100 BOOK REVIEWSand Masters seem locked into the right and wrong of prescriptivism in languageand ignore any descriptive view of change in Zimbabwean English. The very titleBetter English invokes many assumptions.In many ways the meandering nature of this book could not have beenavoided: a book on errors should follow the completion of a survey ofcontemporary Zimbabwean English. At present, no one can state objectively thedegree of prevalence of these errors in the English of Zimbabweans. We don'tknow the age of the perpetrators of the errors, nor, which is much more serious,have we any idea of the level of their language development when the collectionwas made. If the readers find some of the examples eccentric or like none theyhave ever encountered, this could be to do with the fact that the authors havetaken them from speakers whose English is too poor to offer any systematicpattern of error. Singularity of this kind is not confined to a preference forgrandiloquent terms Š a frequent manifestation of pre-systematic errors.A further problem is that the competence of the same error-makers variesfrom situation to situation. Indeed, even the time they have in which to produce aparticular form has some bearing on their performance.2 Generally, speakers haveless time for the retrieval of forms than writers, and spoken/written would be afurther valuable parameter for inclusion in collections of errors.Some form of salvage might, in later editions, be undertaken by the publishersto compensate for flaws in the conception and unevenness in the presentation ofthis volume. A first step might be to discourage collectors of errors frompublishing until their skills of taxonomy have been plumbed. A collection oferrors looks temptingly like a manuscript. In the case of the present work ateachers' resource book written by a linguist could plaster over the cracks. Thatlinguist will be hard pressed to account for the mixture of language levels and theabsence of contrastive analysis and a level of discourse, to say nothing of thepresence of (if one dares to use the word) errors.Collectors will be collectors and one can expect with some confidence andtrepidation that errors will soon be collected and managed or mis-managed usingcomputers. One positive pointer is that computer software will, of its nature,invite the statement of some of classificatory parameters missing from this work.University of Zimbabwe W. E. LouwLost Chance: Southern Rhodesia 1945-58 By H. Holderness Harare, Zim-babwe Publishing House, 1985, 235 pp., ISBN 0-949932-88-4, ZS6.95.Caught in the Crossfire By Patricia Chater Zimbabwe Publishing House,Harare, 1985, 206 pp., 16 plates, ISBN 0-949932-82-5, Z$6.50.Although they are consecutive, not contemporaneous, accounts, to read togetherHardwicke Holderness's Lost Chance and Patricia Chater's Caught in theCrossfire is to have most clearly illumined the reasons for the failure of the Whiteliberal movements in the then Rhodesia and the inevitability of a war to break thedeadlock.2 S. Makoni, D. Phil, thesis in progress on Zimbabwean Interlanguage Grammars, to besubmitted at Edinburgh University.BOOK REVIEWS 101People like Hardwicke Holderness were the products of an education and abackground that still aimed at the classical ideal of a 'good man'. As he himselfsays, they held to a 'kind of ethic which placed a high value on fair play, goodmanners, integrity, and deplored boasting, doing people down, questioning theumpire' (p. 17). Reading Lost Chance today one might be inclined to feel thatsome of the characters were too good to be true. But one would be wrong. Theywere, indeed, for the most part conditioned to what Aristotle calls 'a disposition tovirtue and the performance of virtuous actions'. But they were equallyconditioned to the Aristotelian ideal of 'the mean', of avoidance at all costs ofextravagant emotions, ideas or actions. And that is why, ultimately, they failed toinfluence the turn of events in Rhodesia. Their commitment to what they saw asthe right thing to do was sincere and deeply felt. They laid on the line their careersand their place in their own society. But to lay their lives on the line as well was tothem inconceivable. Inconceivable because in a country ostensibly at peace onedoes not make that kind of sacrifice, and inconceivable because it would havemeant openly crossing the colour line to fight against one's own kind. And as aresult they lost out to those White Rhodesians who were prepared to lay theirlives on the line to preserve a status quo which they saw as eminently desirable.Although only briefly a member of Parliament, Holderness's position in thecommunity and his personal qualities kept him in touch with the thinking on bothsides. He writes from within, as a member of the governing elite. His record of thepolitics is lucid, and his account of the mutual interaction of the history,personality and environments of the period is fascinating. His book is immenselyalive, immensely readable, and it presents a view all too easily forgotten, that ofthe White Rhodesian who did not agree with the Rhodesia Front. He knows it all,because he was there, and he has succeeded in recreating both the events and themoods of a crucial period in African history.Patricia Chater, on the other hand, writes from without, from a uniqueposition as a White who has been absorbed into the Black community and whowrites out of a sympathetic perception of what it meant to be on the receiving endof government policies formulated without regard to those affected.Originally attracted by a British newspaper account of partnership in action,Chater found herself ultimately at St Francis Mission, a small African religiouscommunity. After two years of living at the mission, she was sufficientlyimpressed by what she describes as 'a community living the Gospel fully, trulyand joyfully' to join it as a member (p. 10). It is this background of a Christian,caring and spiritual community that gives extra weight to her account of thepassionate conviction of the Africans whom she knew that their lives were a smallprice to pay for the right to be no longer second-class citizens in their own land.Like the White Rhodesians, they too laid their lives on the line, but theirs was anoffensive, not a defensive, action and they were ultimately to succeed.In the earlier background section one is made aware of the increasingpolarization of the two sides, a polarization which causes Chater to present heraccount straightfowardly in terms of 'goodies' Š the freedom fighters Š and'baddies' Š the establishment. She allows the former no faults, the latter novirtues. The book is understated and carefully factual. Although, because of therole played by the members of the mission and their friends in the struggle, Chaterwas in touch with many of the 'big names' of the liberation war, she has chosen to102 BOOK REVIEWSpresent her story from the personal angle, as it affected the lives of individuals.The wider events are seen in terms of their repercussions on members of thecommunity and their relatives. But she does not dwell on what is past, and, unlikeHolderness, she is able to end on a note of hope and encouragement, lookingforward to the building of a new Zimbabwe.University of Zimbabwe ANNE GIBSONNeutrality or Co-option? Anglican Church and State from 1964 until theIndependence of Zimbabwe By M. Lapsley. Gweru, Mambo Press, MamboOccasional Papers Š Missio-Pastoral Series 16,1986,106 pp., ISBN 0-86922-407-7, ZS7.31.This is an important book on an important subject. The subject is the use ofreligion to legitimize a political system. The particular instance the authorexamines is the Anglican Church's support of the Smith regime between 1964and 1980.The first chapter focuses on UDI and its immediate aftermath, and thechurchmen whose pronouncements are analysed are Bishop Skelton of Matabele-land, Bishop Alderson of Mashonaland, Dean Wood and Fr. Hugh Bishop. Thesecond chapter deals with the pronouncements of Bishop Burrough of Mashona-land and Bishop Wood of Matabeleland on the Land Tenure Act, the newConstitution of 1969, and the World Council of Churches' Programme toCombat Racism. Chapter Three deals with the years 1972-80, as theindependence struggle intensified, and the main churchmen considered areBishop Burrough, Dean John Da Costa, and Fr. Arthur Lewis.Of the churchmen treated in detail, nearly all are found wanting to somedegree, and are considered to have supported (at least unwittingly) the Rhodesiangovernment. Thus, in terms of the book's title, most are judged to have beenco-opted into supporting Smith. The shining exception is Bishop Skelton, whose'erudition, intellect and breadth' (p. 22) are frequently praised. His perception andcourage were remarkable: 'Not since the days of Arthur Shearly Cripps, had anAnglican voice been raised so loudly in defence of the rights of the Africanmajority' (p. 32). At the other end of the spectrum Lapsley places Fr. Lewis,Bishop Burrough and Dean Da Costa. They, and others to a lesser degree, arefound deficient on various counts. They were too concerned with institutionalinterests. They deferred to the attitudes of White members of the Church becausethey provided the bulk of the Church's finances. They saw only individual acts ofinjustice and had no perception of the unjust system underlying everything. Theysuccumbed to the official government propaganda about 'the communist threat'.They were too concerned with appearing neutral, too worried about the law andorder issue, too obsessed with avoiding dissension within Church ranks. Theyidentified too closely with the White community to be able to understand theAfricans' concerns. All these issues are summarized in the conclusion, whereLapsley also makes an interesting comparison with the Roman Catholic Churchwhich, in his opinion, fared rather better in this area.The book is written from the standpoint of liberation theology about church