94 BOOK REVIEWSBut this study does not limit itself to the level of descriptive analysis.Professor Verstraelen's main concern is to facilitate what he calls 'GlobalIntercommunion through Intercontinental Communication'.Christianity in a New Key Š or in New Keys? Š raises many intriguingquestions. One is where the new and more aggressive North Americanmissions, which Paul Gifford studied some years ago, fit into this vision ofa global Christianity with many centres. Another is more profound andhas to do with hermeneutics. How are these new centres to be identified?The classical issue of the relation of 'a portion of a text' to 'the text asa whole' returns in any attempt to define what are characteristic featuresof Christianity Š or Islam for that matter Š within as well as outside theirtraditional centres. Handling this issue Professor Verstraelen moves in thedirection of defining main themes or core-motifs in different contexts,which can enrich each other in an exchange across continental andcontextual boundaries. This is a loaded proposition and the purpose ofthe author had been better served if he had devoted greater attention tothis issue of hermeneutics. Instead he moves fast on to resources andtechniques for the kind of intercontinental communication which he pleadsfor.The matter of interpretation is not just an internal academic issue. Ithas profound pedagogical implications. When we know what arerepresentative theological concerns in different religious and socialenvironments Š and how to get access to them! Š it is easier to conveythese concerns in another context. Professor Verstraelen shares, of course,this pedagogical concern, as the book is presented as a handbook for'anyone interested in the significance of Christianity in our world todayand tomorrow'. Hopefully the reader will not go astray in the rich collectionof loaded quotes and theological variations.University of Zimbabwe CARL F. HALLENCREUTZThe Mining Sector in Southern Africa Edited by Paul Jordan. Harare,SAPES Trust, 1994, 117 pp, ISBN 1-77905-006-2, Z$70.This book comprises a collection of papers presented at a workshop on'Prospects of the Mining Sector in SADCC held in Lusaka, Zambia, in 1991.It provides a detailed and analytical assessment of the past and presentimportance of the mining sector in the region and highlights the factorsthat have negatively affected its performance.The book proposes that, in the light of the recent demise of apartheidand the birth of the new democratic South Africa, Southern Africancountries should devise appropriate strategies to make the region's miningBOOK REVIEWS 95sector more productive and efficient. Among these are the integration ofthe region's mining economies and the adoption of a common policy onthe production and marketing of minerals. The book also recommendsthat efforts should be made to promote economic diversification in theregion in order to lessen Southern Africa's unhealthy dependence onmineral exports, which are an exhaustible resource whose terms of tradeare constantly declining.Measures should also be taken to increase the region's capacity toprocess minerals into 'intermediate and finished products' and to establishregional producer organisations whose main role would be to 'maintainterms of trade and to husband resources by limiting supply'. Collectiveefforts to ensure the future prosperity of the mining sector should, however,guard against the danger of the giant economy of South Africa dominatingthe rest of the countries in the region.The book should be of great interest to policy makers in SouthernAfrica since it highlights both the historical and present characteristics ofthe mining sector in the region, analyses the problems confronting it andthe impediments which have prevented it from realising its full potentialand makes recommendations about possible future paths of development.It is evident that, with the changed socio-political and economic climate inSouthern Africa, following the democratisation of South Africa, the roleand focus of the Southern African Development Coordination Conference(SADCC), now the Southern African Development Community (SADC),needs extensive review in order to make it more relevant to the needs ofthe region.The book should also be of value to the students of Southern Africa'spolitical economy, not only because it contains a wealth of detail on thenature, volume and character of mining sectors in each of the SouthernAfrican countries, but also because it provides a very useful comparativedimension in which developments in each country are seen within thebroader regional and global context over time.What academic researchers will find somewhat disappointing, however,is the total absence of footnotes throughout the book. Researchers whowish to consult the original sources of the statistics, quotations and otherpertinent information used in the book thus have no guidance as to wherethe material came from. They essentially have to take the authors'statements on trust.Also disconcerting is the failure by the editor to update those sectionsof the book which had, by 1995, become outdated. One example of this willsuffice. On page 4, it is claimed that the only remnant of apartheid'sConstellation of States (CONSAS) scheme is the South African DevelopmentBank (SADB), which 'now funds projects in South Africa's Bantustans!There are also occasions when the present tense is used to refer to96 BOOK REVIEWSapartheid South Africa's destabilisation of neighbouring countries eventhough, by 1995, apartheid was no more. These problems arise, of course,out of the fact that the papers incorporated in the book were writtenseveral years before 1995.These minor errors notwithstanding, The Mining Sector is a significantand welcome contribution to Southern African economic discourse and auseful addition to the growing scholarship on the political economy of theregion in general and the history of the mining sector in particular.University of Zimbabwe A. S. MLAMBOTraditional Healers and Childhood in Zimbabwe By Pamela Reynolds.Athens, Ohio University Press, 1996, 183 pp., ISBN 0-8214-1121-7.The author must be congratulated for tackling a task that badly neededattention. The book deals with traditional healing as it relates to childrenand childhood in Zimbabwe. We knew very little about the role of childrenin the practice of traditional medicine in Zimbabwe. The first chapterexamines the process of acquiring traditional medical knowledge. Likemany of us, Professor Reynolds is impressed with the amount of technicaland other kinds of knowledge that traditional healers have. On thepossession of technical knowledge, she observed that many traditionalhealers know an impressive amount about flora and fauna. They have awide range of information and show fine discrimination in their observationand classification of leaves, stems, roots, fruits, flowers and bark. They areable to distinguish plants on the basis of taste, touch, smell and theirappearance across the seasons.The author sought to discover from whom, at what age, with whatleeway for Innovation, and in accord with what checks and balancestraditional healers learn the use of plants, symbolic systems, and socialand psychological analysis. The findings are interesting. The author hasshown that much of this knowledge is not acquired in adulthood; somechildren are provided the opportunity and encouragement to acquirespecialised skills and information to do with healing.There are many traditional healers who claim that much of theirknowledge is revealed to them in dreams. Chapter 2 traces Zezuru healers'dreams as part of the repertoire available to them for the constitution ofself and for the direction of others. In addition she sees the use of dreamsas part of their strategy for coping with contigencies of their upbringing.Dreams are also viewed as a part of the description of self and help tomake connections between personal problems and the burden of an epochbetween the present and the past.