Book Reviews 91 
Disabled women, more than any other grouping, have been excluded 
from educational and vocational skills training programmes, material and 
financial assistance and work opportunities. At the same time they have 
difficulty in fulfilling home-making roles too. They are often over-protected 
or neglected by their families, so cannot fulfil traditional female roles in the 
home or subsistence activities, and their niarriageability is low. 
Measures suggested to improve the position of disabled women include 
proposals lor more Incused research; for extended action programmes at 
different levels to improve the status of women and of the disabled; 
recommendations specifically on vocational rehabilitation, and proposals 
for changing attitudes of the general public and of disabled women 
themselves. It is argued that improvements in the status, education, training 
and employment of women in general will have repercussions for disabled 
women in particular. 
Whilst having too broad a focus to provide very much practical detail and 
example in the analysis, the monograph nevertheless makes a useful and 
readable contribution to the subject of women and disability by highlighting 
the extent of the neglect, and encouraging a more developed sensitivity to 
the needs and rights of disabled women — and indeed, of women in general. 
Points are made clearly and concisely, and a manageable and up to date 
bibliography is provided for further reference. It also makes the essential 
point that disabled women themselves need to be included and actively 
involved in the struggle for recognition and improved life chances. 
In summary, this is a brief but valuable introduction to a much neglected 
subject. 
Reviewed by Helen Jackson, School of Social Work, Harare. 
The Importance of People — Experiences, lessons and ideas on rural 
development training in Zimbabwe: Hlekweni and beyond, Martin ile 
Graaf (Editor) and Brigid Willmore (Assistant Editor), Hlekweni FRSC, 
Bulawayo, 1987 (191pp, Z$8 plus s/tax). 
In 1987, Hlekweni Friends Rural Service Centre celebrated its 20th 
anniversary. Besides an Open Day at die Centre, Hlekweni staff, past and 
present, in collaboration with the Centre's friends and supporters, decided 
to produce a publication, as a more permanent tribute to the Centre and the 
people it serves. The Importance of People not only tells the story of 
Hlekweni and the philosophy behind it, but includes several contributions 
discussing current rural development training in Zimbabwe. Whilst 
Hlekweni is the starting point, the book as a whole provides a broader look at 
some aspects of development, and of training for development, throughout 
the country, with particular emphasis on the role and work of nongovernmental 
organisations (NGOs).
92 Book Reviews 
Part One of the book focuses on Hlekweni itself — the history, the idea 
and the context. We follow, through the five directors in post since 1967, the 
changes in the work of the Centre in the context of the changing political 
situation during the struggle for liberation, and into the early years of 
Independence. Based on a philosophy of service to its constituents — the 
people of Matabeleland — training was organised in response to the needs 
of the trainees and was geared towards learning relevant to the improvement 
of rural life, widi particular emphasis on agriculture. 
We see, diough, how the concepts of extension work, follow-up and 
flexibility in programming, whilst initially a response to the social and 
environmental upheaval during the liberation struggle, were eventually 
modified by those very factors, although management and personnel 
problems also played a role. The increasing isolation of the Centre — from 
other Centres and programmes, and from the people it was established to 
serve — has continued into the post-independence years, as a result of the 
current security situation in the south of the country. 
A participatory evaluation in 1985 recommended the way forward for 
Hlekweni, in terms of regaining the original commitment to service, 
dialogue, flexibility and full involvement in the local community. As de 
Graaf, Uussey and Ncube indicate, in their brief overview of Zimbabwe 
with particular reference to Matabeleland, development in the region 
remains hampered by the effects of long-term drought, the lack of peace and 
political stability, and an under-estimation of the community's ability to 
articulate its own needs. It is no doubt hoped that the recently negotiated 
unity accord will 'open up' Matabeleland again, allowing development to 
proceed. The practicalities of how Hlekweni will fulfil a meaningful role 
within this development are not, however, spelt out. Maybe this is because 
Hlekweni has stopped listening to its constituents; perhaps because it is 
pursuing a 'strategy' rather than responding to a 'need'. 
If this is the case, the Centre will be in good company with most of die 
authors who contribute to Parts Two and Three of the book. As one goes 
from one contribution to the next — firstly in Part Two on "Training for 
Rural Development: Strategy" and in Part Three on "Training for Rural 
Development: Some Issues"— a number of questions spring to mind, and 
die lack of answers becomes increasingly frustrating: 
— what exactly is a training 'strategy', and if people are important, how 
important are they relative to strategy? 
— if people are important, how important are they relative to 'target 
groups'? (my understanding of a target is something which is shot at) 
— having defined a growing diversity of target groups through reference 
to various lowest common denominators (as per the contribution by Kidd 
and Kelly on training farmers in Binga), what are we to say to those who 
are no longer targeted (being shot at)? What are they going to say to us?
Book Reviews 93 
Are they now less important as people? 
— if people are important, why do they not have much of a say in the case 
histories which die authors discuss? 
— why does the reader increasingly get the impression diat training is 
something one 'does' to people, however hard die well-intentioned try to 
'do' it? 
In his contribution in Part Four —"Who Calls the Tune — Training in a 
Changing Environment"— de Graaf raises some of diese questions but 
never really concludes diem. Other contributors — for example, diose who 
discuss appropriate technology, networking and die relationship between 
donor agencies and recipient organisations — touch on similar as well as 
odier problematic areas, but, again, in a somewhat irresolute manner. 
All die contributors stress die need to involve, motivate, conscientise, 
empower, network with and listen to trainees — they variously describe how 
training centres must proceed about dieir training in a fundamentally 
participatory and democratic manner (as Hlekweni has endeavoured to do). 
But one major question remains unanswered, as far as I can see. Can a 
training centre, given its very nature as an institution, as an organisation, 
comprised of buildings, timetables, staff, menus and mealtimes, structures 
and a physical and geographical rootedness, ever hope to achieve diis ideal? 
Probably not; and sadly the book does not give us one practical example of 
how a training centre has managed to break die mould, as it were. Perhaps 
diat was not its purpose — but so many contributions relating to dieories of 
training and development would have been well off-set by some papers 
describing real-life efforts to make people important in die manner 
prescribed by diose dieories. 
I am not a trainer, aldiough I find myself 'doing' it from time to time. 
Perhaps, dierefore, I am over-critical of a publication in which trainers may 
find die scope of the discussion and die issues raised of use in dunking about 
their approach to dieir work. All of us widi a commitment to development in 
diis country, however, should congratulate and thank our colleagues who 
contributed to diis book for doing what die rest of us never get around to — 
putting pen to paper, opening up die debate and drawing togedier die issues 
on die agenda. Hopefully diis is die first of many Zimbabwean publications 
about Zimbabwean development 
Reviewed by Frances Chinemana, Freelance Consultant, Harare. 
The Politics of Hunger (The Global Food System), John W Warnock, 
Mediuen & Co London (no price given). 
This is an excellent reference book for anyone interested in knowing why, 
despite all the advances in science and technology, hunger is still present in 
all countries including highly industrialised capitalist societies. The book