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.194 BOOK REVIEWSThe five case studies on rural-urban linkages comprise the mostinteresting part of the book. These graphically show how in differentcircumstances people adopt different but buoyant survival strategies.Ornas discusses how ethnicity functions as an important factor forpastoralists turned townsmen in East Africa, not only in terms of settlementpatterns but also for resource access. Andreasen with reference to Kenyashows how splitting a household into rural and urban sections functionsto reduce costs of living in an urban environment. The strategy alsoensures benefits from ethnic networks. Vaa describes female migration tourban areas in Bamako, Mali, as a consciously adopted survival strategy.Schlyter focusses on survival strategies of female-headed households.Where primary access to land is vested in men, women have weaker tieswith the rural areas. Consequently, they invest more in urban networks,where they hope to stay permanently. Finally in this section, Aina examinesthe fragmentation of land holdings in Lagos, and the leasing of small plotsto the urban poor, giving them some access to land.In the final section, Bake (Ethiopia), Gould and Michels (Zambia) andAhmed and Sin (Sudan) examine the limitations created by the statepolicies on small urban centres. Such policies can reflect a high degree ofcentralization as in the case of Ethiopia; a progressive marginalizationresulting in highly exploitative centre-periphery relationships as shownby the Zambian case study; or a process of political manipulation ofsettlement policies as in the Sudan.The twin objectives of the volume have been achieved. Theestablishment of the programme on urban development in rural contextsin Africa at the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies is an attempt tostimulate empirical studies, rather than to provide a new theoreticalapproach. Some authors, like Wekwete, Gould and Macaws, findproblematic the concept of urban development in rural contexts. None ofthe papers questions the notion of rural development. Although theintroductory chapter attempts to show the shortcomings of strategies fordevelopment based on centres for growth, most of the papers simplyaccept such strategies. They stress the importance of local actors,mediators and local institutions, to the neglect of macro processes. Thereis no mention of how structural adjustment and stabilization programmeshave affected the development and urban-rural linkages in particular.A major shortcoming of most of the papers, with the exception of Vaaand Schlyter, is insensitivity to issues of gender in questions ofdevelopment. The authors do not address the nature of gender relationsin either the rural or urban contexts. The urban is masculine and the ruralis feminine, to be exploited! More women's voices are needed.This book nevertheless presents some interesting data on issues ofpractical concern to people involved in development planning and research.The papers fill a void by providing a data-base grounded on empiricalresearch. The book will certainly be useful to both practitioners andacademics interested in small urban centres and rural-urban interaction.The presentations are readable and at times stimulating.University of Zimbabwe V. N. MUZVIDZIWA