Teaching African Politics (original) (raw)

1999, African Studies Review

Peter J. Schraeder's book offers an excellent introductory course to Africa. He seeks to rationalize and classify various aspects of contemporary African politics and society in an interesting and novel manner. This may seem a logical and practical approach, but surprisingly few studies have undertaken such an exercise. The lack of a large body of similar literature makes this book an essential component for anyone interested in understanding Africa's politics, recent history, myriad of cultures and its role in world politics. Early on, one realizes that the author certainly does not share the view that Africa is a "lost continent" or even a "forgotten" one, but rather a complex and vibrant "mosaic in transformation." Clearly, it is inevitable that in writing a textbook on African politics and society a certain degree of generalization is necessary. This is apparent in the extensive reference to secondary sources, which the author uses in order to better address the many issues related to the broad subject of African studies. In this regard, Schraeder incorporates secondary sources with remarkable skill, especially in the first part of the book (Sections I-III). In this section, he introduces his study, classifies the many and diverse theoretical outlooks in African development studies, gives a historical background to the various schools of political and economic thought, and outlines the policy implications of "African ideologies." The author's criticism of these models is quite interesting and insightful-particularly in Chapters 2 and 3 where he analyzes the liberal free-market tradition and its failures in its more extreme forms. Primary sources are less present in the work, since it is not really intended for an academically trained audience. Rather, the book is oriented towards the general public and undergraduate students. Schraeder does not provide equal depth on all African countries, for example, he does not discuss North African nations in any detail. However, he offers meticulous references to further sources and reading material at the conclusion of each chapter, and provides a thorough bibliography. The second part of the book (Sections IV-VI) is more open to criticism, and deals with socio-cultural issues (Section IV), governance (Section V) and international relations (Section VI). In this context, the author naturally concentrates on his own ideas and interpretations regarding Africa. While the inclusion of the author's opinions makes these sections interesting for the reader, there are some classifications that are debatable. For example, when the author maps out the various "African ideologies" (p. 170) he treats Zimbabwe, Sudan, Senegal, etc. as capitalist countries-or "capitalist variations"-whereas he treats countries such as Libya, or Ghana as "socialist variations". Of course, the method used in such a classification directly