Volume 40 2013 Issue

Review of African Political Economy, 2013 Vol. 40, No. 135, 168–169, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2012.738801 BOOK REVIEW Political economy of media transform- The book is organised into 11 chapters. ation in South Africa, edited by Anthony Several of the chapters are written by the Olorunnisola and Keyan G. Tomaselli, same authors. This enables continuity in New Jersey, Hampton Press, 2011, 314 themes across the chapters, but also pre- pp., £27.50, ISBN 9781572739918 vents wholly new arguments or subjects from emerging. The subject of media trans- The political transformation in South formation inevitably requires examining Africa, starting tentatively in the reform both technical change and engagement in era of P.W. Botha in the early 1980s, and the late/post-apartheid era as well as more ultimately culminating in the first demo- representational changes, a task which cratic elections in 1994 and a new post- brings notable difficulties. A number of apartheid constitution in 1996, has been the chapters, whilst elucidating important covered from many angles. This book technical and institutional developments takes a novel approach in focusing on the that emerged in South Africa and further role of the media, both in probing the apart- afield in Africa (for instance in Nigeria heid structures as they began to crumble and Uganda in Olorunnisola and Lugalam- and in dealing with a radically different bi’s chapter ‘A continental perspective on post-apartheid state. The authors explore the transformation of South Africa’s the processes of media adaptation, strategy media and communication policies’), are and propagation, in terms of advertising, unfortunately laden with technical jargon. print media and other forms, from the The collection is more successful in the late-apartheid era to the late 2000s. The elements of postcolonial critique and theor- book seeks to consider the role of media etical considerations that emerge in a from theoretical and technical viewpoints: number of chapters: in Alexander Holt’s which aspects of state-owned enterprises examination of structural reform and adver- (SOEs) and the private sphere changed tising (Chapter 4) and Herman Wasser- with the onset of democracy in South man’s exploration of media discourses and Africa and what underlying, as well as former president Thabo Mbeki’s comments more overt, changes occurred in the on identity and the media (Chapter 5). The nature of media’s role in Africa’s most focus on the African National Congress prosperous nation. As the Introduction (ANC) government’s policy of black econ- states, ‘analyses of political economy of omic empowerment (BEE), in particular in media transformations are painfully few Chapters 8 and 9, is also one of the stronger and far between’ and this text seeks to elements of the collection. What becomes ‘chronicle the many dimensions to, and clear is that in spite of the aims and forms of, transformation that visit the aspirations of BEE, ‘BEE firms [are] process both of ... democratic reforms still met with stiff resistance from and ... institutional (including media) non-empowerment companies’ (Boloka, transformations in South Africa’ (pp. 1– p. 199) and the media marketplace is diffi- 2). The book succeeds in chronicling cult and precarious for newly formed BEE many of these changes, but is somewhat companies. Ultimately, Boloka points out, less successful in probing the nature of ‘as much as empowerment continues to the changes that have taken place. influence the way the South African Review of African Political Economy 169 media industry operates, it lags behind in only receive brief mention in terms of achieving the aims that it sets out Olorunnisola and Lugalambi’s chapter. to accomplish’ (ibid., p. 206). Fundamen- This collection identifies some impor- tally, the extent of allocative, as well as tant considerations in looking at the operational, control of South Africa’s nature of media transformation in South media in the hands of black South Africans Africa over the past 20 years. Unfortunately is still too small. the shifts from theoretical to technical and Overall, whilst the book provides back again ultimately hamper the overall some interesting analyses of the media’s project. The final chapter by editors Olor- development since the end of apartheid, unnisola and Tomaselli provides a useful the structure of the collection and the summary of the themes and issues con- chapters themselves seem to undermine sidered in the collection and prospects for the book’s central objective. Often impor- further inquiry in the future. They end by tant points or discussion items emerge noting the potentially precarious nature of only towards the end of a chapter and the media in the face of ANC/government certain chapters, notably Herman Wasser- pressure, something especially relevant man’s ‘Identification in transformation’, given recent debates on the proposed which seeks to look at the role of the Protection of State Information Bill in the media in the context of the ANCs rhetoric South African Parliament. As the editors during the presidency of Mbeki, are criti- state, ‘the future of the media in South cally undermined by length. Important Africa may ultimately ... depend on the and interesting considerations on the courage of the corporate media that ... role of rhetoric and representation, as largely became Black-owned enterprises well as both the representing of and by as a direct result of the empowerment the media, are thus cut short. It seems sur- policies of the post-Apartheid government’ prising that elements relating to the Tran- (p. 280). Perhaps a singular focus on BEE sitional Executive Council (TEC) that and its success and failures may be the emerged just before the 1994 elections next port of call for the editors as this is are not covered in greater detail. where the book’s greatest strength lies. Notably, the creation during the transition phase of the Independent Media Commis- Jason Robinson sion and enactment of the Independent St Antony’s College, University of Broadcasting Act, which set the tentative Oxford, UK template for the type of overall (inde- Email: [email protected] pendent) media landscape to come, # 2013, Jason Robinson Review of African Political Economy, 2013 Vol. 40, No. 135, 170–171, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2012.738802 BOOK REVIEW Chocolate nations: living and dying for of land rights in Coˆte d’Ivoire and how this cocoa in West Africa,byO´ rla Ryan, – together with the long-standing questions London, Zed Books, 2011, vii + 182 pp., of migration and ethnic identity – proved to £12.99 (paperback), ISBN 9781848130050 be the key for violence between local people and migrants and a civil war Few people in the North are aware that Coˆte between the northern and the southern d’Ivoire and Ghana are the two largest produ- regions of the country (2002–2003). Interest- cers of cocoa in the world. Giant multina- ingly though, the author suggests, the flow of tionals such as Nestle´, Mars and Cadbury cocoa from the plantations to the port of (recently acquired by Kraft Foods) largely Abidjan continued almost undisturbed in base their chocolate production on the count- order to support the production of cocoa pro- less cocoa fields of these two relatively small ducts in Europe and the United States. countries of West Africa. The low prices of Chapter 3 sheds light on the problem of chocolate products in Western supermarkets child labour in cocoa plantations in Ghana depend on the deals between these compa- and Coˆte d’Ivoire. This is a very sensitive nies and the respective countries’ cocoa insti- subject for both countries as a series of tutions as well as the world market price of recent media reports and parliamentary cocoa. Few studies have addressed the questions, in Europe and the United States, reality that the large majority of the local over employing children in cocoa pro- populations growing cocoa are trapped in duction threatened to damage exports of acute poverty. O´ rla Ryan’s book is therefore cocoa from West Africa. Ryan contextua- a welcome contribution. lises this question and effectively addresses The book starts with a concise back- the complexity of the issue. The demanding ground of Ghana’s relation with cocoa harvest seasons and the periodical needs for cultivation and production and the impor- labour in the plantations that rural house- tance of cocoa to the national economy. The holds experience are often difficult to dis- production of cocoa beans in Ghana largely tinguish from trafficking and exploitation comes from the cultivation of small farmers. of children for cocoa production. While However, despite cocoa being the backbone thousands of children are indeed exploited of Ghana’s economy and the main export in cocoa plantations, others are claimed to product for the last 50 years, the farmers be family members who assist their parents have remained poor, at the mercy of the and relatives only during the harvest annual price of their produce which is fixed season as the households are too poor to by the Ghana Cocoa Board. Chapter 2 pre- afford hiring external workers. Monitoring sents the fundamentals of Coˆte d’Ivoire, cur- of the situation is extremely difficult due to rently the world’s largest producer of cocoa the large number of small cocoa fields scat- beans. Ryan underlines the relative prosperity tered across both countries. Coˆte d’Ivoire experienced after its indepen- The next two chapters explore the poli- dence from France (1960) but also the politi- tics and economy of cocoa through two cal instability and violence that erupted specific stories. In Chapter 4 Ryan tells us during the last years and after the fall of the story of Guy Andre´ Kieffer, a French- Fe´lix Houphoue¨t-Boigny’s one-party rule.

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