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Review
Author(s): Paul Nugent
Review by: Paul Nugent
Source: African Affairs, Vol. 85, No. 338 (Jan., 1986), pp. 147-148
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal African Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/722233
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BOOK REVIEWS
147
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148
AFRICANAFFAIRS
the state and a more complex accountof economic and politicalprocesses. But
within a Third World context, the further issue of the relationshipbetween
domesticand externalforces is raised. While some have adheredto the logic of
orthodoxMarxismand have portrayeddomesticpoliticalforcesas merelya reflection of the demandsof internationalcapital,Third World intellectualshave often
soughta theorythat gives some role to domesticclasses. The result,accordingto
Staniland,is that works such as that of Shivji are often an inversionof Marxist
analysis,vergingon politicism.
All of this gives plenty of food for thought,but one feels slightly cheatedby the
conclusionto the book. Having led his readerson a great trek through theory,
Stanilandleavesthemwith the followingproposition:as long as thereis a varietyof
cultures,therewill be a varietyof theories,and becausethese will containa variety
of valuesand assumptions,one can criticizethe theoriesbut never choosebetween
them. The readermight be excusedfor wonderinghow culturalvarietyhas stolen
centre-stagewhen, if anything,the book shows the strongestcorrelationbetween
theory and levels of development,which cuts across culture. Similarly,a new
book by Blomstromand Hettne (DevelopmentTheoryin Transition)shows how
qulte slmllarviews on dependencyhave emergedacrossthe Third World, sometimes independently. Secondly, it is difficultto see why underlyingvalues and
assumptionsshouldinsulatetheory. Marxismhas a strongvalue content,but the
validityof its analysis(and its values) can surely be assessed in the light of how
successfullyit copes with reality. It is true of course that no single theory has
managedto do justiceto all the complexitiesof humansociety but this is another
argument, besides which there is a clear distinction between theory that is
inherentlylimited (one thinks of 'public choice') and theory that possesses the
concepts but has not masteredthe equation. In spite of this, What Is Political
Ecorlomy?
will be of interestto a wide audience,not leastto Africanistswho will find
manyfamiliardebatesset in the contextof the problematicof the book.
Schoolof OrientalandAfricanStudies,
London
PAUL
NUGENT
.
And Night Fell, by Molefe Pheto. London, Allison and Busby, 1983. 218
PP
?8 95
It says somethingfor the impactthat this book has had that it has alreadybeen
snappedup as a paperbaekby the HeinemannAfricanWriters Series (No. 258,
1985)withintwo yearsof its originalpublieation. This will no doubtgive it wider
eireulationbut the originalLondon publishers,Allison and Busby, are to be eongratulatedfor reeognizingdistinetionin what could easily have been a predietable
catalogueof poliee brutality. Just as too many images of starvingchildren or
urbanviolenceean numb the averagetelevisionviewer'ssensibilityso, regrettably
but it wouldbe wrongnot to admitit, thepraeticedreaderof SouthAfricanliterature
and watcherof South Afrieanplays can be over-exposedto the chillinglyeandid
prisoneell interrogationor the screamof agonyas the eleetrodesare appliedto the
testicles. These are ignoblereflectionsbut I believethem to be true. We can all
build up a resistanceto humansuffering.
It is thereforewith a sense of debt to Molefe Pheto that I reviewAndNight Fell,
for he re-awakensin me, and I am surein all his readers,a senseof immediacyat the
horrorof South Africa'sofficialrepression. His book is sub-titled'Memoirsof a
PoliticalPrisonerin South Africa'. It is a recordof 281 days spent in detention
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