The Uncertain Promise of Southern AfricaEdited by York Bradshaw and Stephen N. Ndegwa
Analyses of the problems and prospects for Southern Africa as a region in the post-apartheid era.
In the 1970s and 1980s Indiana University Press published a series of books edited by Gwendolen Carter and others on economic and political conditions in Southern Africa during the apartheid era. The Uncertain Promise of Southern Africa is a return to that successful format in the post-apartheid era. Leading scholars analyze the economic, political, social, and cultural conditions in Southern Africa and the prospects for the region. The first part of the book examines the current political and development situation in six countries -- South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Angola, and Mozambique. The second part focuses on issues of enduring importance in the region -- education, health, gender, the law, intra- and inter-regional power relations, international commerce, and popular culture.
York Bradshaw is Professor of Sociology at Indiana University. He has conducted substantial research in Eastern and Southern Africa. He is author of Global Inequalities (with Michael Wallace), Education in Comparative Perspective, Understanding Societies in a Global Age (with Joseph Healey), and many articles in social science and Africa-related journals.
Stephen N. Ndegwa is Assistant Professor of Government at the College of William and Mary. He is author of Two Faces of Civil Society and has published articles in American Political Science Review, African Studies Review, and Africa Today.
Note: Contents is important for promoting this book.]ContentsI. IntroductionThe Uncertain Promise of Southern Africa, York Bradshaw and Stephen N. NdegwaBalance of Power in Southern Africa, Colin LegumII. CountriesSouth Africa: Transition to Majority Rule, Transformation to Stable Democracy, Kenneth W. GrundyZimbabwe: The Erosion of Authoritarianism and Prospects for Democracy, Masipula SitholeDemocracy and Development in Post-Independence Namibia, Joshua Bernard ForrestDemocratizing the Administrative State in Botswana, John D. Holm and Staffan DarnoffMilitarism, Warfare, and the Search for Peace in Angola, Horace G. CampbellCelebration and Confrontation, Resolution and Restructuring: Mozambique from Independence to the Millennium, M. Anne PitcherIII. ThemesPopular Culture in Southern Africa, David B. CoplanGendered Terrains: Negotiating Land and Development, Whose Reality Counts? Jean DavidsonLaw and Gender in Southern Africa, Chuma HimongaEducation in Southern Africa: The Paradox of Progress, Bruce Fuller and Allen CaldwellHealth and Society in Southern Africa in Times of Economic Turbulence, Ezekiel KalipeniBusiness in Southern Africa, Tony Dyer and Sue KellCompendium of Data for the Quantitative Analysis of Southern Africa, Leizell Bradshaw
Industry Reviews
"Sober and wide-ranging, this collection adds to a shelf of commentary on the area postlude to the surprisingly rapid and simultaneous collapse of Apartheid and the Cold War in Africa. In addressing largely informed observers of the socioeconomic and political scenes in Southern Africa, the editors, both accomplished US social scientists, are content to let the chapters speak for themselves. The short introduction summarizes major issues raised subsequently, broadly cast as regional inequality, political and social change, and social justice. Although the relevance of external influence is palpable throughout, two chapters are specifically devoted to the geographically regional political and economic relations that encompass several countries not individually discussed but that agree, for good and ill, on the hegemony of South Africa. Of the six country cases, four essentially explore aspects of the struggle over democratization, offering rich material for comparison and further explanation. Two other cases deal with conflict and reconciliation in different ways, with one (on Angola) concerned with conceptualization as much as description and evaluation of policy. The evidence indicates that the transformation achievements of South Africa influence a broad array of efforts in the region and perhaps elsewhere on the continent. How, when, and in what measure depend on context and issue and logically deserve a future volume. Upper-division undergraduates and above." -H. Glickman, Haverford College, 2001nov CHOICE
