NEW/LETTER African Studies Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing,MI 48823
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GS ASSOCIATION OF CONCERNED AFRICA SCHOLARS NEW/LETTER African Studies Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing,MI 48823 Fall 1986 Number 19 CONTENTS .. 1. Letter from the Interim Editor •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 2 RESOURCES & CONFERENCES 2. Inside Africa News ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 3 3. Lutherans Plan Conference on Namibia ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 5 4. New Films on Southern Africa ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 6 NEWS & EVENTS 5. NElI Disowns "The Africans" • •..••••.•..•••• ·• • • • • . • . • . • • • . • • . • • • • • • • • 7 6. Congress Overrides Reagan's Veto of Sanctions •••••••••••••••••••••• 8 7. ACAS Panels at ASA 1986•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 9 8. Divestment Update •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 11 9. The Great African Cook-In •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 13 10. TIAA-CREF Campaign Wins Partial Victory •••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 14 , 11. Item Received from University of Dar es Salaam ••••••••••••••••••••• 18 ARTICLES 12. "Law and The State in Tanzania" by Ed Ferguson.••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••19 13. New Publications From Nigeria •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 20 14. "Southern Africa: Who is the 'Dependent' One?" by Carol Thompson •••••••••••••• .•••••••••••••.••.••••••••••••••••••• 22 15. "Sanctions Worked in Rhodesia, White Businessmen Say" by Elizabeth Schmidt ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 24 16. "Zimbabwean Independence - Not For Sale" by Warren "Bud" Day •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 28 Raleigh, North Carolina, October 7, 1986 A Letter from the inteeim editor Putting together this issue of the ACAS Newsletter has been a challenge (or to be more precise - a worthwhile burden). This experience has helped me to possess even greater appreciation for the work that Bill Derman and others at Michigan State University devote to preparing each issue of the Newsletter. I accepted the opportunity to edit this issue of the Newsletter, while Bill Derman was in South Africa, for two reasons. One reason was to take up Derman's invitation in the previous issue of the Newsletter to offer recommendations on how to improve the newsletter. If this issue seems to be qualitatively not unlike previous issues it is because once I found myself overwhelmed with the task of editing the newsletter I came to realize how efficient the present lay-out and organization is from the point of view of production and distribution. In short, Derman's quest for improving the newsletter remains open for suggestions and comments. My second reason for accepting this editing responsibility was to show off some of the Africa resources of North Carolina. It seems most Africanists conjure up images of Jesse Helms when they think of North Carolina. Granted, this ally of apartheid resides in "The Triangle" (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill), but this area also boasts of one of the top sources of news related to Africa that exists anywhere in the world - Africa News (see articles herein). Residents of North Carolina also are blessed\;ith a daily newspaper which is among the most outspoken critics of apartheid in the country - The (Raleigh) News & Observer. The N & O's editorial cartoonist, Duane Powell, is nationally recognized for his artistic work, and I have included in this newsletter a c-ouple of his more recent cartoons on South Africa. In effect, I have used this once-only opportunity as Editor of the newsletter to share with you some of the resources in The Triangle which may be of assistance to Africa scholars. Perhaps an implicit result of this effort is a proposal - per Derman's request - that the Newsletter occasionally be edited by a guest member of ACAS so that we all can become more familiar with the diverse environments available to Africa scholars in this continent. My thanks to Ed Ferguson, Chris Root and Dave Wiley for their guidance and assistance in making this editing task less difficult. Allan D. Cooper -2- INSIDE AFRICA NEWS: A RESOURCE FOR ACAS MEMBERS Most Africanists know Africa News only as a source of objective, reliable news reporting on issues relevant to Africa. But many Africa scholars overlook the fact that the Durham, North Carolina-based offices of the biweekly newspaper represent a unique resource base for researchers interested in contemporary issues affecting the African continent. The rapidly-growing library of Africa News consists of approximately 3,500 books, some 140 filecrawers of clippings and reference materials, and current and back issues of over 100 different periodicals. While .. th~ vast bulk of the material is in English, there are also substantial resources in French, Portuguese and Spanish. Books range from general reference works to highly-specific topical treatments. Approximatelyllolo-thirds of the volumes focus on Africa, the remainder on international issues and foreign relations. Shelved period icals include newspapers, magazines and both official and privately published documents and statistical reviews; they range from well-known international publications such as West Africa and The Review of African Political Economy to such difficult-to-obtain journals as Sudanow and Tempo, the weekly newsmagazine from Mozambique. Africa News also possesses a twenty-year collection of Financial Mail, a leading South African business periodical not available in most university libraries. Most unique is the filed collection, which has resources unlike those of any other library in the United States and is consulted by scholars~ researchers and journalists from around the world. It contains research papers, academic theses and dissertations, news agency dispatches and wire service copy, government records, private and public studies and reports, and shortwave broadcast transcripts, as well as clippings from several dozen domestic and international newspapers and periodicals (in addition to those that are shelved). Professor John Cell of Duke University has noted that 11 the valuable newspaper clipping files that Africa News has been compiling are probably unique in this country. They are an immensely valuable scholarly resource. And I am profoundly impressed with the professional care and expertise that have gone into them." Data is systematically arranged, first by country, then by topic (culture, economics, foreign relations, health, military, politics, sports, women, etc.) and - within topical categories - chronologically. The filed southern Africa collection began a quarter century ago and material on the rest of the continent dates from at least 1973. The Africa News Library is maintained by an archivist-librarian who is assisted during the school year by work-study students from Duke Univ ersity and the North Carolina School of Science and "athematics and during -3- the sununer months by college interns from across the United States. Expansion of the library during 1985 was supported, in part, by a grant from the z. Smith Reynolds Foundation. Access to the entire library is open and photocopying facilities are available. In addition, within limits imposed by other responsibilities, the staff can respond to requests for information received by phone or mail. Mandla Tshabalala can<£test to the resourcefulness of the Africa News Library. He spent considerable time in the library in 1983 while he was completing his doctoral dissertation from the University of Pittsburgh. "I have spent time 'i.n both the Library of Congress and the ILO library," he says. "But the resources of Africa News have more depth and quality - the kind of material nobody else has." • The services of Africa News also can be obtained through its radio broadcast programs. In 1985 Africa News began marketing "Dateline Africa," a twelve-week series of half-hour newsmagazines produced in the studios adjacent to the Africa. News library. Between 50 and 100 radio stations used this radio show, reaching an audience of several million people. In addition, Africa News makes available to radio stations pre-packaged, 90-second slices called "Afrifacts" which offer interesting pieces of inform ation about Africa, including its importance to the United States. These outreach services were supplemented by the publication in 1985 of The Africa News Cookbook, which is now being distributed by Viking Penguin. The Cookbook includes ov~r 170 recipes and has received rave reviews from NPR's "All Things Considered," Gourmet magazine, Judith Olney, The Washington Times Magazine, Booklist, and the Christian Science Monitor. Publishers Weekly describes the cookbook as "a smattering of anthropology, linguistics, culture, economics, mores and folkways (that) accompanies lively and varied recipes culled from across the continent ••• " The cookbook has engendered The Great African Cook-In (see separate article in this newsletter) which will be celebrated throughout the world on November 22, 1986. All of these outreach services have made Africa News one of the top resource centers in the United States for Africana. In fact, a Ford Foundation study of African Studies research centers (to be published later this year) ranks Africa News as number one among all such centers for its cost-effective ness in outreach. ACAS members should not overlook the unique research resources of Africa ~ews in Durham, North Carolina. ACAS members are encouraged to obtain individual subscriptions to Africa News ($25/year) and to urge their university libraries to subscribe to the biweekly newsmagazine