B,oolcReviews 99
that besiege the African family, and the enormous and growing threat that African
children are currently confronted with. Most important, the authors give a welcome
and unequivocal emphasis to a child-centred perspective that encompasses all
aspects of what we normally think of as "development work".
Reviewed by Gerry Salole, former Southern Africa sub-Regional Director, Save
the Children Federation (USA).
Faces in the Revolution: The Psychological Effects or Violence OIl Township
Youth in South Africa, Gillian Straker with Fathima Moosa, Rise Becker, and
Madiyoyo Nkwale, Cape Town: David Philip and Athens: Ohio University Press,
1992 (156pp). ISBN: 0-86486-203-2 (David Phillip); ISBN: 0-8214-1040-7 (Ohio
Univ) No price listed.
Through the use of composite vignettes based on extensive interviews with 60 girls
and boys, ages 12-22, Gillian Straker brings into clear telephoto view some of the
psychological struggles of youth engaged in the fight against apartheid during the
mid-1980s in Leandra, South Africa.
Straker's analysis seeks to shed light on the diversity of trauma experienced by
youth, to explore the self-perception of youth, and to examine the psychological
resilience and vulnerabilities of the youth within a war context In addition, she
addresses the important question of whether violence begets violence.
The book represents scholarly, clinical research done in the real world. The
method is a qualitative case-study approach involving over 300 hours of audio
tapes. The vignettes themselves are masterful compilationsofindividualexperiences.
An initial reading of the appendix serves to orient readers concerned with
methodological issues. The experiences of the youth, which form the basis of
Straker's analysis, are presented in six well-organised chapters. The theoretical
underpinnings are wide-ranging, from the political analysis ofFanon (1963), to the
mythological focus of Campbell (1956), to morepsychologica1 theories of behaviour
and group process (Slater, 1966; Anthony, 1987; Bion, 1961).
Following violent confrontations with authorities in the Leandra Township, a
group of youth fled to the Wilgespruit Fellowship Centre seeking shelter. The
author was part of a counselling team called on to provide services to the youth. The
data were collected during the initial stay of the youth at the Centre and during
follow-up interviews conducted with 40% of the youth three years later. Straker's
focus is on the individual and psychological, the boys and girls; nonetheless, she
is careful to stress the powerful impact of war and poverty on the psychological
development of these youth.
100 Book Reviews
Through her eyes we come to see the force exerted by the context on their lives
andbehaviour (Chapter 1), their own unique individual resilience (Chapter 2), and
vulnembilities - vulnembilities which some seem unlikely to escape (Chapter 3).
We see Ricky, Isaac, Pretty, Silas, and others like them, as individuals, members
of both functional and dysfunctional families, leaders, followers, freedom fighters,
opportunists, casualties, victims and survivors of trauma and poverty. We come
to understand the youth, some of the issues faced by the staff of the Wilgespruit
Fellowship Centre and group process as it unfolds within the Centre.
As other researchers have pointed out, children. regardless of the roles thrust
upon them by war, are still children and need nurturance, protection and guidance
from the family, community and state. Weare reminded that as adolescents, these
youth must face developmental issues of identity formation, individuation and
belonging, but they must do so in a context that simultaneously demands of them
the integmtion of opposing peacetime and wartime identities.
Straker articulates several groupings of the youth based on multi-modal reference
points: observations of the youth by staff, counsellors and other youth; selfperceptions
by the youth concerning their attitudes, beliefs and behaviour, and
their reflections on these at follow-up three years later. Her analysis is compelling.
She has integmted relevant psychological literature without losing sight of the
experiences of the youth under study. This makes the book solidly-grounded and,
importantly, highly readable and accessible to a wide audience.
The groupings distilled from the data highlight the range of meaning that may
be given to objectively similar acts of violence in the context of war and the
complexity of understanding the psychological effects of violence on youth. While
the topologies of groupings are a point of departure and will help to guide future
research, it is c1earthat they are fluid categories; Stmkerrightly avoids the tendency
to simplify rich experience into tightly-bound categories or topologies.
InChapter 6 Straker focuses on the future and the need for healing. There is a
tone of guarded optimism and an informed awareness of the need for multi-modal
interVentions that build and support the family, community as well as the youth as
individuals. Deep changes will need to occur on social and political levels if the
root causes of conflict and racial hatred are to be truly addressed. South Africa must
educate itself in tolerance and peace.
An urgent question, and one which Stmker herself briefly addresses in the final
chapter, is the need to systematically examine the effects of violence and racial
hatred on South Africa's white youth. These are issues that necessarily verge on
the political. However, as researchers, practitioners and professionals we must be
careful as we investigate the victim' s responses, not to perpetuate unwittingly the
acceptance of a violent system, by not being equally attentive to the destructive
consequences of violence for all members of a society.
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Book Reviews 101
In summary, true to its purpose, the book provides a striking view of the faces
in the revolution. Through the particulars, Straker provides insight into the general,
which both enriches the field at a theoretical level and guides it at the level of
clinical and community intervention. Her analysis inspires us to action and
conveys the reality that there is plenty of work to be done as mental health workers,
researchers, social service workers, policy makers, and community activists.
References
Anthony E (1987) ''Risk, vulnerability and resilience: An overview", in E J
Anthony &BJ Cohler(eds) TheInvulnerable Child, Guildford, New York (pp
3-49).
Bion W (1%1) Experiences in Groups and Other Papers,Tavistock, London.
Campbell, J (1956) The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Meridian, New York.
Fanon F (1%3) The Wretched of the Earth, Penguin, Middlesex.
Slater P (1966) Microcosm: Structural, Psychological and Religious Evolution
in Groups, Wiley, New York.
Reviewed by Joan W Duncan, Professor of Psychology, Long Island University,
Brooklyn, New York.
Refugee Womeu, Susan Forbes Martin, Zed Books, London and New Jersey,
1991, 140 pp. (ISBN: 1-85649-001-7). Price £10,95.
This book introduces the reader to the situation of refugee women from various
parts of the world and the problems that they face and on a day-to-day basis. She
'sets the scene' by introducing the reader to the whole question of the refugee
problem and also gives statistics on refugees. The second chapter addresses the
crucial issue that faces any refugee: the changing of roles that occurs when people
move from their own countries or homes. The third chapter focuses on what can
be done to provide safety to refugee women, including obtaining refugee status.
The fourth and fifth chapters focus on the provision of basic services such as
food. water and education and the involvement of refugee women in economic
activities. Chapter six looks at what the author calls "durable solutions" for those
who have been forced to leave their homes, and the options that are available to
them. While some refugees are lucky to be resettled in other countries within their
regions, some find themselves in developed countries where they have to cope with
new ways of living. The author successfully draws attention to the problems that
these refugees may face. Finally she outlines what the United Nations bodies have