Politics and Economics in Africa: A SynthesisThe Political Economy of Africa by Richard HarrisReview by: Sanford WrightAfrica Today, Vol. 23, No. 3, Southern Africa and U.S. Foreign Policy (Jul. - Sep., 1976), p. 87Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4185626 .

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Politics and Economics in Africa: A Synthesis Sanford Wright

Richard Harris editor, THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF AFRICA(Cambridge, Massachusetts; Schenkman Publishing Company, Inc., 1975) $15.95 cloth, $6.95 paper, 270 pp.

Richard Harris writes an introduction and presents five articles on African countries: Emily Card on Ghana, Barbara Callaway on Nigeria, Lionel Cliffe on Kenya and Tanzania, Dennis Dresang on Zambia and Martin Legassick on South Africa. The introduction is a general presentation of the basic concepts of dependency theory and underdevelopment. Harris borrows heavily from Andre Frank, including the title "Underdevelopment or Revolution." The five articles on African countries each trace the interrelationships of political and economic structures from the pre-colonial period to the present, emphasizing the most salient features of the various economies, e.g. cocoa in Ghana, copper in Zambia and racism in South Africa. Limitations of development via capitalism, such as denationalization of indigenous capital, and capital flows to the metropole, are emphasized.

This reviewer's two major criticisms are that there is very little connection between the articles, and that solutions and viable alternatives are not discussed. A sense of interconnectedness and an analysis of similarities should be an essential element in any volume of diverse topics. A summary presen- tation rather than a lengthy general introduction would have served this pur- pose and vastly improved the volume.

The colonial contribution to the state of underdevelopment, the state of underdevelopment of most African countries, and the limitations of develop- ment along capitalist lines is now evident. Although revolutions may well be needed to solve the problems of underdevelopment, mere statements to this effect do little to further solution formation. A revolution is needed in South Africa, not to solve the problems of underdevelopment, as it is the most developed country on the continent, but to distribute the gains from develop- ment amongst the African masses and to end the apartheid system. A revolution may be needed in Kenya, but it would be counterproductive in Tanzania, which is the most underdeveloped of the countries mentioned. Lionel Cliffe presents some of the alternatives to the Tanzanian model but he fails to analyze the economic viability and implications of these alternatives. Almost ten years have passed since the Arusha Declaration and such an analysis is essential. Emily Card documents the failures of the Nkrumah regime, politically and economically, but fails to mention his accomplishments, which were numerous. A comparison of accomplishments as well as failures is essential in an analysis of the viability of the socialist model in an African context.

This volume is a good introduction to the problems of dependence and underdevelopment in African countries, and their political/economic in- terconnections. Persons unfamiliar with the colonial antecedents of the present structures will find it particularly useful.

Sanford Wright is 6 student at the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

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