BOOK REVIEWS133Independent Churches are not (overtly at least) identified with the Africancause for more land to a greater extent or on a more organized basis thanany of the other religious groupings' (p.48).The growth and attraction of the Independent Churches are accountableby their 'typically African guise', a process of continual adaptation, not staticconformity to traditions; 'This is a dynamic process with numerous variations,even within the same Church' (p.309). It also raises problems of syncretismand the messianic content of these church movements, with which it is hopedthat Daneel will deal in succeeding volumes.This is a scholarly work of anthropology, sociology and theology whichwill interest experts in these fields. The treatment of different churches throughtime will also be of importance to historians. But above all, thinking menand especially Christians will find in this volume, and in Daneel's otherwritings, a source of understanding of the faiths, beliefs and religious needsof the African peoples of Southern Rhodesia. The book is superbly producedand splendidly illustrated.Stony hurst CollegeA. J. DACHSWhat do the Coloureds Think? An Attitude Study of the Coloured Communityof Johannesburg By M. L. Edelstein. Johannesburg, Labour and Com-munity Consultants, 1974, 153pp., no price indicated.With a view to proposing an alternative mode of analysis for the study ofRace in Southern Africa, one would have liked to detail the theoretical short-comings of Edelstein's work on the 'Coloureds' (of South Africa), particularlyits failure to explain systematically the historical and ideological basis of theconcept of 'Coloured' and the consequent absence of a definition of a'Coloured Community' except in terms of that common tendency Š originat-ing and inherent in popular racist theories based on crude stereotypes Što treat the distinguishing physical and biological characteristics (i.e. the meregenetic and racial constituents, complexion of skin, hair type, etc) which setapart persons of mixed race as, in themselves, constituting, a priori, a socialcategory. Nevertheless the limited academic content of the work might be-come evident in this discussion ŁŠ to which we are restricted bv the exigenciesof snace Š on its ideological outlook, which will already be evident from thepaternalism implicit in its title, What Do The Coloureds Think? (Edelsteinpublished another book, What Do Younz Africans Think in 1974?) He statesquite explicitly that the major objective of his study is to provide a means ofpredicting the attitudes of the 'Coloureds' towards the Government and ofhow best to ensure their allegiance to the Whites. 'What is the future of theColoured people of South Africa? What steps can they, the authorities andthose sympathetic to Coloured progress take to ensure and assist their ad-vancement within the broad framework of South Africa?' 'To some extentthe answers to these questions will be suggested by the results of this survey?'(p. 94). This is a position not surprising from a man who was once a ChiefWelfare Officer of trie Department of Non-European Affairs (1960-2) wherehe became 'intimately associated with some of the problems of the Colouredpeople' (Preface) and an officer of the Bantu Administration Authority untilhis unfortunate death this year at the hands of angry Soweto students whenthey attacked the Administration buildings in that township.But this book, which is based on a D.Phil, thesis of the University of134BQOK REVIEWSPretoria, is more than just a personal view; for it is written at the height ofthe debate, in South African white circles, about what to do about the'Coloureds'. It might well be considered obsolete after the decision earlier thisyear that the 'Coloureds' could not be integrated politically with the Whites,and in view of the recent disturbances at the Cape which many of the'Coloured' leaders have been wont to interpret as destroying the 'myth' that'Coloureds' want to be integrated with the Whites. Yet the book's importancelies precisely in that it reflects Pretoria's dilemma over the 'problem' of the'Coloureds'. In fact, the work is well in the tradition of the Pretoria schools ofthought, 'whose views are respected because they have studied the problemscientifically and come in direct contact with Coloured people and theirleaders' (p.94): of Verkramptes like Dr Schalk van de Merwe and ProfessorW. B, Vosloo and of Verligtes like Professors S. P. Cilliers, H. W. van derMerwe, N- J. Rhoodie, Simon Brand and J. B. du Toit. (We also get the viewsof white opposition political parties (United and Progressive), of 'Coloured'political parties (Federal and Labour) and of various South African academics('Coloured' and white)). But lest the reader wonder at the end why a workwhich purports to be 'scientific' should make (political) recommendations(inter alia that there be 'joint sittings of Parliament and the Coloured PersonsRepresentative Council on common problems' (pp. 127-8)) to the government,my advice is that one sihould keep in mind what has already been stated aboutEdelstein's ideological position and about the object of the study. To thatextent it matters little whether one accepts or rejects his method of inquiry Ša somewhat impressionistic observation (personal interviews, questionnaires,etc.), over a period of five months (29 February to 31 July, 1972) of a sampleof 500 'better class adult Coloureds' (p.3) living within the Municipal bound-aries of Johannesburg Š and the conclusion thereof; and we are told inChapter One that the survey 'does not in any way pretend to represent theattitudes of all Coloured people of South Africa' (p.4), though both the covertitle as well as the nature of the discourse throughout can only indicate theconverse.Witness, for example, the inherent subjectivity of the questionnairemethod. Thus once it has been ascertained, on the basis of the responses ofthe sample members, that most (88 per cent) 'Coloureds' would still claim'one man one vote' even if they had free and equal access to all public facili-ties, services and amenities (p.73) and that most prefer to be called SouthAfrican rather than either 'Black' or 'Coloured' (p.77), another of the manyquestionnaires seeks to determine which of the already selected 14 'Grievancesof Coloureds' were the 'greatest' (p.81). There were five of these in decliningorder of greatness: unequal pay for equal work; inadequate opportunities foremployment (job reservation); inadequate educational opportunities; in-adequate accommodation: White domination. Edelstein's implied conclusionfrom this is not only that 'Coloureds' do not so much mind white rule, if onlytheir material condition could be improved, but also that once the latter hasbeen accomplished then the idea of separate but equal racial groups would bea reality in South Africa. But need we comment on his blindness to the dia-lectical connection between white domination and the concept of 'Coloured'in Southern Africa nor, therefore, of his vain expectation that there can beequality in a system based on inequality? But, then, this is our point. It isnot so much the question of what the 'Coloureds' Š whether by this term ismeant the leaders, the sample or all persons of mixed race Š think of, aswhether the white rulers of Southern Africa can ever resolve a 'problem'which is so closely tied to the overall contradictions that have arisen out oftheir system of exploitation and domination. The decision not to implementBOOK REVIEWS135the Theron Report and its recommendations should not be interpreted as anexercise in options on the part of the South African Government; on the con-trary, it demonstrated an inability to adapt. The 'problem' of the 'Coloureds'is certainly the Achilles' heel of the ideology of white supremacy in SouthAfrica and the extent to which it has become a source of discomfort forPretoria may be an indication of the course of change which the oppressed,and not the oppressors, of Southern Africa have begun and whose outcomeonly they can determine-University of YorkI. D. J. MANDAZAAfrican Law and Custom in Rhodesia By B. Goldin and M. Gelfand. CapeTown, Juta, 1975, xvi, 325pp., Rh$ll,90.A Bibliography of African Law, with Special Reference to Rhodesia. By T. W.Bennett and S. Phillips. Salisbury, Univ. of Rhodesia, 1975, xxxiv, 291pp.,Rh$5,00.The authors of the first of these two books essayed a very difficult task. Themain difficulty arises from the fact that the African law and custom thathas grown up naturally and spontaneously over the years has been engrafted,in a somewhat clumsy way and with severe limitations, into the ordinarystatute law of the land. This has meant that there were at least three possiblelines of approach: To treat the subject as a purely ethnological study, dis-regarding the legislation; to produce a practical legal text book for the useof practitioners and others concerned with the administration of the law; orto attempt a combination of the two. The authors have adopted the thirdapproach, which is that most beset with pitfalls. It is greatly to their creditthat they have avoided these and achieved so large a measure of success.There were lesser difficulties in their way. As the authors themselvesrecognise, the basic material of their study varied from tribe to tribe andeven from locality to locality within the tribe. They have dealt with this onbro->d lin^-s and have, wisely, resisted the temptation to extend their investiga-tions to the divergent customs of such subordinate peoples as the Venda,fascinating to the ethnologist but distracting to those concerned with thepractical application of the law.In the result the book should prove of great value. For the first time,so far as I am aware, the true customary law is considered in juxtapositionwith those sections that have been modified by statute or by judicial decisions.The judicial decisions are considered critically. Apart from commenton individual cases certain tendencies are revealed which, unless they arechecked, could lead to unfortunate consequences. For example, if the authorsare correct in their belief that there is a tendency for decisions in DistrictCourts to diverge from those in Tribal Courts, then action must be takento see that this is avoided. It may prove to be nigh impossible, but somethingon the lines of the circulars of the Justice Department could help. Certainlysomething should be attempted, for legal history is full of examples of thesad results where different lines are taken in courts of more or less co-ordinatejurisdiction.Directly or by implication the authors raise a number of other questionsof the first importance. Some are inherent in the system itself. For example,how long will Africans in a modern technological state continue to wish that