BOOK REVIEWS 207transformation in a general way as 'the transfer of economic and political powerto the mass of the people', and is therefore not able to deal with issues oftransformation in a concrete way. If, however, we understand transformation aschanging the structure of production and capitalist relations of production, then itis clear on reading the book that there has not been any significant transformationof socio-economic relations in Zimbabwe.In chapters three to eight, we read that in such sectors as agriculture,manufacturing, mining, money and banking, and foreign trade, pre-Inde-pendence capitalist relations have not been altered. For example, agriculture ischaracterized by dualism and any attempts at transformation have been largelyunsuccessful. The author cites the case of the resettlement programme whoseresults have been marginal. Out of an expected 162 000 families to have beenresettled between 1980 and 1985, only 36 000 families had been resettled by1985. Although not mentioned in the book, this is partly due to the failure bygovernment to articulate an agrarian and land reform policy.Similar conclusions can be gleaned from reading the chapters on themanufacturing and mining sectors. In these sectors over 70 per cent of the capitalstock is foreign owned. Government attempts to alter this have been half-heartedand ad hoc. In the case of manufacturing, 'little progress has been made in theformulation of a comprehensive industrialisation strategy' (p. 92).There is not much to disagree with in the book, since it seems intended mainlyas a source of information rather than an evaluation of transformation inZimbabwe. However, one can take issue with Roussos's conclusion thatminimum wages caused unemployment after their institution. Data supplied inthe book show that employment levels have been falling since 1980, suggestingthat unemployment is largely due to other chronic causes, rather than justminimum wages. We therefore need to distinguish between initiating andpropagating causes of unemployment; minimum wages merely propagateunemployment.On the whole the book makes pleasant and easy reading. Anyone seekingfactual information on the progress and direction of policy in Zimbabwe isadvised to read this book.University of Zimbabwe K. MLAMBOWhite Man, Black WarifyA Moore-King. Harare, Baobab Books, 1988,140 pp.,ISBN 0-908311-17-9, Z$9.96.This unusual and impressively produced book strings together a series ofexperiences from the war in Zimbabwe Š atrocities, dramatic conversations,macabre fancies Š with a view, it seems, to writing a harrowing elegy to theBlacks who were killed, an acerbic indictment of the Whites who promoted thewar, and a plea to Whites in independent Zimbabwe to commit themselveswithout reservation to the new society. Written by a soldier who served in variousunits of the Rhodesian Security Forces it is an attempt to bring Whites to behonest with their past and their relation to the present. The past as told in horrificincidents of callous brutality by Whites on Blacks is particularly ugly because so208 BOOK REVIEWSlacking in human compassion. Soldiers are presented as zombies, roamingthrough the country 'tired, filthy, hot, irritable, bored' (p. 13). They have beendehydrated of sympathy and reflection by 'the elders' in government whothemselves are victims of myths about White civilization. Moore-King writes notfrom guilt, he says, but from a desire to see the past for what it was Šdehumanized and dehumanizing.One of the strengths of his account and an interesting difference from that,say, of the reports of the Justice and Peace Commission Š The Man in the Middleor Civil War in Rhodesia} Š is the terse dramatic manner of the prose. At timesthe writing is lyrically violent. It is designed to recapture the speed andruthlessness of the action, as if to confirm the point that there was no desire, norindeed time, for reflection or analysis. The very layout on the page is often used todraw attention to the beguiling attraction of action for action's sake.But these very points also make this an intensely personal account ofparticular aspects of the war, and this has its limitations. The book is the credo of aman who fell victim to the Smith ideology. He fought without question for theSmith regime and returned to Zimbabwe after Independence shocked by a pastwhich the outside world and many inside it could have told him was shockinglong before the war ended. The shock prompts him to write an imaginative rerunof that past in order to put it in a moral perspective. At moments in the bookcertain Whites are shown as still caught up in that nightmare, and others continueto speak the language of the 'elders', but the thrust of the book is that Whitesshould put the past behind them and commit themselves to the new Zimbabwe.Praiseworthy sentiments, but hardly original.However, the book is evocative of experiences and attitudes which maybecome increasingly difficult for future generations to credit. They were thestumbling blocks and set the price for Independence. Told as they are with thefrank immediacy of one who participated on the side of the Security Forces theyare a reminder of the awful past which the nation has had to recover from.University of Zimbabwe T. O. MCLOUGHLIN' Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Rhodesia, The Man in the Middle: RhodesiaApril 1975 (Salisbury. The Commission. 1975); Civil War in Rhodesia: Abduction, Torture andDeath in the Counter-Insurgency Campaign (Salisbury, The Commission. 1976).