94 Book Reviews disorders. The articles presented in this book clearly demonstrate how therapeutic approaches are directly organised by the philosophy, experience and attitude of the therapists to poverty. The therapist's self examination and awareness of their own attitudes and motivation in working either with, or without the poor is clearly of prime importance as this has a direct effect on the usefulness of therapy, both to the therapist and client. There are enough different points of view in this book to stimulate thought for every therapist and I recommend it to anyone involved in working with people. Reviewed by C Farrell, Director, Connect (Zimbabwe Institute of Systemic Therapy) Aid to African Agrkulture: Lessons from two Decades of Donor's Experience editor Uma Lele (Published for the World Bank by The John Hopwell University Press, Baltimore and London 1992). The 627 paged book is a comprehensive account of the state of Mrican agriculture and a good indicator of the need for consensus among donors and governments on ways to proceed in resuming broadly based growth in African agriculture. In the words of Urna Lele, the editor, "over the past three decades, billions of dollars have been transferred from developed countries to Mrica Yet there is a widespread view that much of this aid has done little to stimulate growth, alienate poverty, or create human and institutional capacity. Poor performance in Mrican countries is often blamed on the internal economic policies. But there is increasing recognition that aid is part of the problem" . African Agriculture Whilst the general picture of Mrican agricult~ is gloomy, it is clear that this World Bank publication intends to show that there are some important successes in Africa whose implications on futUre actions by Africans and donors must be understood. It is important to note that there is a general consensus on certain preconditions which must be fulfilled in order to have mutually satisfying results from the current interaction explored in this volume. For more successes to be scored, fundamental changes must be made in the ways donors and governments operate in Mrica, changes that go beyond myriads of specific initiatives. This must be accompanied by a fundamental rethinking of aid and development strategy. This volume is a result of a 1984 World Bank initiative which resulted in Book Reviews 95 the launching of a comparative study of sub-Saharan African countries under the auspices of "Managing Agricultural Development in Africa" (MADIA) in collaboration with seven other donor agencies and six African governments. The study focused on Kenya. Malawi and Tanzania in East Africa and Cameron, Nigeria and Senegal in West Africa. Not only did the results of the study bring out the extent of agricultural growth in the period after independence in the selected countries assessing impact of factors like: the extent to which domestic policies, external economic environment, and donor assistance contributed to their growth, the effect of growth on incomes, employment, and consumption, and the potential sources of future growth; but also the nature of internal policies in these countries and its bearing on their agricultural policies. The selected six countries almost account for40% of the population of sub- Saharan Africa and for nearly half of its gross national product (GNP). The countries spread across almost all ecological zones of Africa, the Sahel desert, and the Guinea-Savannah in the north, the equatorial rain forest in the south, and the volcanic, humid and sub-humid highlands in the east and the west. As a group, they grow almost all the principal crops of Africa, including tea, coffee, cocoa. tobacco, cotton, groundnuts, cashews, sisal, sugar, maize, sorghum, millet and rice. The study is fairly representative of the African experience though the geographical area covered appears limited. The eight donors chosen for assessing the effectiveness of aid, provide nearly 60% of the aid flowing to Africa. A good outline of the book is provided on p9, but briefly, the book opens with an overview of the broad trends in donor assistance to the six countries under investigation. The analysis of the country perfonnance is based on the data from the records of governments and donors. The discussions are organised around several topics (with varying degrees of emphasis): The policies adopted towards promoting agriculture; their changing perceptions of recipients' needs and goals, and their influence on recipients' agricultural or rural priorities and politics; How recipients' perceptions of their development needs and priorities influenced the amount and form of aid given; The context of assistance; • How strategic, commercial and humanitarian constituencies in donor countries, as well as various administrative personnel, and financial constraints, influenced level and: content of assistance programmes; • The comparative advantage of donors with respect to their ability to provide agricultural or other specific kinds of assistance. The debate on the state of African agriculture and the role of foreign donors, should not ignore the colonial history of the countries in question. In this volume, very little attention has been paid to this issue which in my opinion is crucial in our analysis of any post-colonial state. It is a well taken point that the analysis of rural economies and societies involves both the relations of production and technological changes. In the colonial period, Africa witnessed a period of separation of producers from the means of production accompanied by a destruction of their rural social environment Put dramatically, the African peasant entered the colonial period with the hoe, and he came, out of it with the hoe. Bogumil J ewsiewicki "Rural Society and the Belgian Economy" in History of Central Africa V 012 (ed) by David Binningham and Phyllis M Martin) demonstrates that African agriculture was considered barbaric and simplistic by Europeans who in their conviction of their own technological superiority introduced new plants, new agricultural calendars and new crop rotations which took no account oflocal situations. To cut a long story short, a regression in agricultural flexibility was the curious legacy of modemisation. It is not surprising therefore that this volume is preoccupied with the question of small holders and the frequent attacks on African political elites who appear not to have fully recognised the fundamental importance of science and technology in modemising small holder agriculture (see p 102). In his analysis of British aid to Kenya. Malawi and Tanzania, John Hopwell points out clearly that the pattem of agricultural development has been strongly influenced by the country's colonial inheritance and the donors involved. Special attention was directed at issues like public regulation of the JIUU1cet.structural price controls, movement restriction and structures like some monopsony powers which the post colonial governments kept intact and even consolidated using donor funds and expertise. On the other hand, the contributors have noted the complexity of the question they are faced with. Christian Heimpel and Manfred Schulz writing on German aid quickly caution that it is one thing to summarise the problems analysed, but another to transfonn the collected information into a programme for future action. This brings one's attention to the crisis of agrarian reforms especially for African countries that experienced radical settler colonisation and a very strong post independence reliance on settler commercial agriculture for food supplies and even exports. The heart of the crisis in African agriculture in our opinion lies in the ability of those actors and players this book focused on, to resolve the peasant question and the issue of rural development This question is raised by John W Mellor and Rajul Pandya-Loreh in their discussion on food aid and development where they preface their study by boldly admitting that "Food aid is an unusually controversial fonn of foreign assistance. In developed and developing countries alike, the politics of Book R~views 97 food - encompassing of all the policy issues influencing production and consumption, as well as trade - are important and complex. Moreover rural development and policy alleviation are themselves politically controversial activities that further complicate and obfuscate food aid and policy" . By raising the above questions, one is not trying to set out a new course f