International African Institute

Political Development and Ethnic Identity in Africa: A Study of Angola since 1960 by SusannaMohanty; Independent Namibia: Problems and Prospects by Vijay GuptaReview by: Dhruba GuptaAfrica: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 65, No. 1 (1995), pp. 139-141Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1160914 .

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BOOK REVIEWS

SUSANNA MOHANTY, Political Development and Ethnic Identity in Africa: a study of Angola since 1960. London: Sangam Books, 1992, 253 pp., ?17.95, ISBN 0 86132 298 3.

VIJAY GUPTA (ed.), Independent Namibia. problems and prospects. New Delhi: Konark Publishers, 1990, 204 pp., ?16.95, ISBN 8 1220 0194 7.

It is heartening to note that Indian scholarship on Africa is gradually getting rid of a specific kind of Indo-centrism, producing texts invariably dealing with 'India's rela- tions' with this or that African country, or with the continent as a whole. The two books under discussion are, barring a few pages of one of them, attempts at studying African situations per se, free from the syndrome of tagging them to the foreign policy of the government of India.

The cover of Susanna Mohanty's book on Angola carries a subtitle: A Study of Angola since 1960, which may create a minor technical problem for a critic of the book: her narrative of post-1960 starts only on p. 97, the first half of a 210 page text (leaving the conclusion aside) being a fairly detailed account of what happened before 1960. But if one agrees to ignore the subtitle and take the book as an account of Angola since the region's first European contacts (the narrative appears more like an empirical textbook than an in-depth analysis of politics and culture), then one has to admit that the first ninety-five pages would prove equally important not only as 'background' but as a part of the main body of the text, prepared with commendable diligence, specially suitable for Indian students, whose acquaintance with pre-1960 Angola is rather inadequate. Of special importance is Ms Mohanty's brief account of the pre-colonial polities like Bakongo, Ndogo and that of the Ovim- bundu people, though she does not deal with the famous 'Congo experiment' of Affonso I, the first episode in the history of confrontation of two cultures in this part of Africa.

But Mohanty's useful narrative would create some problems around a few concep- tual matters. In her exposition of the 'Problem' (the title of the first chapter), she seems to accept uncritically the orthodox Marxist postulate: 'It is not the conscious- ness of men that determines their existence, but on the contrary their social existence that determines their consciousness.' Ms Mohanty tends to undervalue the role of the 'consciousness' of the Africans themselves at the level of civil society and confines herself within only the ideology of a Neto or a Savimbi or a Holden Roberto. For an 'archaeology of the mind' of Africans a la Foucault, to have a proper idea of their shared memory of the past, one has to look for other sources of knowledge; mere dependence on 'records' and deliberations of conferences and similar canonical evidence may not help us much. In her search for the 'Meaning of tribalism' (the title of the second chapter) the author repeatedly quotes assorted definitions by various non-African writers and does not seem to care about what African scholars say about this problematic term, 'tribalism'. One may argue that the foreign concepts of 'tribe', 'ethnic group', 'nation' may not exist at all in a large area of African consciousness, and if one aspires to look at the scene from an insider's point of view one has to have a fair knowledge of some of the African languages to know how those who speak them conceive of the communities labelled 'tribe' or 'nation' from abroad. Ms Mohanty carefully avoids attempts at the problematisation of this significant issue, accepting the neat differentiation of 'tribalism then' and 'tribalism now'; she rather complacently contributes to the belief that a good nation state based on 'democratic centralism' can successfully forge 'national integ- rity' and create a blissful harmony between the different 'tribes'. Actually she is supposed to know that many evolues or assimilados constituting modern African intel- ligentsia hate the word 'tribe', just as they do 'Bushmen' and 'Hottentot', owing to their colonial associations. Her reading of 'tribalism now' has been amply analysed

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BOOK REVIEWS

by Rothchild in his exposition of what he calls the 'politicisation of ethnicity' in his book Ethnopolitics (1981) but unfortunately the author simply goes on repeating rather hackneyed generalisations without taking into account specific realities like, for example, the disregard for territorial boundaries between modern 'nation states', specially in areas including Angola, Namibia, Botswana and part of South Africa where a sizeable portion of the African people consist of pastoral nomads. The author seldom takes note of the fact that, compared with a somewhat similar situation in terms of 'national integration' such as India, the case here in Africa is even more problematic, as almost all the modern African states are absolutely arbi- trary creations imposed from above not long ago. Thus the 'consciousness' of a 'tribe' like Lunda is bound to entangle Zaire and even Zambia with Angola, and this would be the case of many other areas of Africa. Ms Mohanty does not pay enough attention to the role of Christianity, either, except for a brief polemical account of the machinations of the missionaries, both Protestant and Catholic. The significant factor of indigenisation of the received religion of the Book finds practi- cally no place in her narrative.

Some of her observations may appear confusing, for example her ascription of Soviet support of the MPLA to what she calls the latter's 'espousing the most radical form of socialism' (p. 142). One could then ask whether China found UNITA pursuing even more than the most radical form of socialism/communism. Ms Mohanty's own ideology is betrayed in her own use of words: 'before Cuba became a satellite of the Soviet Union' (p. 154).

Conceptual matters aside, the book would be a useful narrative of what happened in Angola, centring on the rivalry between the political parties, the pulling of strings by the great powers of the Cold War period, and specially the story of the Cuban involvement during the pre-Soviet period, though the exposition of Castro's self- interest (after the alleged failure of his ambitious plans in Latin America) needs further substantiation. And though, except apart from that of stalwarts like Neto, Savimbi and Roberto Holden, the 'consciousness' of the Africans themselves has been underplayed by the author (the urge of the African 'tribes' to take part in Portu- guese trading activities is mentioned only in passing) in a narrative totally dominated by the 'mind' of non-Africans, the chronological description of events would provide a useful handbook for Indian students of African politics, and history as well, the history which is predicted to 'die' by Fukuyama, if and when a democratic, peaceful nation state based on the idea of 'national integration' solves all the problems of 'tribalism' in Angola. The author herself would welcome such a day.

A similarly useful handbook on Namibia consisting of several articles written mainly by political scientists and edited by Vijay Gupta of Jawarlal Nehru Univer- sity, New Delhi, luckily contains only one piece on India's contribution to the cause of the problem-ridden neighbour of South Africa. The matter of the 'conscious- ness' of the Africans therein was expected to be at least touched upon in one of the articles of the book, 'The question of nationalities', by Asutosh Satpathy. But unfor- tunately what we are offered here is a mere descriptive enumeration of the 'social groups', and the formation of associations by them, culminating in the foundation of SWAPO, uniting them into one. But it is interesting to note here that Mr Satpathy here uses neither the term 'tribe' nor that of 'ethnic group' for what he calls various 'social groups' of the region now demarcated as Namibia, which includes the whites and the mixed people as well. And 'for the sake of convenience' he divides those groups into, practically speaking, four racial categories, Khoisan, Negroid, Coloureds and Settlers (mainly European). But in his map of this agglomeration of groups within the boundary of Namibia, Mr Satpathy at least mentions a particular situation which would create problems for 'national integration', the Silozi-speakers of the peculiarly shaped Caprivi Strip (creation of colonial aberration), culturally

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BOOK REVIEWS BOOK REVIEWS

more akin to the Lozi people of west Zambia. In spite of these complexities, most of the contributors to this volume tend to suggest that the prescriptive theory of 'Unity in Diversity' engineered by Nujoma with the help of a unitary system of government should not only solve the problems of 'tribalism' but tackle the hazards to come from South Africa (S. C. Saxena, 'Guiding principles for constitution making', pp. 44-66).

Part II, consisting of two solidly researched articles by Vijay Gupta and Santosh Merhotra on the economic problems that Namibia has to face, is the most substantial section of the book. Part III contains articles on the role of the foreign policies of the United States, the defunct USSR and 'West' Germany, and their operations in Namibia, the last two of which are bound to prove dated, owing to the pace of change in international politics-in internal politics as well, in the case of Russia and Germany. Ruchita Vora provides a brief account of the impact that an indepen- dent Namibia would have on the neighbouring countries, especially Angola. And, finally, comes the inevitable: two articles on India's support, 'moral' and material, for Namibia, the newest member to join the Third World club, written by Vanita Ray and by Jitenra Verma and Mrs Kanan Bala Verma jointly.

In spite of their limitations, and meagre attention to Africans' consciousness, the two books should be of considerable empirical value for Indians aspiring to study Africa.

DHRUBA GUPTA

University of Calcutta

TIYAMBE ZELEZA, A Modern Economic History of Africa I, The Nineteenth Century. Dakar: CODESRIA, 1993, 508 pp., ?30.00, ISBN 2 86978 025 5 hard covers; ?21.50, ISBN 2 86978 027 3 paperback.

This is a very ambitious book because of the scope of its subject matter and the exis- tence of a very considerable related scholarship already in print. One of the author's principal aims is to challenge much of this literature for its methodological and empirical inadequacies and quite often for its ethnocentric biases. (It must be noted that several works by the present reviewer come under particular attack, but it would be hard to find anyone qualified to discuss this work who is not subject to Zeleza's criticism.) As an avowed effort at synthesis rather than original research Zele- za's book must thus be judged mainly upon its success in providing a new approach and overview of its topic.

Zeleza has indeed produced a serious alternative to most of the work in its field and thus, even for those who may disagree with many of his premises and conclusions, he raises important questions about all aspects of African economic history. As under- lined by the author himself, the innovations here are (1) that such a survey is now undertaken by an African rather than by 'Western Africanists'; (2) that the subject is the entire continent rather than sub-Saharan or 'Black' Africa; (3) that the focus of economic analysis is production rather than trade or 'the market'; (4) that dual- isms of'traditional' v. 'modern' are rejected; (5) that all 'substantivist', market, depen- dence or Marxist theoretical models are rejected as overly abstract and inappropriate for the African data. In some cases it is difficult to separate these positions from one another; in others they seem mutually contradictory. I will, however, review them in the order presented above so as to get some handle on this quite long and richly docu- mented book.

Zeleza makes an explicit point of his African identity only once (p. v) but the sense of opposition to 'Western Africanists' pervades the entire work, where the author dismisses almost any effort to compare African development unfavourably with that of other world regions as racist and/or imperialist. The critique is based upon a very extensive reading of the literature under attack; there is a fifty-one-page

more akin to the Lozi people of west Zambia. In spite of these complexities, most of the contributors to this volume tend to suggest that the prescriptive theory of 'Unity in Diversity' engineered by Nujoma with the help of a unitary system of government should not only solve the problems of 'tribalism' but tackle the hazards to come from South Africa (S. C. Saxena, 'Guiding principles for constitution making', pp. 44-66).

Part II, consisting of two solidly researched articles by Vijay Gupta and Santosh Merhotra on the economic problems that Namibia has to face, is the most substantial section of the book. Part III contains articles on the role of the foreign policies of the United States, the defunct USSR and 'West' Germany, and their operations in Namibia, the last two of which are bound to prove dated, owing to the pace of change in international politics-in internal politics as well, in the case of Russia and Germany. Ruchita Vora provides a brief account of the impact that an indepen- dent Namibia would have on the neighbouring countries, especially Angola. And, finally, comes the inevitable: two articles on India's support, 'moral' and material, for Namibia, the newest member to join the Third World club, written by Vanita Ray and by Jitenra Verma and Mrs Kanan Bala Verma jointly.

In spite of their limitations, and meagre attention to Africans' consciousness, the two books should be of considerable empirical value for Indians aspiring to study Africa.

DHRUBA GUPTA

University of Calcutta

TIYAMBE ZELEZA, A Modern Economic History of Africa I, The Nineteenth Century. Dakar: CODESRIA, 1993, 508 pp., ?30.00, ISBN 2 86978 025 5 hard covers; ?21.50, ISBN 2 86978 027 3 paperback.

This is a very ambitious book because of the scope of its subject matter and the exis- tence of a very considerable related scholarship already in print. One of the author's principal aims is to challenge much of this literature for its methodological and empirical inadequacies and quite often for its ethnocentric biases. (It must be noted that several works by the present reviewer come under particular attack, but it would be hard to find anyone qualified to discuss this work who is not subject to Zeleza's criticism.) As an avowed effort at synthesis rather than original research Zele- za's book must thus be judged mainly upon its success in providing a new approach and overview of its topic.

Zeleza has indeed produced a serious alternative to most of the work in its field and thus, even for those who may disagree with many of his premises and conclusions, he raises important questions about all aspects of African economic history. As under- lined by the author himself, the innovations here are (1) that such a survey is now undertaken by an African rather than by 'Western Africanists'; (2) that the subject is the entire continent rather than sub-Saharan or 'Black' Africa; (3) that the focus of economic analysis is production rather than trade or 'the market'; (4) that dual- isms of'traditional' v. 'modern' are rejected; (5) that all 'substantivist', market, depen- dence or Marxist theoretical models are rejected as overly abstract and inappropriate for the African data. In some cases it is difficult to separate these positions from one another; in others they seem mutually contradictory. I will, however, review them in the order presented above so as to get some handle on this quite long and richly docu- mented book.

Zeleza makes an explicit point of his African identity only once (p. v) but the sense of opposition to 'Western Africanists' pervades the entire work, where the author dismisses almost any effort to compare African development unfavourably with that of other world regions as racist and/or imperialist. The critique is based upon a very extensive reading of the literature under attack; there is a fifty-one-page

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