BOOK REVIEWS87book even more serviceable. There are misprints on pages 13,15,54,66,94,99,120,143,149,155,178,186,187 and 202, and surely Tabora is in Tanzania, notUganda (p. 61). Mulolani is given the different forenames of Emilio and Otmilioin the space of two pages (pp. 165, 167).The book covers a wide area succinctly, and presents its fund of information ina balanced and orderly way. It achieves the author's stated aims admirably, anddeserves a far wider readership than the students for whom it was originallyintended.University of ZimbabweP. GlFFORDTransnational In Southern Africa Edited by D. B. Ndlela, A, Seidman,R. Seidman andK. Makamure. Harare, Zimbabwe Publishing House, 1986, iv,219 pp., Z$12,50 (p/b), ISBN 0-949225-06-1.Transnational in Southern Africa is the result of a workshop held in Harare in1982 and attended by scholars from America, East and West Europe, andSouthern Africa on techniques Southern African countries can use to, 'maximisethe benefits and minimise the disadvantages of transnational corporate invest-ment' (p. 1). The book therefore examines a topic of considerable interest in asubcontinent where multinational corporations (MNCs), particularly SouthAfrican multinationals, play an important role in almost every sector of theregional economy and dominate strategic economic sectors of some countries.While most countries in the region are suspicious of MNCs and often view heavyforeign corporate involvement in their economies as a threat to their sovereignty,most Southern African countries would also agree with the opening statement ofSimbi Mubako, then Zimbabwe's Minister of Justice, that 'we need transnationalcorporations [because] we lack the capital, the knowhow, the technology andsometimes the initiative to exploit our own natural resources or market them inthe world' (p. 11). The paradox of countries not-wanting-but-needing multi-nationals is a challenge both to leaders and to scholars who hope to aid the growthof Southern Africa and the freeing of majority-ruled countries from dependenceon South Africa. It is daubtful if this challenge is met by the contributors toTransnationab in Southern Africa.An edited book is designed to be more than the sum of its parts, so it isimportant to examine the book as a whole as well as to consider the worth of theindividual papers. It is unfortunate that the book took four years to be published,as foreign corporate involvement in Southern Africa is a fast-changing topic thatdemands up-to-date information if it is to be persuasive. For example, thedramatic opening by Mozambique to foreign investment in the last two yearswould have influenced the authors, or at least called for comment by them. Thebook is also mistitled. It is not, except for the recommendations, about SouthernAfrica, as it is concerned almost solely with the anglophone countries of theregion. Indeed, most of the empirical work is from Zambia and Zimbabwe. Thisis unfortunate as there were four Mozambican participants at the workshop, andBOOK REVIEWScorporate involvement in lusophone Africa is important to understand. Forinstance, the relationship between Angola and foreign oil companies is arguablythe most important host-country-MNC relationship in the region, given Angola'salmost total dependence on oil exports for government revenue and foreigncurrency. The lack of a unified approach by the authors towards multinationals isalso regrettable especially given that some of the papers were written after theworkshop. However, m the light of the complexity of the issues, agreement oneven fundamental assumptions regarding multinationals may not have beenpossible.The essays vary somewhat in quality. The paper by Neva Makgetla AnnSeidman and Robert Seidman, Toward a SADCC Investment Code', is arguablythe best in the collection. After providing an interesting review of the history ofinvestment codes and the experience other developing countries have had indeveloping institutional regimes towards foreign corporate involvement theauthors provide some guidelines on what a regional investment code shouldinclude. Unfortunately, the authors concentrate on the technical requirements ofsuch a code and do not discuss the political preconditions necessary for SADCCcountries to actually begin co-ordinating macro- and microeconomic policies at aregional level. There is little evidence, five years after this workshop, that nationalleaders in Southern African countries are willing to cede significant control overtheir economies to regional authorities.Daniel B. Ndlela's article on technology transfer and Colin Stoneman'scontribution on transfer pricing also provide important evidence and analysisfrom other parts of the world on the problems less developed countries face whenthere is significant foreign corporate involvement in their economies. Bothconclude that regional centres should be set up to assist Southern Africancountries. Ndlela suggests a regional centre for information on science andtechnology while Stoneman argues for a Transfer-Pricing Commando Unit'(p. 113). Once again, while these are interesting suggestions, it is unclear whetherthe political will exists for countries to co-ordinate sensitive economic policies at aregional level.A second group of essays in the volume touch on interesting themes but are notpersuasive in their application to Southern Africa. Stephen Zorn's essay onnegotiating with transnational mentions the specific problems of SouthernAfrica in only the most general way. A significant portion of this paper merelylists alternatives to transnational corporate investment which are familiar toanyone with any knowledge of present-day international economics. Zorn does,however, manage to list the wrong American agency providing export financing(p. 83). It is the Export-Import Bank and not, as is asserted, the Overseas PrivateInvestment Corporation, Similarly, Bingu wa Mutharika provides scant analysison some general problems and concludes with some uncompelling recom-mendations. It is true, as he says, that developing clear economic goals acomprehensive information system, and local technical and managerial capabil-ities would help SADCC in collective negotiations with transnationals; but firstthere has to be some indication that Southern African countries actually want toco-ordinate their policies. It is somewhat ironic that many of the authors in thisvolume immediately recognize that foreign businesses have a political role but areunwilling to discuss the political requirements for a collective approach towardsmultinationals. Instead, they prefer to concentrate on basically technocraticBOOK REVIEWS89recommendations that are relatively simple to formulate but Irrelevant in theabsence of political commitment,Gerhard Wittich and Andras Sajo have each contributed an article on theeconomic experience of socialist countries. Wittictfs article on regional inte-gration In the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) argues thatregional co-ordination and state intervention haYe promoted economic growth.While he presents evidence not normally aYaliable to Southern African readers,he does not attempt to argue that conditions in this region are similar enough toEastern Europe and the Soviet Union that the CMEA experience can beduplicated here. Nor does he Isolate specific policies which would be particularlyrelevant to Southern Africa. Safe's article on transnationals In socialist countries ismore relevant to the problems discussed In the volume although the author admitsthat owing to the relatively low level of foreign investment in socialist countriesthe evidence presented is 'scanty' (p. 204). Remarkably, given the interests of theother authors in devising regional approaches towards transnationals, Sajo onlydiscusses relations between foreign companies and individual socialist states.Whether this is because of an absence of a co-ordinated CMEA approach orsimple analytic oversight is unclear, but reviewing the CMEA's collective policiestowards foreign business would have been an important addition to the volume.The other two essays in the volume are a paper on transnational corporationsand poverty in Southern Africa by Ann and Robert Seidman and a paper oncorporate taxation by Ann Seidman. The two papers should be consideredtogether as the contribution on taxation is actually one suggestion as to how toend the impoverishing effects off M-NCs. While in good part a restatement of workdone by various members of the Seidman family, the papers contain somevaluable evidence. Seidman's comparative presentation on corporate taxation is,for instance, a valuable treatment of a sorely-neglected topic. Unfortunately, bothpapers suffer from ideological overkill that renders them of doubtful value. In theSeidmans* quest to prove their point, highly complex situations are unper-suasively simplified and some evidence is distorted. For instance, the Seidmansgroup all economists who study foreign investment into two groups: 'neo-classical' theorists, who focus on factors of production, and 'transformingiratitutionalists', who focus on the institutional structures inherited by ThirdWorld countries (p. 26), The Seidmans argue that 'neo-dassicists' believe thatby offering them sufficient goodies (tax incentives, subsidies and cheap credit, easedforeign exchange controls, guarantees against expropriation, etc.), governments can createthe 'hospitable investment climate* needed to attract investment. Once the transnationalsinvest, production will rise. la sum, If government can induce foreign companies to invest,increased inputs will, necessarily, result in increased output Š and the results will trickledown to the masses (p. 26),These economists advise countries to throw 'wide the doors to transnationalcorporations' (p, 27). This is a gross simplification of the views of manyeconomists who have radically different views on foreign investment, and the factthat the Seidmans cite exactly one 'neo-classical* source Š Paul Samueison's1958 textbook Š makes their argument even more unpersuasive. In fact, even theSeidmans* own source is much more euanced than the academic parody theypaint, Samuelson, in fact, does not see, even in 1958, foreigto Investment playing90BOOK REVIEWSthe same kind of role which the Seidmans argue is a basic assumption of'neo-classical' thought. He writes thai 'for many reasons we moderns cannotexpect great things from foreign investment*.1 Of course, that was in 1958. By theninth edition of Samuelson's textbook (published in 1973. fifteen years after theedition cited by the Seidmans but nine years before the workshop and available inthe University of Zimbabwe library) Samueison departs even further from thepurported 'neo-classical' view: 'Local management must be trained to take overultimately; local sharing in ownership of branch plants is a modern necessity7.2There are, of course, crucial disagreements among economists on the issues raisedby the Seidmans but the simplicity of the analysis presented makes the authorsunpersuasive.Similar problems are evident in the actual analysis. For instance, in AnnSeidman's study of taxation tfiere is a case study of Zimbabwe in which the authorexamines what she calls 'unused investable surpluses' (p. 129). These surplusesare profits earned by corporations which could be. but are n,)i. reinvested. Hertechnique in estimating the surpluses is simplistic as she ignores the fact that someof the money she calls unused is probably going into consumption. However,there is a more complex problem. In Zimbabwe, as Professor Seidman shouldknow, corporations are accruing massive sums of money in blocked accountswhich cannot be repatriated or be further invested because there are strictgovernment controls on foreign companies investing outside their area ofbusiness. These regulations were adopted by the Government in order to preventincreased foreign control of the economy. As companies cannot invest further,they accumulate funds. Given that Professor Seidman would probably agree withgovernment policy on preventing further foreign corporate involvement, it islogically inconsistent also to blame foreign companies for not investing. There areundoubtedly unused investable surpluses in Zimbabwe although at a lower levelthan the authors estimate. However, failure to examine the complexities of thesituation renders the analysis less than compelling to the reader or to thegovernment official looking for advice.Unfortunately, there also appears to be some outright distortion of evidence onthe part of the Seidmans. For instance, the authors claim that, while Zambiadecreased its dependence on South Africa for a period of time, 'after 1978,however, the International Monetary Fund pressured it to increase purchases ofSouth African products' (p. 38). The source cited is a March 1978 Financial Mailarticle.1 In fact, the article, 'Zambia: IMF to the Rescue', does not even mentionSouth Africa, much less IMF pressure to buy South African goods. It does suggestthat the IMF pressured Zambia to open its southern border but makes clear thatthat border would be opened in order to trans-ship goods across Rhodesia toMozambique. Of course, if the southern border were opened it might mean anincrease in the purchase of South African goods but this assumption is so far fromthe actual reporting in the article as to be a clearly illegitimate extrapolation.' P. Samueison, Economics: An Introductory Analysis (New York, McGraw-Hill, 4th edn.,1958), 764.2 P Samueison, Economics: An Introductory Analysis (New York, McGraw-Hill, 9th edn.,1973), 781.3 Financial Mail, 24 Mar. 1978. 911.BOOK REVIEWS91The book concludes wan an appendix containing the workshop's recom-mendations which are drawn mainis from the papers in the volume. While therecommendations on a technical level arc often i^uite persuasive, there seemsrelatively little chance ot them r>e»ng adopted Ceruuniv. five years after theworkshop was held, there seems to be ver\ mile movement in favour of a regionalapproach towards foreign investment. Pernaps a more sophisticated and nuancedanalyse than what is available in lran.\naii<>nals in Snuilu-rn Africa wouldpersuade policy-makers about the need toi collective action towards multi-national corporations.University of ZimbabweJ. I. HERBSTStudies of Fishing on Lake Kariba By M. F. C. Bourdillon, A. P. Cheater andM, W. Murphree. Gweru, Mambo Press, Mambo Occassional Papers Š Socio-Economic Series 20, 1985, 185 pp., Z$6,60.Inshore Fishing Co-operatives in the Kariba District By M. F. C. Bourdillon,Gweru, Mambo Press, Mambo Occasional Papers Š Socio-Economic Series 21,1986. 34 pp.. ZS2.251 ake Kariba seems to fascinate most Zimbabweans, and it ts almost impossible tofind a popular book on this countrv which does not devote a great deaf of space toit. its ecology has also been studied in M.me detail and it is now best-known of thelarge African ; esei \ v >irs; how ever, the social and economic aspects of the fisherieshave generally been ignored, despite the tact that the fisheries were meant tocompensate the displaced people for the loss of their traditional homes.Consequently, these book- .ire a welcome and much-needed contribution to theliterature on Kariba(he ' i;M L hapter < <f Siudu-< r>f Fi.shims ->n I akt Ł Kariba describes the history offisnnii.1 >n the lake, and outlines the diflerent management policies that wereintroduced on the southern and northern shores. Neither policy was particularly-iUs.es.Mul and both were unable to cope with the initial period of highpiovjuetivitv followed bv a drastu decline which disrupted the fishery. Thisphenomenon has been luned m most other man-made lakes since Kariba wasMier\ administration seems to have been able toŁŁŁ'. :hv succi-sslui "kapenia* tisherv is also given in. tv\ itiennor Ł. in- ipparent la«A oi a jointbuilt and. to be iasr, no otndeal wiih u either. The hisithis chapter and itse auih-Zimbabwean Zambian aresource this is a mailer t.»:The I onua-spcakiui.' !;--Murphree tn < naptes 2. w nones ;n ( [i.^-ie' Ł in nt.\--i .the w,r. i?u - aicn andfasCin.i'MU1 Ł.>Ł .,Ł!> :'!Ł tile :S<»me .i r-.; \. Ł ŁŁ: -.r. ,,i -ne-nen; Since this is a shared-Ł.:Ł.'. ,i!e divussed bv M. Vv". onsideis the Shona-speakmgjvop;-- w hi iive in them. MK\s. ,i\\-r.. ,HHl illis provides aKe':\:-- -iu rv Uu tishermenŁ Ł- - !i;. .ijec; ''spe-i l.tilv in