ID proved by observers far removed to his wife; a man betrays his lo­ Revered in his own country, he from the left. ver; a weman in an African township has also created great controversy He evades the reality tha'; it performs an act of treachery to with his so-called Islamic 'revol­ is Reagan's adninistration that a man hiding in her home. ution5' and has made many enemies is preparing for nuclear war and The title story is a novella that at heme and abroad. does not deal with the various reveals the true menace that lies Unfortunately little is known proposals for disarmament based over the apparently calm and pros­ about his role. He is an enigna cn equality and equal security perous white suburbs. A schoolboy and much that has been written made by the Soviet Union. in a swimning pool, golfers sear­ about him deliberately mixes fact The questions Mr Gal ting does not ching for a ball, two lovers in with fiction. However, an Iranian answer are: Who is threatening war a parked car, catch glimpses of using a pseudonym has produced a and escalating the arms race for something - not human - some kind bock in an attenpt to set the the benefit of the arms manufac­ of escaped beast? While public and record straight. turers? Who is consistently press built up the story 'cut Rany Nima, we are told, is a pressing for disarmament and in there' is a group of four people socialist who is critical of Khom­ which country is there no profit two whites and two blacks,building eini's regime, but who believes in arms? the preparations to blow up a that the Left in his country must power station. The whites provide accept some of the responsibility GORDON SCHAFFER the cover for the trained sabo­ for the tide of reaction presently teurs. In sinple strokes Nadine afflicting Iran. ********************** Gordimer creates each character. For example, he argues that the 'Mrs Naas Klopper was coming to­ only organised force, the clergy, wards her through weeds, insteps provided the necessary leadership SOMETHING OUT THERE arched like proud fists under an to the peasantry and urban poor by Nadine Gordimer in the struggle to remove the Shah Jonathan Cape. £8.50 intricacy of narrow yellow straps, the bembe of b* easts flashing gpld in 1979. chains 0 1 blue polka dots... ‘ Nima makes clear, however, that Khomeini was not a revolutionary Nadine Gordimer is a highly-skilled She creates as well the sense and tha$ he and his fellow mullahs professional artist, using words of menace that threatens the calm to create her pictures of the people normality of white lives- sinplj** wanted to regain their 'i^nts and influence over the and life of her country, South Afri­ 'There was a surmer storm coming Iranian people. ca. Her novels use a large canvas ip, first the single finger of a which often seems to become too tree's branch paddling thick air, Yet there is no doubting that Iran's militant version of Islam ocngested with the multiplicity then the land expelling great of descriptive strokes; but her breaths in gusts, canton brown was progressive in the early short stories are, in ny opinion, birds flinging themselves wildly, stages, although this quickly her masterpieces, more delicate a raw, fresh-cut scent of rain gave way to an attack on ethnic and sparing. falling somewhere else. So beauti­ and religious minorities, as well She is an observer,totally aware, ful, the temperament of the earth. as cn the Left in general. absorbing the Southern African Waiting, they saw the rain, dang­ My view of the to'ath of Allah is scene and ccrposing it. not as it ling over the pale spools that were that it is too superficial and has been in the past, but as it the power station towers.1 predictable, and the "analysis’* is today. This is why each new The 'pale spools' are the target raises more questions than it bock is truly conterporary. of the saboteurs. The story ends answers. But don't let that put There is a sense of betrayal with their dispersal, the death you off - this short book is still about four of the stories in this of one, and a round-up of many worth reading if you want to know collection, yet each one also tou­ disparate facts that tie all the something about the lead up to ches you with a sad compassion. characters together, and to their ■'ecent events in Iran. At the Rendezvous of Vic­ a n history. tory is a portrait of General An elimently readable and splen­ Giant Zwedu, whose leadership of did collection of stories. RON BROWN MP his guerillas in the bush helped bring his country to liberation HILDA BERNSTEIN - and who becomes redundant after victory. He sits at the constitu­ ********************** tional talks, 'He wanted to gp back - to his headquarters - home but one of the conditions of the THE WRATH OF ALLAH cease-fire has been that he would by RAMY NIMA be withdrawn from the field as Pluto Press. £3-95 the official term, coined in wars foi^nt over poppy-meadows, phrased Mention Iran these days and it.' His story rings with a bitter rightly °r wrongly - most people familiar truth. In the other sto- inmediately think of Ayatollah ries a husband betrays a premise Khomeini. WOMEN OF AFRICA: Roots of Oppression by Maria Rosa Cutrufelli Zed Press £5.95 paperback £15.35 hardback. The Western penetration and 'development' of Africa through colonial grabbing and wa^s of conquest brought to the whole continent an ideology in profound contradiction to the existing way of life. Capitalist philosophy posed the concept of individual success as against that of the conrr.ua Vy o r tribe, e n d b r o u g h t t n i s p h i l o s o p h y a n d m a n n e r o f life to societies that were prfoundly anti-indlvldualistic. Beyond doubt, writes Maria Cutrufelli, the segment of society most directly affected was the female. Her boox Is not primarily concerned with cultural confrontation, but an understanding of the social structure of African culture helps tp reveal the extent of interdependence, in Europe as well as in Africa, between the social position of women and their v«ork, and between the familial and social role of women end their exploitation. The forced integration of traditional societies into h capitalist economy, t.nd the need for a gecgrapn-cally noble .labour force of individuals iisniiijki impelled changes in exisiting social structures amd the traditional family; imperialism brought the nuclear family to Africa. From this migratory labour pattern arises a new, total dependence of women on the nrle migrant's wages; a helpless dependence, especially as it is accompanied by the depirvation of women's land rights - imperialist redistribution is always to the male head3 of families - and by wo m e n ' s work and role being submerged through mechanisation and cuvelopcsental aids (as so clearly shown by Barbara Rogers in 'The Domestication of W o m e n '). This book touches on many aspects of the subordination of women and of both traditional practices ^Such ar. cliteridectorrtyjfmd initiation rites, and more modem means, such as education and industrialisation. The cultural tradition? of African countries are as diverse a3 those of Europe; but they were all based on pre-capitalist organisations of society and the imperial impact t M. i i i-^ n has imposed common problems and compounded women's subordination in similar ways on different societies. In conclusion the author asks if female emancipation can ever be envisaged in a political context so heavily conditioned and man- manipulatod. But; black women have not lapsed into the 'oblivion of history', and the Question should he posed the other way: Shouldn't we expe4ct that sooner or later change will come as the wind of revolution, ana in the same breath the wind of the emancipation of women, blow through tne lands? Women in the national liberation movements, particularly in the Southern parts of Africa, are providing the answers as they fight jointly for the liberation of their country and the emancipation of w o m e n . Hilda Bernstein ► * CONTENTS Joan Smith is working on a book FROM THE PULPIT A u b e r o n W a u g h called Moralities, for Penguin. It will concentrate on the morality of power MIND, BODY & SOUL 4 B r y a n A ppl ey a r d God’s Funeral A N W ilson and money, suggesting that too much attention is paid to sex. H er earlier 6 J o a n Sm it h Making the Body Beautiful: A Cultural History of classic, Different for Girls, is available Aesthetic Surgery Sander L Gilman in paperback from Vintage. 7 A n t h o n y C la re The Impossibility of Sex Susie Orbach 8 D e b o r a h B osley Falling in Love Sheila Sullivan, I Am No Anthony Clare is Medical Director of St Patrick’s Hospital and Longer Myself Without You Jonathan Rutherford, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at The Heart-Shaped Bullet Kathryn Flett Trinity College, Dublin. He tells us he is working on a book for Chatto MEMOIRS 10 P a ul J o h n s o n Years o f Renewal: The Concluding Volume of his to be called The Dying Phallus.