BOOK REVIEWSRecent Developments in the Design and Planning of Low-Cost Housing inRhodesia Edited by M. A.H. Smout and P. van Hoffen. Salisbury, Univer-sity of Rhodesia, 1976, illustrated, 60pp., mimeo, Rh$3,00.The Accommodation of Permanent Farm Labourers By F. P. du Toit. Salis-bury, Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Research and SpecialistServices, Rhodesia Agricultural Journal Technical Bulletin No. 17, 1977,illustrated, 63pp., Rh$l,00.These publications testify to the growing awareness of the acute needs ofAfricans for adequate housing, not only in the overcrowded towns but alsoin the countryside. As the contributions in the previous issue of Zambezictby Stopforth and Seager indicated, the needs are pressing and what is requiredis not the slow provision of the 'total environment' beloved of administrators,but a dramatic break-through in encouraging self-help so that people can getlegal tenure and make the first step to decent living conditions by buildinglow-cost housing units that can be extended and enhanced in time.The first of these publications is the record of a symposium organized bythe Regional and Urban Planning Centre of the University of Rhodesia. Thetwelve papers cover a wide range of subjects from high-density housing inBulawayo, to farm compounds, to the technical problem of different sorts ofmaterials and structures. What raises the greatest interest, however, are theproposals by P. van Hoffen and A. J. Wales-Smith for the building of all-brick structures. As has been shown recently in The Rhodesia Herald (21November 1977), this idea, deriving from Fathy's work in Egypt, is being im-plemented not only on farms with low-cost sun-dried bricks but also in Salis-bury's European suburbs.The second publication is a detailed analysis of the planning and buildingproblems in housing that 25 per cent of the African population that lives onEuropean-owned farms. The author favours the use of sun-dried bricks andthatch roofing and emphasizes the importance of a degree of self-help insolving these housing needs. Much of what he recommends could also apply,in part, to the rest of rural Rhodesia and even the new 'suburbs' that, as theDerbyshire-Zengeza episode has shown, will inevitably develop.R.S.R.St Peter's Harare By A. Bex, SJ. Gwelo, Mambo Press, Occasional Paper,Missio-Pastoral Series No. 1, 1916, 63pp., Rh$O,65.Vatican II, the Ecumenical Council convoked by Pope John XXIII between1962 and 1965, aimed to achieve an aggiornamento, an up-dating and renewalof the Roman Catholic Church. The Council considered and pronounced uponthe nature, structure, role and worship of the Church in the modern world, onits relationships with other Christian denominations and with non-Christians,on religious freedom and on many aspects of Christian education and life.St Peter's Harare is the fascinating account of an imaginative and produc-tive attempt to implement the spirit of Vatican II in a lively African congrega-tion sited in one of the most densely populated areas of Rhodesia; it is the213214BOOK REVIEWSaccount of an effort to build a caring community on the basis of theChristian faith.The two European priests and the two African brothers are the nucleus ofactivity, but not in the old authoritarian sense, for surrounding them, in con-centric circles, are the Parish Executive (which the Parish Priest does notchair), the Parish Council, and the Parish as a whole, organized in twenty-four sections.Christian witness and action are seen as the activity not only, or evenchiefly, of the clergy, but of the whole congregation, and they cover a wideand profound range: meaningful liturgy ('The Mass was soon dragged downfrom behind the colossal black butcher's slab of a high altar, above and farfrom the people', p.28); religious education in schools; the use of the Bible;Christian social life and action; the role of the priest and the brother; ecumeni-cal experiences; problems of marriage; help for the needy and care for thesick. Problems concerning the compatibility between certain African traditionsand practices are squarely faced, and the African sense of the wide family ofthe living, and of the one community of the living and the dead, is seen as alesson to individualistic Westerners in their inhibited loneliness.The book is the description of a Parish which is a 'true and lively' memo-rial to its guide and leader, Fr Wim Smulders, S.J., accidentally killed inDecember 1975, whom the people called 'Munhu' Š a human being in theShona understanding of the word.University of RhodesiaR. CRAIGSalisbury: A Geographical Survey of the Capital of Rhodesia Edited byG. Kay and M. A. H. Smout. London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1977, viii,119pp., illustrated, £3,50.This book endeavours to provide a geographical account of the City of Salis-bury based upon individual research efforts of eight staff members of theDepartment of Geography at the University of Rhodesia in the period 1968-72.As stated in the preface, the underlying research objectives 'were partly toprovide a basis for effective teaching of the geography of the local region,and partly to contribute to an understanding of Salisbury and its problemsin wider circles' (p.vi). Since individual research efforts were permitted to re-flect the varying interests and expertise of the participating staff, the readershould not expect these objectives to be met fully in this volume. Also someof the chapters show their specialized nature and style in spite of the com-mendable efforts of the editors to standardize the terminology and phraseo-logy.In classic geographical fashion the first chapter of the book contains adiscussion on the site and situation of Salisbury by R. W. Tomlinson andP. Wurzel; restricting themselves to essentially physical attributes, they outlinethe physical environmental factors which account for the location and growthof the city. Then follows a descriptive historical account by A. J. Christopherof the areal morphology of Salisbury within the setting of a pre-determinedcadastral framework; maps usefully illustrate the growth and development ofland use in the city. Smout also discusses the growth and development of landuse in the city to include land-use density and the vertical (townscape) dimen-sions, and systematically describes the city centre, the industrial, and theEuropean and African residential areas. Kay and M. Cole focus on the citizens