Future of Guerrilla Warfare in Africa,' somewhat expanded by the addition of the less speculative sections of the final chapter.

One suggestion for external action that my experience would lead me to question is that of proposing enhanced "governmental and private humanitarian policies" for assistance to refugees and exiles. (p. 164) Aside from the fact that the proposal is presented almost in "cold war" terms ("to offset the inordinate influence of Communist countries") my own experience in administering such programs is that they can easily become counter-productive from the point of view of the liberation movements. The scholarship siren can easily woo persons who might otherwise remain constructive members of the movements into studies which have no clear practical use, and only serve to alienate them from the common cause in favor of more per- sonal goals and ambitions. Existing services through the UNHCR, church and secular agencies, seem seriously underestimated.

The book contains a glossary of the long list of initials and acronyms that inevitably pervade a book on this subject, but it is at the back. Such a guide should be placed at the front, or at least prominently referred to there.

28

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.89 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 12:22:33 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Edward A. Hawley

The liberation movements of the Portuguese territories, despite overwhelming initial disadvantages, have already proved, over a decade of activity, their ability to grow and to extend their areas of influence. It is likely that these movements, as well as those of Zim- babwe, Namibia, and South Africa, will come increasingly into the public eye in the decade ahead, and it is helpful to find authors beginning to deal seriously with their goals and strategies.

29,

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.89 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 12:22:33 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions