Books in Brief: The African Predicament

The African Predicament, by Stanislav Andreski (Atherton, $6.95). Professor Andreski of the University of Reading in England is a sociologist who writes lucid English and has something to say. He observes that “man’s inhumanity to man” operates even when the men in question have black skins, and most especially when they are not relatives. With steady eye and hand he dissects the woes of the impoverished African states with “nearhorrible precision” (to borrow a Buckley phrase). Africa’s birthrate is second only to that of Latin America and still on the increase, outstripping economic growth. In consequence, as in Latin America, corruption, exploitation, parasitism and strife beset the new states. The mushrooming urban jungles suffer additionally from ethnic division and the breakdown of the traditional moral structures. Nothing escapes Andreski’s probe. A small sampling: The Peace Corps and similar bodies: “. . . the mere food for an overseas volunteer costs many times more than the normal wage of a native laborer.” Education as a panacea: “Overproduction of graduates is the surest means so far discovered for conjuring up subversive movements.” Salvation, concludes Andreski, can only come from within. “What Africa needs most is the human capital of millions of knowledgeable, hard-working and enterprising small businessmen. . . .” He sees the Ivory Coast, with a 10 per cent growth rate, as the closest approximation today, and attributes its relative success to the sober realism of its French-trained president, Houphouët-Boigny. “The spectacle of the Ivory Coast should gladden the hearts of conservatives throughout the world, as it underlines the merits of gradualness and of building on traditional foundations . . . the Ivorian regime rests upon an alliance between the new bureaucratic elite, the traditional chiefs and the French government and big business.”

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E. B. Meyer

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The African Predicament, by Stanislav Andreski (Atherton, $6.95). Professor Andreski of the University of Reading in England is a sociologist who writes lucid English and has something to say. He observes that “man’s inhumanity to man” operates even when the men in question have black skins, and most especially when they are not relatives. With steady eye and hand he dissects the woes of the impoverished African states with “nearhorrible precision” (to borrow a Buckley phrase). Africa’s birthrate is second only to that of Latin America and still on the increase, outstripping economic growth. In consequence, as in Latin America, corruption, exploitation, parasitism and strife beset the new states. The mushrooming urban jungles suffer additionally from ethnic division and the breakdown of the traditional moral structures. Nothing escapes Andreski’s probe. A small sampling: The Peace Corps and similar bodies: “. . . the mere food for an overseas volunteer costs many times more than the normal wage of a native laborer.” Education as a panacea: “Overproduction of graduates is the surest means so far discovered for conjuring up subversive movements.” Salvation, concludes Andreski, can only come from within. “What Africa needs most is the human capital of millions of knowledgeable, hard-working and enterprising small businessmen. . . .” He sees the Ivory Coast, with a 10 per cent growth rate, as the closest approximation today, and attributes its relative success to the sober realism of its French-trained president, Houphouët-Boigny. “The spectacle of the Ivory Coast should gladden the hearts of conservatives throughout the world, as it underlines the merits of gradualness and of building on traditional foundations . . . the Ivorian regime rests upon an alliance between the new bureaucratic elite, the traditional chiefs and the French government and big business.”