116 BOOK REVIEWSThe transformation is seen from the fact that the number of Catholicsin the area for which he had assumed responsibility in 1931 had grownfrom 26 000 to 114 000 by 1956, the number of priests from 46 to 142,of Sisters from 179 to 353, of whom about 170 were African, and of ReligiousBrothers from 2 to 65. Fourteen Africans had been ordained and many morewere in training. Finally what had been the Vicariate of Salisbury hadbecome an Archdiocese and two Dioceses.Fr Barr's Memoir brings out Chichester's characteristics as can only bedone by someone who has known him well. It is no panegyric; Chichester'sblind spots, his failure to see that his own toughness made it possible forhim to make demands on himself which he could not always make on others,are here for all to see. But, with all that, the Memoir brings out clearly hisreal lovableness. For that was the adjective applied to him by all who knewhim. He was interested in everyone, from the V.I.P.s whom he met atGovernment House to the children of an African kraal, and he genuinelywished to make everyone happy. Most revealing is that after the day in 1955when the Hierarchy was established, when he had been feted by the Govern-or General of the Federation, by the Governor of Rhodesia, by the RhodesianGovernment and by others, he slipped away to show kindness and give giftsto some who had been unable to enjoy the celebrations, namely the lepersat Mtemwa. A man of drive, but of prayer, of humility and of love of Godand all others; such was Archbishop Chichester.University of Rhodesia W. F. REA, S.J.Anatomy of a Rebel: Smith of Rhodesia By P. Joyce. Salisbury, GrahamPublishing, 1974, 480pp., ZR$9,75.The Quiet Man By P. Berlyn. Salisbury, M. O. Collins, 1978, 256pp.., ZR$11,50.Smith of Rhodesia By M. C. White. [Cape Town], D. Nelson, 1978, 134pp.,illustrated, R12,00.Now that it appears that Peregrine Worsthorne's much heralded biographyof I. D. Smith is not going to be written, it is time to review the little thatwe have on this key figure in the history of the last twenty years. The firstthing to be said is that none of these books is worthy of the subject's im-portance. Joyce's book is an honest if limited attempt to chronicle both therecent history of Zimbabwe Rhodesia and Smith's part in it, but the authorhas no real insight into either. This is not entirely surprising, as he enjoyedno access to Smith or his papers and therefore had to rely entirely on thepublic record.The author of the second work, Berlyn, did enjoy some co-operation,apparently, but it has not produced any better interpretation of its subject.Indeed, because of an uncritical approach, it is even less satisfactory thanJoyce's book; and in the absence of any new facts, it is difficult to understandwhy it was written or published Š particularly in the haste that is apparentthroughout in its repetitions and lack of organization.BOOK REVIEWS 117The next book is even less serious a study Š being largely a collectionof photographs culled from unacknowledged but apparently publishedsources, accompanied by a chronological outline based on newspaper orother secondary sources. The only claim to interest of the book is that areference to the embezzlement of defence funds led to a High Court injunc-tion against its distribution in Zimbabwe Rhodesia.Few politicians have held office for so long and so much the focus ofinternational attention; yet as these three books show, journalistic attentiondoes not produce even rudimentary understanding or insight. Survivors inpolitics always arouse suspicion Š except, perhaps, among other politicianswho, knowing their own precarious position, like Nyerere or Kaunda, can-not begrudge admiration. But admiration and suspicion do not really explainvery much: they tend to cancel out and leave a void of understanding, alimbo in which Smith, and even the Rhodesian Front, will languish in thetextbooks, unless a professional scholar can be given access. A party and aleader that can, apparently, do the opposite of what it intended and stillretain the confidence of its electorate needs to be sympathetically explained,not merely explained away.R.S.R.The Shona People : An Ethnography of the Contemporary Shona, withSpecial Reference to Their Religion By M. F. C. Bourdillon. GweloMambo Press, 1976, Shona Heritage Series: Volume 1, 339pp., maps,illus., bibl. ZR$6,80 (hard cover; $4,75 soft cover).Myths about Africans By M. F. C. Bourdillon. Gwelo, Mambo Press, 1976,35pp., ZR$0,45.Bourdillon's The Shona Peoples is the first significant and systematic attemptto present a comprehensive ethnography of the Shona peoples since Bullock's1928 work (The Mashona. Cape Town, Juta, reprinted and revised as TheMashona and Matabele, Cape Town, Juta, 1950). During the interim periodserious scholars have had to rely for this kind of over-view on the slimvolume published by the International African Institute (H. Kuper, A. B. J.Hughes and J. van Velsen, The Shona and Ndebele of Southern Rhodesia,London, International African Institute, 1955) or else make their own syn-thesis through the diffuse literature produced by Holleman, Gelfand andothers. Bourdillon's book is a far better one than the Bullock and I. A. I.volumes, and although written primarily for a lay audience its underlyinganthropological professionalism renders it without question the currentstandard ethnography of the Shona. It is therefore an extremely usefuladdition to our bookshelves, serving a dual purpose. For students andscholars it provides a reliable ethnographic reference base for more specificstudies, and for a White lay readership in this country it provides a 'greatertmderstanding of their black compatriots', the stated primary aim of thebook (p.9).Bourdillon utilizes a straightforward ethnographic presentation, cover-ing in various chapters history, kinship, economic institutions, local-levelpolitical organization, legal structures and religious organization and practice.