286 BOOK REVIEWSinto the rigour of modelling of financial theory, it has some usefulreferences for further readings.University of Zimbabwe DANIEL MAKINAThe Dominican Friars in Southern Africa: A Social History, 1577-1990By Phillipe Denis, Leiden, Boston, Massachusetts, Brill AcademicPublishers, 1998, 322 pp, ISBN 0-924-9389, £53,92.Studies on the work of the Dominican friars in Southern Africa abound.They range from specific works such as Mudenge.1 to general works suchas Axelson2 and Mudenge.3 This is in addition to numerous works inPortuguese. Each of the above studies, however, focuses only on specificperiods and areas of Southern Africa; none covers the entire SouthernAfrican region as a whole. In contrast, Denis sets out to provide a morecomprehensive coverage of the region and over a longer period than anyof the above studies. In his words, he sought to gather "in a singlenarrative the disparate stories of Dominican friars in Southern Africaover the past four centuries" (p. ix). This is a daunting task by anystandard, particularly since the Dominicans who worked in SouthernAfrica belonged to no less than five different entities: the Portuguese,Irish, English and Dutch and the Southern African vicariate. Moreover,'four centuries is an awfully long period to cover in one volume and mayeasily lead to superficial treatment of some periods and themes. Theseproblems are somewhat mitigated by the fact that Denis is a member ofthe Dominican Religious Order. As an "insider", therefore, he was able toaccess information that would otherwise be unavailable to lay researchers.The book is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 deals with thePortuguese Dominicans in Southeast Africa. It argues that the beginningof the Dominican enterprise in South-eastern Africa was facilitated by theclose relationship between the Crown and the Cross. Dominicans actedas agents of the Portuguese Crown in facilitating Portuguese imperialPolicies, in return for financial assistance and military protection. Thiscooperation lasted until the nineteenth century, when a conflict developeder the extent of the state's jurisdiction over Dominican affairs. Overe years> the Dominicans had become increasingly independent. Thisthe £^^^^^ : An aspect of missionary history inS fr^vr" (1973"> PortuSuese in South-East Africa 1600-1700 (Johannesburg. C Struik).ZPH) Muden8e (1988) A Political History of the Munhumutapa c 1400-1902 (Harare,BOOK REVIEWS 28;alarmed the state which then decided to replace them with "secularclergy" and thus expelled the Dominicans from South-eastern Africa in1834; marking the end of 260 years of Dominican presence in the region.Also explored in this chapter were the conflicts between the Dominicansand the Jesuits as they fought for spheres of influence. The chapter endswith a discussion of the reasons for the failure of the Dominican enterprisein South-eastern Africa.The work of the Irish Dominicans is the subject of Chapter 2. Througha biographical study of Bishop Patrick Griffith, the author examines theestablishment of the Catholic Church in the Cape Colony. He points outthat, although Griffith's strategy of concentrating only on the white settlersresembled that of the Portuguese Dominicans in South-eastern Africa, hewas more successful in his venture. This was partly because he enjoyed ahigh degree of independence to devise and implement his ownprogrammes and also was financially more stable because of the stipendthat he received regularly from government.Chapters 3 and 4 deal with the British and Dutch Dominicans,respectively. The English were the first to establish themselves in SouthAfrica, to be followed by the Dutch when it became clear that culturaldifferences between the English Dominicans and the Dutch population ofSouth Africa reduced the effectiveness of their ministry. As in the case ofthe Portuguese and the Irish, the thrust of the English enterprise wastowards the white settler community. It was only in the 1920s that therewas talk of extending missionary work to the indigenous people. Evidencethat ministering to the indigenous South Africans was consideredsecondary was the fact that those missionaries who concentrated onwork in this sector of the population were discriminated against. Accordingto one source, "the white priest was a parish priest. He had a car. Thepriest serving the black lived with him, was fed by him and usually had abicycle. If the former was away, the other was expected to drop his blackpeople and serve the whites" (p. 119). The Dominicans thus practised apolicy of "separate development" in South Africa long before the formalintroduction of apartheid.In Chapter 5, Denis argues that it was only after the introduction ofapartheid when the problems associated with missionary work amongblacks surfaced that the decision to train an indigenous clergy was taken.By then, the Group Areas Act was making it-difficult for the Dominicans tocontinue to live with their flock in those areas designated as Africanlocations. Also important was the growing political consciousness amongAfrican Christians, fuelled by such, organisations as the BlackConsciousness Movement, Black Sash, Catholic Students Association ofSouth Africa and Young Christian Workers and the deportation of anumber of Dominicans by the South African authorities. It was only in288 BOOK REVIEWS1968, however, that the training of indigenous clergy commenced. Chapter6 traces the activities and role of the Dominicans in Apartheid SouthAfrica and argues that the Dominicans took long to join the fight againstapartheid mainly because their Religious Order comprised only whites.In the 1970s, they concentrated their criticisms only on those apartheidlaws that directly affected their work. By the 1980s, however, they hadbecome one of the most vocal and militant groups in the fight againstapartheid.The Dominican Friars in Southern Africa is an impressive book exceptfor a few shortcomings that could have been easily avoided. For instance,the chronological approach that the author uses falters somewhat inChapters 3 and 4, for, although the English were the first to establishthemselves in South Africa before the Dutch, for much of the nineteenthand twentieth centuries, the two worked side by side. The author'streatment of the two groups within a chronological framework thus is notentirely appropriate. Also regrettable is the fact that the author usessome specialist terms without explaining to the non-specialist readerwhat these mean. A glossary of terms explaining the meaning of suchwords as "padroado", "tostao", "postulant", "aggiornamento", and "socius",among others, would have been useful. In addition, closer editing toeliminate a number of irritating typos and grammatical errors would alsohave improved the book. Finally, although the book claims to cover thehistory of Dominicans in Southern Africa, it, in fact, focuses only on theZambezi Valley and South Africa and does not discuss experiences in therest of Southern Africa. In that sense, therefore, it shares the samelimitations as the studies listed at the beginning of this review.These shortcomings, notwithstanding, Denis' book is a significantcontribution to knowledge of the forces that helped shape the history ofSouthern Africa and provides a mine of information on the Dominicans'activities in those areas that it examines. It should prove particularlyuseful to historians of the missionary enterprise in Africa, scholars ofreligion, seminarians, university students and anyone who has an interestin understanding the dynamics of church, state and society in a colonialsetting.University of Zimbabwe SlBONGlLE MHLABA