Zambezia (1990), XVII (ii).BOOK REVIEWSAfrican Nemesis: War and Revolution in Southern Africa (1945-2010) ByP. Moorcraft. (London, Brasseys, 1990), xxix, 519pp., ISBN 0-08-366715-1,£36,00.Making predictions is a difficult business; it is a pity that Moorcraft failedto end his otherwise excellent review of modern African confrontations in,say, 1990; the release of Nelson Mandela would have been a good date,rather than the ethereal regions of the next century. To carry his discussionon to 2010 damaged a pretty good read Š but only just.My first question at the end of reading it was, Is this the same PaulMoorcraft who wrote A Short Thousand Years?1 That was a sort of laugh-along-with-me look at the Rhodesian war which didn't really add up tomuch but which did reveal Moorcraft's admiration for the White Establish-ment of Rhodesia which in 1979 was getting itself ready to go undergroundfor a short thousand days or so.African Nemesis is something else: a well-researched (on the whole)and ably-written book which I hope will win a place on the shelves of thoseinvolved in the re-shaping of the Southern African region. Hopefully, it willalso land on the desks of editorial writers and columnists in this countrywho seem to have hazy recollections about what happened to whom andwhen. It is hard to remember such facts in Africa when you don't keep adiary.Paul Moorcraft has an attractive, almost racy writing style and seemsto know the difference between a story and propaganda fed to willingreporters eager to travel under the auspices of the SADF or Rhodesiandefence forces. It is a very dangerous business to rely too heavily onnewspaper cuttings from the 1970s, a time when nearly every reporterclaimed a commitment to some large cause in this part of Africa. Thereporting of the mysterious but still very important death of HerbertChitepo in Lusaka in March 1975 is a case in point.Yet, despite the excellence of some of the research and a few well-chosen interviews with people Moorcraft obviously liked at a personallevel (including, for example, this country's former CIO boss, Ken Flower),I cannot see this book being much more than a handy reference tool in adecade's time. That is not a failure on the author's part; it is just that thetitle is too big and too ambitious to be wholly successful. History will notstart being written in this part of the world for at least another 25 years Šwhen the sinners and the sinned against are dead or in wheelchairs andare less ready to snap at authors through hungry lawyers.We are just beginning to get truly fascinated by what went on inStalin's Russia, which is a very long time ago when you compare thosedays with more recent events in Angola, Mozambique, Rhodesia, Zimbabweand South Africa.Personally, I'd have been happier to read a book entitled 'AfricanNemesis: A Personal Memoir' with Moorcraft calling upon his not1 P. Moorcraft, A Short Thousand Years (Salisbury, Galaxie Press, 1979).185186 BOOK REVIEWSinconsiderable journalistic skills in order to paint a picture of past andpresent events rather to prophesy future ones. I would have loved to havesmelt an Angolan morning in Moorcraft's book; tasted a meal of whateverwith whomever around a table in Salisbury as Ken Flower gave his oftenamazing version of things that happened and things about to come; andexperienced what it felt like to be on a long march in UNITA countryduring the Angolan Civil War.To conclude: it's worth having this book for its factual informationin which month did Mandela get released? When was the Jameson Raid?Pass me my Moorcraft, will you?Hamre T. GRUNDYReligion and Society: A Text for Africa By M. F. C. Bourdillon GweruMambo Press, 1990, 406 pp., ISBN 0-86922-492-1, Z$39,50.Bourdillon is interested in the functions of religions in various societiesand in the processes by which religions fulfil these functions. This well-organized, well-written book is also well designed to fill the purposeimplied in the subtitle. It is 'for Africa' partly because some themes whichprovide the focus for the chapters, for example witchcraft, are of particular,though not exclusive, interest in Africa, and partly because a larger thanusual number of illustrative examples are drawn from African societies.Beginners in the study of religion will welcome the book's overallthematic structure as it leads them fairly easily to subjects of interest, forexample, 'Authority and Power', 'Ritual', and 'Religious Change and Seculari-zation'. Teachers will appreciate the way Bourdillon has integrated theor-etical material with accounts of religious practices in various societies.Each chapter presents a selection of societal examples of the chapter'stheme and offers theoretical perspectives for interpreting them. Thesetwo aspects make it well suited for a college or university course introducingreligious studies from a sociological perspective or introducing thesociology of religion as a discipline.A further strertgthof the book as a scholarly tool is its documentation,which leads the reader on to a wide range of relevant literature, bothstudies of particular religious traditions (in Africa and elsewhere) andmethodological works. Thus it can guide the student beyond the beginningparticularly if he or she has access to an adequate library.As I am trained in philosophy and theology I am not equipped tocriticize the author's approach or treatment of his subject itself. I canobserve, however, that his approach seems inclusive, if not comprehensivein as much as interpreters cited cover a broad range of analytical models'I like this. Bourdillon's approach does not appear to be doctrinaire Hennds value for some interpretive purpose in all the methods to which hereters leachers with particular methodological preferences (or axes togrind) will thus not find their students confused by another strong biasbut simply informed.