The ROOT CAUSES OF SUDAN’S CIVIL WARS
Douglas H Johnson
DEGREES IN VIOLENCE
Robert Mugabe and the struggle for power in Zimbabwe
David Blair
GROWING THE SHELTERING TREE
Protecting rights through humanitarian action
Inter-Agency Standing Committee
UNICEF, 2002
The ROOT CAUSES OF SUDAN’S CIVIL WARS
Gouglas H Johnson
The International African Institute,
African Issues Series, 2003
Carlos Cardoso
Telling the Truth in Mozambique
Paul Fauvet and Marcello Mosse
Letting them die
How HIV/AIDS prevention programmes often fail
Catherine Campbell
Natural Resources and Violent Conflict
Options and actions
Edited by Ian Bannon and Paul Collier
Carlos Cardoso:
Telling the Truth in Mozambique
Paul Fauvet and Marcello Mosse
Double Storey, Juta, 2003,
356 pages
The trials in Mozambique of the killers of Carlos Cardoso aroused much media attention. Many had only a vague idea of who Cardoso was but most had a good sense that he was an important figure in Mozambican politics and civil society. For those who were unable to read about him in Portuguese, this book in English by Paul Fauvet and Marcelo Mosse is an essential place to start. To learn about Carlos Cardoso is to learn much about Mozambique .
Sadly, the book is almost the direct result of Cardoso’s death. The author’s have also taken this as the beginning of their story. But it soon becomes clear that it would be a pity for Cardoso’s full life to be defined by his assassination on 22 November 2000 at the age of 49. Yet that seems to be just what has happened.
Best known as a journalist, Cardoso made his name in post-independence Mozambique . Beginning as a revolutionary journalist for Tempo in 1975, Cardoso eventually became the manager of AIM, a highly respec ted independent news agency, and carried out the sort of fearless, perhaps reckless, investigative journalism that cost him his life.
The authors obviously knew Cardoso extremely well and they give the reader the benefit of their insights. A more detached view may have been more balanced but this account, so soon after his death gives the reader a better sense of the details of Cardoso’s remarkable life.
The account of Cardoso’s youth and formative years is necessarily restric ted to the development of his political and philosophical views. Chapter two begins with the collapse of the regime in Portugal and the contrasting rise to power of those who would rule Mozambique during Cardoso’s reporting career. The end of the war against the Portuguese was the beginning of so many new things in Mozambique . As a young journalist commit ted to Frelimo and revolutionary ideals, Cardoso was forced to confront the new realities and explain them to himself and his readers. But Cardoso ranged widely, covering events in South Africa , Zimbabwe and Zambia and developing his views on the region and international politics in general. The book gives a very good sense of a new Marxist regime trying to find its way in a fairly rough neighbourhood.
The authors are clear about Cardoso’s political views: he was never forced to follow a Marxist line, he chose that as his belief and explained it to those who would listen and many who preferred not to. The book relates accounts of many of the key events: the death of Ruth First, the signing of the Nkomati Accord, the death of Samora Machel, the war in Zimbabwe and Namibia , and events in the rise and fall of apartheid in South Africa . Each of these is explained from a perspective seldom available to audiences outside Mozambique .
The latter part of the book covers the period after 1991 when the media regulations in Mozambique relaxed enough for the start of independent news agencies. Funded by the Norwegian development agency, Cardoso began his most fruitful period of writing and began to look more closely at some of the disturbing trends in the Frelimo government. The cashew industry, municipal elections, the World Bank and the IMF, and individual business interests all attracted Cardoso’s attention. Cardoso’s investigations, particularly into the business interests of powerful politicians and businessmen are recounted by Fauvet and Mosse in a lively but dispassionate style. The final pages deal with the trial of the six men charged with Cardoso’s murder which forms a very unsatisfying anticlimax to the book and reinforces the tragedy of his death.
Letting them die
How HIV/AIDS prevention programmes often fail
Catherine Campbell
Double Storey, 2003
214 pages
Campbell ’s book is one of a number of which have begun to form a new phase in AIDS literature. First came books explaining the disease and the epidemic, then came those proposing prevention and mitigation. Campbell ’s book looks back at prevention programmes and seeks to explain why some of them fail. Though it seems a natural progression, the choice of topic is not an easy one to address when so much has been inves ted in those programmes. The comments made by Campbell provide a handy reference for those who seek to improve efforts to stop the epidemic and learn lessons from the (very) recent past.
The research presen ted in this book emanates from an HIV-prevention project which focused on three main groups: migrant mineworkers, commercial sex workers and young people. The social construction of sexuality by these groups is explored during interviews. The results, as expec ted are complex and involve so many other contes ted concepts and attitudes that any programme seems doomed to fail.
The second part of the book is about sex workers’ role in preventing HIV. Once again the hard realities of this group have to faced head on; there are no easy options. Even well-run peer education programmes with strong community participation and astute organisers struggle against the prevailing behaviour. Structural and gender inequalities, and a lack of trust make these programmes difficult to implement. Yet this was one of the prime achievements of the Summertown project and it did succeed at a number of levels which suggests that carefully targe ted projects can make a big positive impact.
The third section which focuses on young people makes the point that they are an obvious group for targe ted intervention. They are very vulnerable and are already loca ted in an established framework such as a school. Information based approaches have proved less than successful. The other approach, peer education, has had mixed success but still has great potential. Campbell presents a youth-led peer education programme. The conclusions, once again, are complex but are likely to be very helpful to those working in the field. They suggestions are direct and clear.
The fourth part looks at a familiar challenge: collaboration. Parallel efforts and joint approaches work best but are hardest to pull off. Campbell offers six handy “lessons about stakeholding” which probably apply to most areas of research and project management. The book’s conclusion acknowledges that, as so often happens, “so much more could have been done”, and manages to highlight the ways that others can learn from this pioneering project.
Natural Resources and Violent Conflict
Options and actions
Edi ted by Ian Bannon and
Paul Collier
World Bank, 2003
409 pages
The sub-title is the key to this book. Much has been written about understanding how natural resources prolong or sustain all sorts of wars and conflicts. The eight chapters in this very comprehensive volume focus on what can be done collectively which the editors explain as “practical aspects from a global governance perspective”.
The focus on action is maintained throughout. If something is happening, it can be influenced, or tracked, or diver ted . Bannon and Collier note that “building a more peaceful world is not just a matter of encouraging tolerance and consensus.” The practical agenda has to include better development and governance. Chapter three looks at who gets the money and suggests methods of ensuring that revenues are correctly repor ted . Another obvious question is “where did it come from?” dealt with in chapter four. Successful control regimes are usually transparent, accountable and well co-ordina ted and suggestions are made about how to apply these to a variety of resource types.
Other chapters cover the financing of illicit resource extraction, instruments of enforcement, risky environments and price shocks. This collection is a valuable one and is sure to be helpful to both students and policymakers interes ted in getting things done rather than just noting the alarming trend.
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