Book Reviews 91 
been expanded to give a fuller account since the Zimbabwean experience 
which has been relatively successful would be of interest to many outside the 
country. 
There is a very good review of what elements make up the culture of a 
nation, including the negative effects of colonialisation on the culture of 
Zimbabwe, and a critical analysis of some of the negative aspects of traditional 
Zimbabwean culture. This is followed by a call to develop a new culture, taking 
suitable elements from Western culture as well as from indigenous 
African culture. 
On development; it is the people who develop. So it does not mean the 
construction of prestige projects, but the elimination of poverty, disease and 
ignorance, for which the increase in national wealth is essential. We are not to 
confuse the welfare state with socialism; socialism does not necessarily mean 
free education and health services. There must be a planned economy, but 
planned with the participation of all those who will be taking part in the 
programme and all those who will be affected by the programme, to be 
achieved through democratic centralism. Parents committees are praised for 
raising funds for building, but how much say are these parents to have in the 
education of their children? 
This short, well written book would be very useful as a basis for group 
discussions, for teaching, as well as an introduction for anyone involved in 
education or development in third world countries. 
Reviewed by Nigel Johnson, St Pauls Mission, Harare. 
How do you Spell Development? A Study of a Literacy Campaign in 
Ethiopia, Margareta and Rolf Sjotrom, Scandanavian Institute of African 
Studies, Uppsala, 1983, 196 pages, price not quoted. 
If you can spell the term 'development' it implies that you are literate and if you 
are literate then it implies that you are capable of contributing meaningfully to 
the development process. This apparently sums up the 'silent' hypothesis held 
by the two researchers Margareta and Rolf Sjostrom when they set out on the 
study which culminated in the present book. One might also add that this statement 
also appears to be a fair reflection of the view that has prevailed in Ethiopian 
society where it has been more or less taken for granted that literacy is a 
necessary prerequisite for the development of the rural areas of the country. 
People needed literacy skills, it was agreed, in order to comprehend 
information about agricultural techniques, health, etc.
92 Book Reviews 
The book "How do you spell development' is yet another welcome addit 
to the fast growing body of literature on the theme of literacy training. It\ 
published in 1983 and is based on a study of the Yemissrach Dimits Liter; 
Campaign (YDLC) in 12 Ethiopian regions. The campaign was started 
1962 but the study was only carried out between 1974 and 1976. Its the 
was 'role of literacy for development', and it was done under the auspices of 
Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus. At the time of the study, Ethiopia was ( 
of many developing countries which had a very low literacy rate. The sti 
was essentially an evaluation of the literacy campaign with the major aim be 
to describe and analyse campaign activities, taking into cognisance si 
important variables as teaching processes and student achievement. Howev 
it must be pointed out that the study did not limit itself to the main assignm 
since "the researchers were also interested in studying effects other tifc 
student achievement" (p. 181). In the study, literacy was defined as an ag< 
for development both in economic and humanistic terms. 
The book is in four parts (although due to typographical errors, t 
'contents' section indicates otherwise). Part one is basically a theoretical la 
at such pertinent concepts as development, literacy and education. This pi 
further gives a brief overview of the political and social history of Ethiopia, 
this vein, the authors give a brief account of the Ethiopian revolution, 
causes, conduct and consequences. They argue that during the Selassie era t 
aim of development effort had not really been to raise the living standards 
the poor, there had been too much emphasis on the export market. They thj 
conclude that the political upheavals of 1974 were a direct consequence 
non-participation by peasants in the economy. 
The question of education in Ethiopia is also looked at in some detail, aga 
from a historical perspective. It is apparent from the account given th 
Ethiopian education was very much influenced by traditional values. To gr 
credence to this observation, the authors quote Levine (1972) lamenting th 
"Amhara formal education in no sense seeks to cultivate the individual b 
solely to prepare cultural specialists who will be able to perform the rituals at 
perpetuate the teaching of the Ethiopian Church" (p. 33). 
The authors capably paint a picture -albeit a bleak one—of how educatic 
was elitist in nature and how the majority of the population were denie 
education, particularly during the Selassie regime. They then contrast th 
with the more positive approach of the post-revolution era where the ne 
government is shown as having gone out of its way to rectify the situatioi 
They quote a 1979 proclamation by the new regime which stated that "F< 
socialist thinking to thrive, for production and research to develop and ft
Book Reviews 93 
theory and practice to be matched, the essential condition will be created only 
when education is related to the daily life of the masses" (p. 40). 
The historical account is both useful and welcome if only to try and put the 
study into perspective. However, with no less than 40 pages devoted to 
preliminaries which includes a large portion of the historical account, many 
readers might be forgiven for thinking that they had mistakenly picked up a 
history textbook. The motive might have been to provide the reader with an 
adequate background to the Ethiopian situation but my feeling is that it is 
unnecessarily long. 
Parts II, III and IV of the book concern themselves with issues pertaining to 
the study proper, its findings and the authors views and comments on the 
various issues unearthed through the investigation. As mentioned elsewhere 
the YDLC study was of an evaluative nature. 
The campaign was initiated in 1962 and by 1975 more than half a million 
people had participated in the programme. The target group was said to be the 
1 5 - 2 5 age group. An evaluative study particularly in literacy is always 
difficult to do, but the evaluative method adopted for this particular study was 
based on behavioural objectives and decision making, and the researchers 
were at least aware of the need to be systematic and objective. The evaluation 
design had three principal elements, namely frames (which are defined as 
factors which constrain the instructional process going on at a school), 
processes (which constitute the actual manner of literacy instruction in the 
campaign) and outcomes (ie achievement in literacy and relevance of skills 
acquired). The basic purpose of the study was stated as being to show the 
relationship between outcomes and goals. 
The study consisted of three sub-studies, namely literacy achievement study, 
observation study and interviewing. One of the central concerns of the 
researchers was to establish whether literacy as a skill had been instrumental in 
developing the village and whether literacy brought any tangible benefits to the 
neo-literates. With regard to this pertinent question it is disturbing that the 
students stated that they had not experienced substantial benefit from the 
newly acquired literacy skills. This can only mean there was a discrepancy 
between the goals of the sponsors and the benefit expected by the learners. 
Yet another conclusion reached by the researchers was that it took up to two 
years for a student to become literate. Unfortunately the all-important 
question of literacy retention was not fully addressed in the study. Considering 
that the study was carried out over a period of three years, it would have been
94 Book Reviews 
interesting to find out how long students managed to retain the imparted skills, 
on average. Relapse to illiteracy is a major topic in the field of literacy training 
and it is my feeling that, since this was an evaluative study, it would have been 
appropriate to look at this. Maybe the researchers felt that the topic was too 
large and would require a whole book of its own. 
From the interviews, a picture of the role of traditional attitudes emerges, 
and for those interested in the volatile issue of women's rights the study did 
look at how the campaign catered for the needs of rural women. 
Interestingly, however, 77% of all students who participated in the 
campaign were male. This is very curious, particularly since in many countries 
it has been found that it is the men who shun literacy training. It is difficult to 
imagine how so many men were attracted to the campaign, especially when in 
the end a lot of the participants said the exercise had been futile and 
fruitless. 
As mentioned elsewhere, the researchers did not confine themselves to the 
main assignment which was to evaluate the YDLC in Ethiopia, they looked at 
other effects of the programme as well. Many readers might be aware of the 
many intricacies which are associated with doing field research in a foreign 
country, but it may still be worthwhile to review a few which were experienced 
in the present study. These serve as valuable lessons. 
One important lesson from the study is to do with the whole question of the 
application of Western models to third world situations, particularly the 
problems of bias and enthnocentrism. There were other problems which, 
although seemingly specific to Ethiopia, could be important in other countries 
as well. For instance, besides the volatile political climate that prevailed in 
Ethiopia at the time of the study, (notably due to the deposing of the Emperor), 
there were other problems such as the rigorous formalities required for entry 
into certain areas, shortage of schools in which to carry out the study and lack 
of competence in local languages (which had obvious detrimental effects), to 
name but a few major ones. 
Perhaps the most important lesson, particularly for foreign researchers, to 
emerge from this study was the need to do reconnaissance work before sitting 
down to plan statistical strategies. The authors point out on the question of 
evaluation that the study had forced them to review their thinking on the 
subject and that they now "share the opinion that it is high time for evaluators 
to start approaching their task from the development mode reflected in a certain 
programme rather than to base their approach on hand books which generally
Book Reviews 95 
reflect a functionalist outlook" (p. 186). Thus critical discussion about what 
are to be considered the main goals for development, argue the authors, is a 
necessary element of such an evaluation exercise. 
The book, while fairly comprehensively compiled, does fall short in certain 
critical respects. For example the authors' insatiable quest to provide the 
minutest of details on various topics is questionable. In discussing the study 
findings, the researchers go into too much theoretical discussion of concepts 
before presenting the actual study data. In my opinion this is uncalled for and is 
a weakness evident throughout the book. Another issue on which I take the 
authors to task is in connection with the question of samples and sampling. The 
sample of 149 individuals used for the interview section of the study appears to 
have been too small considering the magnitude of the study. Also, the fact that 
sampling was not random but haphazard robbed the study of some of its glamour 
and it follows that the results of the study have to be treated with due 
caution. 
Having said that, I must be quick to add that the greatest attribute of a true 
academic is having the audacity and presence of mind to acknowledge 
weaknesses and shortcomings in his or her work and this the authors have 
unashamedly done. For example, they concede in one part, "We are aware of 
the risk that we have misinterpreted our interview data since, as foreigners, we 
are influenced by a Western culture and Western notions" (p. 158). All the 
same, one important attribute of this book is that it does utilise diagrams, 
sketches and makes extensive use of tables and other illustrations. While I 
have some misgivings concerning some aspects of the detail to do with 
methodology (e.g. lack of scientific sampling), I still feel this book is valuable 
not only to those engaged in research work at home or in foreign countries but 
also to those engaged in literacy work in particular and in development work in 
general, particularly in the developing world. 
Reviewed by Rodreck Mupedziswa, School of Social Work, Harare, 
Zimbabwe. 
The Field Directors* Handbook: an Oxfam Manual for Development 
Workers, edited by Brian Pratt and Jo Boyden Oxford University Press. 
1985. 
The title of this book may deter ordinary development workers from reading it 
because it may be thought that it pertains only to Oxfam workers. On the