Samora Machel: A Biography by Iain ChristieReview by: Barry MunslowCanadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines, Vol. 25, No. 3(1991), pp. 486-487Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Canadian Association of African StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/485987 .

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486 CJAS / RCEA 25:3 1991

Kirundo provinces, and on the other, to explain why violence broke out once again. They present a wide range of documentation: a chronology of events; selections from statements

by Palipehutu, a political organization which sought to spur Hutu in Burundi to action; extracts from internationally published accounts of the events; and samples of testimony by individuals in the area who were part of what occurred. Other chapters discuss the historical context of Hutu-Tutsi relations, the crisis in rural society, and the current situation of

UPRONA, the ruling party. The oral testimony gathered from participants is easily the most unusual and useful part of the book. The three authors were able to travel to the area a month after the killings had occurred and to conduct interviews. The material from these interviews is supplemented with testimony collected in Rwanda from individuals who had fled across the border and had not as yet returned to Burundi.

Chr6tien, Guichaoua, and Le Jeune have performed a valuable service in their timely col- lection of this material, and yet it is just this despatch that raises questions. The interviews conducted in Ntega and Kirundo provinces were all done over a two-day period, part of the ten-day research trip to Burundi on which the book is based. No matter how carefully infor- mants are selected and their testimony transcribed and reported, two days is far too brief a period for any but the most cursory of inquiries. Similarly, of three interpretative chapters that precede selections from the interviews, only Le Jeune's essay offers fresh insights. Writ- ing on the role of UPRONA and recent election results in the region, he presents and analy- ses new data on shifts in local power relations. Chr6tien and Guichaoua, in their chapters on the historical context of the ethnic cleavage and the crisis in peasant society, respectively, tell us little that is new, and fail to explain in any but the most general fashion why the outbreak occurred when it did. The book is a useful collection of documents and testimonies about the events surrounding the October 1988 killings, but its lack of insightful, original analysis means that it is unlikely to attract an audience beyond the rather small circle of scholars of Burundi.

Carol Dickerman University of Wisconsin-Madison

Iain Christie. Samora Machel: A Biography. London: Zed Press, 1989. 181 pp.

This is an entertaining and illuminating account of one of Africa's most charismatic leaders and liberation fighters. Christie has lived in Africa for twenty years, the last fifteen in Mozam-

bique; and he also knew Machel well, having first met him in 1971 in Dar es-Salaam. This is a

sympathetic account of Machel's life from an obvious admirer, but not an officially author- ized biography. It emphasizes many of the strengths and unique characteristics of the man who ruled Mozambique from independence until his death in a mysterious airplane crash inside South African territory on 19 October 1986.

Samora, as he is called in Mozambique, was born in 1933, the son of a prosperous Free Methodist peasant farmer who tilled the rich earth of the Limpopo valley. In his youth he

experienced a number of setbacks, which began to awaken a political response. The fertile land that his father and neighbours farmed was expropriated for white settlement without

compensation. He lost relatives working as migrant labourers in the mines of South Africa, whose families received no compensation. His educational opportunities were constrained

by the hegemony of the Catholic Church over schooling, which stemmed from the 194o Mis-

sionary Accord between the Portuguese colonial government and the Vatican. To complete his fourth grade primary education exams, he was thus obliged to "convert" to Catholicism.

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487 Book Reviews / Comptes rendus

Secondary education required joining a seminary. He refused this avenue, training instead as a nurse in Lourenqo Marques. Out of these experiences, rather than the texts of Marx, grew Machel's commitment to fight all forms of exploitation and discrimination.

Like Nelson Mandela, Samora shared a youthful obsession with boxing. Pictures of Jack Dempsey and other heroes covered his bedside walls in the dormitory. With time, an early youthful rebelliousness turned into an active political commitment. He left Mozambique to

join the newly formed Mozambican nationalist movement based in Tanzania, immediately volunteered for military training, and by 1966 had become the leader of Frelimo's guerilla army. Four years later, following the assassination of Eduardo Mondlane, he became Presi- dent of Frelimo.

Christie draws interesting material from interviews with Colonel Ali Mafudh, the Tan- zanian military liaison with Frelimo during the armed struggle, who provides rich insights into Machel's genius as a guerrilla commander. Machel's other great talent was political ora-

tory, a skill developed in the countless meetings he held on regular visits to the liberated areas. He was a truly charismatic leader, but herein lay a potential weakness. For when things went wrong after independence, all too often it was left up to the President to put things right. Limiting and punishing abuses of power relied too heavily on the "Presidential offensive."

Shortcomings in the struggle against Renamo led to Machel being given overall charge of the

military effort - in addition to his multiple roles as head of state and head of the party. His life is a testimony to the power of human will to overcome apparently insurmountable

obstacles. It also demonstrates that human will alone is sometimes not enough. Machel's

strengths were also his weaknesses. Running the economy proved more of a match for Machel than fighting the colonial army. One picture amongst many in the book captures this for me, a rear view of Samora in combat gear walking back to the Presidential Palace, alone across the huge lawn at the end of the day, head tilted forward deep in thought. He must have

grown increasingly puzzled by the failures of his socialist economic experiment. He did not live long enough to see Frelimo renounce its Marxist-Leninist ideology at its Fifth Congress in 1989, but it must have grown clear to him before his death that all was not well.

Christie's book does not dwell upon such weaknesses, but it celebrates the strengths of a man who helped transform the politics of southern Africa. For it is all too easy now to forget the vital role that this man played in overthrowing colonialism, not only in Mozambique, but fascism in Portugal and white minority rule in Zimbabwe. He also made major contributions to the struggle for majority rule in South Africa itself.

Barry Munslow

University of Liverpool

Philip D. Curtin. Death by Migration: Europe's Encounter with the Tropical World in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. 251 pp.

Philip Curtin avait provoqu6 une vive discussion en 1969 par son approche novatrice de la traite des esclaves. Il est peu probable que Curtin puisse r6it'rer cet exploit, et pourtant cet ouvrage r6cent sur la mortalit6 diff6rentielle 6tonne, non par une rigueur a laquelle l'auteur nous a habitues ni par la richesse des sources ce qui limiterait le d6bat aux seules questions historiographiques, mais par l'ampleur du regard et la profondeur des conclusions. Tres sobrement l''tude de Curtin implique des revisions importantes de plusieurs pseudo-certi- tudes.

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