----------------------~ BookRrn.- 83
war in Southern Africa would suit neilher super-power, and for that reason m eventual negoIialion is
likely to be forced on Pretoria. Yet no one should underestimate lhe lenglh of time for which Pretoria
can delay transition, nor the ability of Soulh Africa's elites to use the gold to buy Illies abroad.
Consider Danaher's conclusion:
"A foreign policy for lhe futurl.\ must seek to be a majority policy: strenglhening US ties to workers
and peasants, not the generals, politicians and big businessmen who are the main beneficilries of
US policy. Abandoning a foreign policy lhat hitches the US star to elite groups around the world
will require a domestic restructuring of the Pentagon, the CIA, transnational corporations and the
olherpowerfulinstitutions that have locked us into a foreign policy lhatfavoursminorityru1e"(p49).
H Danaher knows how to restructure lhe Pentagon, the CIA and lhe largest business corporations
in the world so lhat United States ties to Soulh African workers and peasants are strengthened, he has
not told us. Never1heless, his hyperbole is not entirely intolerable, given the clarity of his earlier text,
and given lhe strong likelihood lhat lhere will be some mechanism, orchestrated by bolh lIuperJlOwen,
whel"eby apartheid is eventually ended.
Reviewed by Renfrew Christie, University of Cape Town, Cape Town.
Multinational Joint Ventures in Developing Countrles,Paul W Beamish, Routledge, London, 1988
(145pp, £27,50hbk).
Investment by multinational corporations (MNC) in 'less developed countries' has often been seen as
a primary means of bringing capital, technology md technical skills into these countries. The effects
of such investments, proponents argue, is to support government import substitution policies and to
create employment (advantages for the host country) and as a means of obtaining lICCClIltIo foreign
markets (advantage to MNC). Critics of multinational corporation investment show how their power
(based on size, number of countries they opezate in, and weallh - some MNCs have mnual turnovers
greater lhan national incomes of the developing countries lhey operate in) allows 1hem to ovmide the
sovereignty of governments, and to distort their social and economic policies. In the end. of course, the
aim of the MNC is to increase its profitability.
1be questions of capital development, technological advance and industrialisation are of comse
fundamentally important. For economic and social development to occur - forpeop1e's incomes, living
standards and social wellbeing to improve - national wea1lh must increase md national productive
capacity must grow. But it must be seriously questioned whe1her the sacrifices in national sovereignty,
in particular of economic policy_setting by true representatives of national interests, are worlh making
for lhe minor gains lhat accrue from multinationals. Surely more important are serious efforts to tap
and direct national sources of capital and to mobilise and motivate national initiative and a-eativity.
This book by Paul Beamish does not, in fact, contribute much to a progressive discussion of
strategies for economic development in the 'Jess developed countries'. Looking as it does, in a rather
dry and academic, and occasionally turgid way, at equity joint ventures between Americmor European
multinationals and private companies in LOCI, it is based on a presupposition 1hat such joint ventureS
"speed up international development". Joint ventures involving direct participation of goverJl111elltsof
LDCs are not considered, a fact which makes lhe book not very relevant in Africa. 1bough there is m
interesting section on the experiences surrounding joint venture exploration wilh China between 1919
and 1986, it is certainly of 11lOIe relevance to executives of MNCs lhinking about setting up such
structures and relationships, than for policy setters or malysts in the Third World.
Ofcourse, if in Zimbabwe the trade h'ba"alisation now underway, andthe long awaitedandlltill
'expected shortly' investment code, so direct, the book might become re1evmt bele, but only in
84 BooIc Reviews
boardrooms of local companies that might go into joint ventures, and for those critics who would be
against selling out the nation.
Reviewed by 101m Stewart, Harare.
Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa 1880-1985, Patrick Manning. Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, 1988 (xii, 215pp, £8.95 pbk, £25 hbk).
This book surveys French-speaking Africa from the southern border of Morocco (Mauritania) in the
north-west to Zaire on the northern borden of Zambia to the south-east - an area covering some 40
percent of the African continent. The importance of the subject is obvious - 17 nations with over 100
million people.
The book will be useful to students because themost-up-to-date surveys by Coquery- Vidrovitch are
in French and the books available in English (such as those of Brunnchwig and Hargreaves) are over
twenty years old. Having said this, however, the reviewer must point out that Manning's book is not
easy to follow for the uninitiated reader. No clear chronology emerges and the way in which the
individual French colonies were acquired is not made clear. The approach is thematic and the style
allusive and therefore requires not a little preexisting knowledge. One also wonders whether the French
language, 'Francophonie', does give the subject real coherence, as the Belgian colonies of Congo
(Zaire), Rwanda and Bunmdi had little history in common with the French Empire in Africa, whereas
Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia had close contacts and similarities.
Nevertheless some broad themes do stand out, particularly in contrastto the development of Englishspeaking
Africa, for example the French preference for dir~t rule rather than Britain's indirect
approach, and 'federations' ruled from Dakar and Brazzaville - successfully equalled in British Africa
only by white-settler South Africa. The French 'federations' have disappeared, of course, with the
granting of independence but great similarities (in law and government) and cohesion (in currency
management) remain, more so than the former British colonies share.
For such comparisons and ideas Manning's book is to be recommended.
Reviewed by R S Roberts, Dept of History, University ofZirnbabwe, Harare.