BOOK REVIEWS 193The People of the Great River: The Tonga Hoped the Water WouldFollow Them By Fr Michael Tremmel and The River Tonga People. SilveiraHouse Social Series No. 9. Gweru, Mambo Press in association withSilveira House, 1994, 76 pp., ISBN 0-56922-600-2.Michael Tremmel worked as a priest among the Tonga in the Binga Districtof Zimbabwe for eight years, from 1986-1994. This book is his farewell giftto the people. The book gathers memories and reflections, and a fewsongs, from 17 elderly Tonga men and women. The author providesbackground information and some commentary, together with someconcluding reflections about the plight of the Tonga people.One would expect memories of life before the Kariba dam was built tobe somewhat romanticised. There are no surprises on this score.Nevertheless, the memories point to good things that were taken awayfrom the people. The pain of the move is well depicted. The people talkabout their losses, and also about some gains in their life today. They talkabout their problems, from wildlife (which they are no longer allowed tohunt but which destroy their crops) to government officials who lookdown on them and do not listen. They talk also about their beliefs andculture.The book is attractively presented, well illustrated by Loes Roos. Ithas both charm and information.University of Zimbabwe M. F. C. BOURDILLONSmall Town Africa: Studies in Rural-urban Interaction Edited by JonathanBaker. Uppsala, The Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1990, 268pp., ISBN 91-7106-305-6.The book consists of 14 papers organized thematically into four sections:planning for small urban centres in the national context; economicnetworks, small enterprises and entrepreneurship; urban-rural linkages,opportunities and survival strategies; and the constraints and distortionsimposed by state policies. The purposes of the volume are, firstly, tostimulate debate and further research interests on the topic 'urbandevelopment in rural context in Africa' and, secondly, to illustrate some ofthe complexity, range and intensity of the small towns and theirrelationships with the rural hinterland.The first section on planning includes papers on Botswana (Silitshena),Kenya (Obudho and Aduwo) and Nigeria (Egunjobi). These illustrate theneed for planners to look at the particular local circumstances, which caninvolve different kinds of rural-urban linkages.On economic networks, Pedersen argues from the historicaldevelopment of small towns in Denmark that it is important to tap theentrepreneurial spirit of small enterprises. In contrast, Rasmussen fails tounderstand the rationale of entrepreneurs in Gutu, Zimbabwe. Wekwete,writing on Zimbabwe, locates the growth of towns in the context of post-colonial policies of rural development.