Two recent conferences illustrate on-going debates in African studies and dramatically reflect some of the major issues in African politics. Convening in Addis Ababa, December 9-19,1973, the Third International Congress of Africanists adopted a broad theme: “The Economic, Social, Political, Scientific and Cultural Development of Africa.“ The Ninth Annual Social Science Conference of the East African Universities, which met in Dar es Salaam, December 18-20, 1973, focused on “Rural Development.“

For generations, Blacks in southern Africa have tried one expedient after another to promote change in the highly discriminatory conditions under which they live. In choosing to concentrate in this lecture on certain specific approaches made in recent years by African and American Blacks to achieve this purpose, there is no intention of underrating these long and persistent attempts made in earlier periods and also by many others. Insofar as this paper is infused with a basic assumption, however, it is that Blacks must unite their efforts within and across national and continental boundaries and use the widest range of pressures if there is to be a chance of creating basic change in colonial and minority-ruled southern Africa.

In most countries ordinary people do not appreciate the sheer guile of their political leaders. Rhodesia is no exception. The dealings between the government and the African National Council confirm it. The government interrupted its dialogue with the ANC by detaining thirtythree senior ANC officials without trial, effectively destroying the cohesion of the only black political organization in the country. To the white voter, who sees no further than the surface of events, the detentions represented a simple exercise of executive power. In fact the government could not act in as sudden and arbitrary a fashion as that. It had to choose the time for its action with care, and to some extent it had to prepare the white electorate to accept what happened without question.

This article is excerpted from a study sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace which began in the summer of 1973. The work was conceived as a relatively limited inquiry into the role of planning in disaster relief, and as it progressed, the scope of the study broadened to include other dimensions of the United States and United Nations response to the tragedy in the Sahel. What follows, however, is but a fragment of the complex story of the disaster and the continuing international relief effort. It is mainly an account of how the crisis was dealt with by the U.S. government. As such, it is only a beginning of the research and analysis that should be prompted by this catastrophe.

In a foreword to this substantial book (972 pages) the publishers claim that it is “the first comprehensive guide to the entire African continent and it is written with an authority and candor that bespeak the special qualifications of its authors.” In my opinion this claim is fully justified. The challenge presented by the task of offering a detailed, authoritative, perceptive and frank description of an area as vast, varied and complex as contemporary Africa, is not to be underestimated. In introducing their readers to fifty-seven different territories (some of them islands which, I am sure, some Africanists have not heard of) and offering guidance as to what should be seen, heard, touched, tasted, and understood about their people, arts, food, beliefs, and ideas, the authors have responded to that challenge with conspicuous success.

Areas of the world classified as less than developed tend to have a relatively inflexible economic system dominated by an agricultural sector with low levels of productivity, a rudimentary industrial sector plagued by inefficient methods of production utilizing antiquated technologies, a semi-literate population with little chance of bettering itself because of sheer numbers and a rigid social system, a high level of unemployment or underemployment, and a limited infrastructure. All of these characteristics contribute to low real per capita income, difficulties in finding export markets, and an environment of economic stagnation. Modernization, which includes both economic development and social mobilization, is difficult to achieve.

A recent book by Anthony S. Mathews bears the sort of impressive title which will no doubt attract a much wider readership than the limited audience of legal and constitutional law specialists which the author in his preface appoints for the work. Law, Order and Liberty in South Africa (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1972) will excite the interest of many people both in and outside South Africa who have come to associate law and order in that country not with liberty and freedom but with the very processes and mechanisms of its denial. The reader's hope will be for insight into how law and order in South Africa—up to now an implement of repression and an aid to the securing of privilege for a racial minority—might be employed for the reversal of present conditions. Those less optimistic would be content with an analysis of the place and role of law in a society characterized by racial discrimination. The expectations of most readers will remain unfulfilled.