Zambezia (1997), XXIV (i).BOOK REVIEWSSouth Africa: The Dynamics and Prospects of Transformation (1900-1994) Edited by Sipho Buthelezi. Harare, Sapes Trust, 1994, 134 pp., ISBN 1-77905-033-X, Z$80.After reading Ibbo Mandaza's appetising Foreword, one looks forward to asumptuous main course. At the end of the book, many readers are likely tobe disappointed and yearning for a livelier, more rigorous and coherentanalytical account of 'the dynamics and prospects of transformation inSouth Africa'. In fact, there is very little on the prospects of transformationin this volume. But the book has some redeeming chapters. The lastbastion of White political hegemony in Africa, and arguably the continent'smost powerful state, South Africa, 'naturally' commands considerableinterest even beyond academic circles. The task that Buthelezi sets forhimself and his five colleagues from diverse disciplinary backgrounds is toengage in a developmental analysis of the liberation struggle in SouthAfrica.In Buthelezi's introductory chapter, the editor seeks to provide aconceptual framework for the book, one that is anchored in a historicalmaterialist paradigm. His thesis is that 'the national and class dimensionsof the national liberation struggle are inseparable' (p. 9) and contends thatimperialism is 'the fundamental contradiction with the revolutionaryworking people of South Africa' (p. 10). However, if this approach wasdesigned to provide a conceptual orientation for the rest of the book, itdid not have the desired effect. For the most part, the other contributorsdo not employ or even share these concepts and theoretical perspectives.As a consequence, the volume lacks a central organising concept and acoherent, unifying theoretical approach.Contrary to Buthelezi's position, Devan Pillay tells us that the tripartitealliance comprising the ANC, COSATU and the SACP was a 'multi-classalliance' (p. 23) riven apart by ideological, racial, strategic, tactical, classand gender conflicts. In turn, Molefe Mafole highlights the raciallyexclusivist character of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and its slogan,'Africa for the Africans', and not 'Africa for the Workers'. The five essaysby Pillay, Molefe Mafole, Phil Mtimkuli, Mokgethi Motlhabi and DesireeLewis all focus on a particular political organisation or movement withinthe South African struggle. A recurring theme Š which serves as somekind of unifying thread Š is one of tension, schisms, shifts and turns allsimultaneously or episodically manifesting themselves along severalfaultlines and polarisations defined principally in terms of race, class,generation, ideology and gender.In an incisive account of the Fanonist-like Black ConsciousnessMovement (BCM), Motlhabi outlines and analyses the BCM's philosophy87BOOK REVIEWSof struggle, its strengths and limitations and is all the time cognisant of thebewildering complexity and permutations of the South African 'question'.This chapter gives the reader a good insight into the dynamics of thestruggle, the range of actors involved, their diverse agendas and differingconceptualisations of the nature of the liberation struggle and the modalitiesof achieving it. I liked this chapter.Another good chapter is the last one by Lewis. Using an approachembedded in gender analysis rather than radical political economy, shenotes the 'complex intertwining of race, class and gender' (p. 112) in theSouth African liberation struggle. Her treatment of the interface betweengender struggles and liberatory politics is refreshingly penetrating. Shesystematically discusses the place of gender struggles in the context ofthe larger, more pressing and encompassing struggle for national liberationand concludes that the dominant stream within this national struggle was'emphatically phallocentric' i.e., male-centred (p. 117). Lewis persuasivelyargues that in South Africa, unlike in the Western world, the struggleagainst patriarchal structures and sexism was just one amongst otherpower struggles. Lewis does a commendable job in explicating theproblematic and ambiguous relationship of the women's movement in theNational Liberation Struggle.The book can be faulted on a number of grounds. It fails to recognise,let alone probe, the salience of the ethnic factor in the liberation dynamicsof South Africa. Ethnicity was already a deeply troublesome variable wellbefore the book was on the drawing board. One suspects that in line withthe revolutionary intellectual discourse at the time (though already losingits glitter), ethnicity was summarily dismissed as 'false consciousness'that would happily wither away through the healing powers of time.One is also tempted to ask loudly: 'Where is Mandela in this book?'The lack of any sustained treatment of this towering figure with an obviousmessianic aura and who was central in the democratisation process inSouth Africa is surely going to astound many a reader. The timing of thebook is also regrettable. Many momentous and tumultuous events haveintervened between the writing and reading of the book such that it isalready outdated. There is very little on the dynamics that culminated inthe 'miracle' transition to the 1994 election and the dethronement ofapartheid as a ruling ideology. Similarly, the book is grossly deficient onthe 'prospects' of transformation in South Africa. The reader will also missa summarising chapter that synthesises the various themes and ideas inthe book. I am also baffled by the reference on the back cover to 'SouthAfrica's attainment of independence in 1994 . . .' when what happened inthat country was its democratisation.Lastly, the editor could surely have done a more meticulous job inpicking the numerous editorial and typographical errors and in insistingBOOK REVIEWS 89on a consistent referencing style rather than allowing the free for all that isevident in the volume. Notwithstanding these criticisms, the book hassomething to offer to political scientists and historians, and it does suggestpromising areas of investigation. That may well be the book's principalstrength.University of Zimbabwe E. MASUNUNGUREPeace and Security in Southern Africa Edited by Ibbo Mandaza. Harare,Sapes Trust, 1996, xxiii, 183 pp., ISBN 1-77905-048-8.We have in this edited volume a collection of five essays that furnish animportant contribution to the study of peace and security in SouthernAfrica. This is an outcome of three years' research under the auspices ofthe International Relations Division of the Southern African RegionalInstitute for Policy Studies (SARIPS), the Research and Publications arm ofSAPES Trust. This study with an 'Introduction' by Ibbo Mandaza, sought toexamine, and interact with, the current discourse on peace and security inSouthern Africa.The Southern African region, for many decades, has been a theatre ofwars and conflicts. The people of the region had to wage wars associatedwith the liberation of the region from colonialism, settler and apartheidsystems of domination and racism. Naturally these wars and conflicts ledto an increase in the flow and circulation of arms in the region. These warsand conflicts have now come to an end over the past three years, and theregion as a whole is now under democratically elected governments.It is for this reason that the study under review has adopted an all-encompassing definition of peace and security, reflecting a qualitativedevelopment of the discourse, from that which conventionally viewedthese concepts as captured in the purely militaristic, to that whichconsiders them in the context of fundamental social relations, at theglobal, inter-state and intra-state levels. Peace and Security in SouthernAfrica covers five chapters, each with a different task but linked togetherand designed to build upon each other. The 'Introduction' by Ibbo Mandazaprovides an overview, as well as contending analytic approaches to issuesof peace and security at global and regional levels.The five chapters in the book are illuminating and valuable. HoraceCampbell's chapter, 'From regional military destabilisation to militarycooperation and peace in Southern Africa', in particular, does acommendable job in reminding readers of UNESCO's definition of peace:There can be no genuine peace when the most elementary human rightsare violated or while situations of injustice continue to exist; Conversely