Board of Trustees, Boston University

U.D.I. The International Politics of the Rhodesian Rebellion by Robert C. GoodReview by: J.R. HookerThe International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1975), pp. 348-350Published by: Boston University African Studies CenterStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/216682 .

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348 BOOK REVIEWS 348 BOOK REVIEWS

erate other kinds of organizations. Thus the village is also the focus of the cult (the Bwa are noted in museum collections for their large, polychromed zooanthropomorphic do masks), of economic exchanges, of joint labor, of marriage, of access to land, of patrilineal descent groupings, and of political action.

The Bwa village is segmented into three endogamous, occupationally distinguishable groupings: cultivators (approximately eighty percent of the population), blacksmiths, and musician-weavers. Farming is the noblest of human endeavors, not to be consigned to dependent peo- ples, captives, or slaves. The other activities are less prestigious, though nonetheless essential for life in the village. Blacksmiths not only ex- tract iron from the earth and make the tools of cultivation, they also dig wells and bury the dead. Their exploitation of the earth is also deemed sacred and, Capron says, they therefore serve as mediators of disputes, men who speak softly and sweetly. Musicians, whose speech is loud and raucous, participate at all life rites and at occasions of collective labor.

Communautes villageoises bwa is a vast book and, as we have come to anticipate with pleasure in recent works of French ethnography, richly illustrated with maps, charts, overlays, and photographs. We par- ticularly appreciate the convenience of the genealogical pullouts which allow the charts to be consulted readily over several pages of text. As is also characteristic of much contemporary French ethnography, the reader senses the author's attempt to bridge his economic-ecological analysis, which makes itself felt from the reality of fieldwork, with a somewhat more remote and forced, though often elegant, flirtation with structuralisme. The latter is fun to read and perhaps even more fun to do, but it does not as yet seem to have contributed a great deal. This is not to fault the desire to make the connection, and once that bridge is firmly founded-should it ever be-there will be quite a few explorers of one bank who will live committedly on the other.

MICHAEL M. HOROWITZ State University of New York, Binghamton

U.D.I. THE INTERNATIONAL POLITICS OF THE RHODESIAN REBELLION. By Robert C. Good. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973. Pp. 363. $12.50.

This is a difficult book to review, in part because it has more interest for the diplomatic historian than for the Africanist. But even more, it is replete with unattributed sources, the sort of "highly placed" and "un-

erate other kinds of organizations. Thus the village is also the focus of the cult (the Bwa are noted in museum collections for their large, polychromed zooanthropomorphic do masks), of economic exchanges, of joint labor, of marriage, of access to land, of patrilineal descent groupings, and of political action.

The Bwa village is segmented into three endogamous, occupationally distinguishable groupings: cultivators (approximately eighty percent of the population), blacksmiths, and musician-weavers. Farming is the noblest of human endeavors, not to be consigned to dependent peo- ples, captives, or slaves. The other activities are less prestigious, though nonetheless essential for life in the village. Blacksmiths not only ex- tract iron from the earth and make the tools of cultivation, they also dig wells and bury the dead. Their exploitation of the earth is also deemed sacred and, Capron says, they therefore serve as mediators of disputes, men who speak softly and sweetly. Musicians, whose speech is loud and raucous, participate at all life rites and at occasions of collective labor.

Communautes villageoises bwa is a vast book and, as we have come to anticipate with pleasure in recent works of French ethnography, richly illustrated with maps, charts, overlays, and photographs. We par- ticularly appreciate the convenience of the genealogical pullouts which allow the charts to be consulted readily over several pages of text. As is also characteristic of much contemporary French ethnography, the reader senses the author's attempt to bridge his economic-ecological analysis, which makes itself felt from the reality of fieldwork, with a somewhat more remote and forced, though often elegant, flirtation with structuralisme. The latter is fun to read and perhaps even more fun to do, but it does not as yet seem to have contributed a great deal. This is not to fault the desire to make the connection, and once that bridge is firmly founded-should it ever be-there will be quite a few explorers of one bank who will live committedly on the other.

MICHAEL M. HOROWITZ State University of New York, Binghamton

U.D.I. THE INTERNATIONAL POLITICS OF THE RHODESIAN REBELLION. By Robert C. Good. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973. Pp. 363. $12.50.

This is a difficult book to review, in part because it has more interest for the diplomatic historian than for the Africanist. But even more, it is replete with unattributed sources, the sort of "highly placed" and "un-

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 20:16:17 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BOOK REVIEWS 349

usually well-informed" persons so dear to journalists and intelligence people. Finally, our ambassador in Zambia from 1965 through 1968 refuses to say anything about himself. Thus the book is neither con- ventionally scholarly nor a memoir.

Rather dismayingly, in his preface the now dean of international graduate programs at Denver tells us that his own role was as observer rather than participant. One's feeling that ambassadors have been with- out much to do for a long time was reinforced by the southeast Asian imbroglio. But rarely does the emperor walk about complaining quite so plainly about the cold.

If the U.S. ambassador to a new-found state at a period of intense crisis was not an actor, then who was? We are not told. This may not matter to students of the place and time. Most sensible people who were there then similarly have not much need for information, so perhaps these silences do not matter. But to insist that Rhodesia was not an American problem is quite unnerving. The activities of Union Carbide and American Metal Climax, to name two companies only, the Pentagon's insistence upon copper and other metals to stockpile, the large American aid to such development projects as the rails and the Kariba dam all suggest something else.

Diplomats appear to be crippled by the experience, finding it possible to express themselves clearly only long after retirement. Perhaps the dean still remembers those pleasant things which encourage discretion. Still, from time to time his general tone reveals a bit of impatience with the anti-Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) forces. Perhaps their extraordinary bungling, coupled with tiresome bombast, has led him to cut his philosophical losses in the matter. But for the author to suggest that no American influences were brought to bear on the situa- tion facing the enemies of Ian Smith is rather unfair. Would it not have been apposite to recall that his ambassadorship coincided with the bizarre expansion of official U.S. intervention in a number of places? That there was not much in Africa suggests that Lyndon Johnson preferred adventure in other tropical regions?

In fact, that is the trouble with the book's title. It is not a study of in- ternational relations, but rather of the relations between Harold Wilson and Ian Smith. All other voices are heard off-stage, save that of Ken- neth Kaunda. As Good sees it, the only person who can be blamed (as opposed to disapproved of) in this sorry business is Wilson. His incredi- ble and usually transparent evasions when in office compared most unfavorably with his bold animadversions while in opposition, and epitomize Labour party history.

The book, after all this, nevertheless is well though rather densely written. Good betrays a low-keyed humor in the manner of the Deans Acheson and Rusk (perhaps there is a State Department type) and is

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 20:16:17 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

350 BOOK REVIEWS 350 BOOK REVIEWS

comprehensive. Almost all sources are the popular press with occa- sional scholarly augmentations. "As an exercise in contemporary histo- ry," the author says on page 12, "the book inevitably is journalism of a sort." I agree. But perhaps at some more distant time his papers will throw some actual light upon the matter of UDI. One final word. I find it odd that the American ambassador does not have a single reference to his name in his own book. What did he do while Lusaka was collaps- ing?

J.R. HOOKER

Michigan State University

MOROCCO UNDER COLONIAL RULE: FRENCH ADMINISTRA- TION OF TRIBAL AREAS, 1912-1956. By Robin Bidwell. Portland, Oregon: International Scholarly Book Services, Inc., 1973. Pp. xv, 349.

The first half of Morocco under Colonial Rule surveys the pacification and several aspects of French administration in the tribes, revealing the great extent to which Lyautey's lead and local circumstances caused the French to rely on indirect rule through traditional tribal and religious leaders to administer and stabilize the countryside. The central and most compelling chapter describes the activities of the na- tive affairs officers and civil controllers, the workhorses and mainstays of colonial administration. The second half of the book measures the success of the protectorate in modernizing tribal land holding, agriculture, education, sanitation, and justice, as well as its impact on Moroccans who served in the French army or emigrated for jobs to France or Algeria. Bidwell sees the expropriation of land by French co- lons as the worst abuse permitted by the protectorate authorities. The final chapter, which treats the effect of French rule on the tribes, would have been improved had it examined more explicitly the social disloca- tions caused by, and the social reorientation achieved by, European rule.

comprehensive. Almost all sources are the popular press with occa- sional scholarly augmentations. "As an exercise in contemporary histo- ry," the author says on page 12, "the book inevitably is journalism of a sort." I agree. But perhaps at some more distant time his papers will throw some actual light upon the matter of UDI. One final word. I find it odd that the American ambassador does not have a single reference to his name in his own book. What did he do while Lusaka was collaps- ing?

J.R. HOOKER

Michigan State University

MOROCCO UNDER COLONIAL RULE: FRENCH ADMINISTRA- TION OF TRIBAL AREAS, 1912-1956. By Robin Bidwell. Portland, Oregon: International Scholarly Book Services, Inc., 1973. Pp. xv, 349.

The first half of Morocco under Colonial Rule surveys the pacification and several aspects of French administration in the tribes, revealing the great extent to which Lyautey's lead and local circumstances caused the French to rely on indirect rule through traditional tribal and religious leaders to administer and stabilize the countryside. The central and most compelling chapter describes the activities of the na- tive affairs officers and civil controllers, the workhorses and mainstays of colonial administration. The second half of the book measures the success of the protectorate in modernizing tribal land holding, agriculture, education, sanitation, and justice, as well as its impact on Moroccans who served in the French army or emigrated for jobs to France or Algeria. Bidwell sees the expropriation of land by French co- lons as the worst abuse permitted by the protectorate authorities. The final chapter, which treats the effect of French rule on the tribes, would have been improved had it examined more explicitly the social disloca- tions caused by, and the social reorientation achieved by, European rule.

This content downloaded from 169.229.32.137 on Thu, 8 May 2014 20:16:17 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions