Femmes des villes africaines by Raymond DenielReview by: Odile JournetCanadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne des Études Africaines, Vol. 21, No. 2(1987), pp. 276-277Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Canadian Association of African StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/484385 .

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276 CJAS / RCEA XXI:2 1987

through policies of divisive enticement and provocation to fight them when they do eventually liberate themselves. Thus, while trying to divide the liberation movement now, the US and its allies are also looking desperately for other "moderate" elements among Blacks that can contest the ANC's claim to the succession. On whom can they rely for help in that dismal quest but Pretoria itself.

After reading this excellent book, so clearly and so calmly written, and full of knowledge, one cannot escape the feeling that a terrible tragedy is shaping up in southern Africa concerning the US and that only some drastic rethinking of a centuries-old preference for racists and exploiters is all that can avert it. It is in the interest of South Africans to hope that it is still not too late.

Sam C. Nolutshungu Dartmouth College

Raymond Deniel. Femmes des villes africaines. Abidjan: Inades Edition, 1985, 222 pp.

L'objectif de l'ouvrage - offrir une tribune libre A des femmes africaines de la ville - parait

' plus d'un titre seduisant. Comme le dit l'une d'elles, "notre parole d'range." Il

s'agit donc du compte-rendu d'entretiens menes par l'auteur (sociologue et pretre) aupres de quinze femmes agees de vingt-neuf a soixante-quinze ans, originaires de

C6te-d'Ivoire, de Guinee, du Burkina Faso, du Togo, du Benin, du Cameroun. Precisons d'emblee que toutes sont catholiques pratiquantes et souvent militantes, et que, mises a part deux d'entre elles, toutes ont 6t6 scolarisees, six ont fait des etudes superieures, trois ont une formation d'institutrice ou de personnel de sant&. Les limi- tations de l'6chantillon n'enlhvent 6videmment rien A la richesse des experiences evoquees par chacune dans le domaine familial, scolaire, conjugal, professionnel, reli- gieux, ni A la lucidite des reflexions relatives aux rapports sociaux entre les sexes.

Parmi les themes recurrents dans ces discours de femmes, on retiendra l'importance (revendiquee ou obligee) du travail salari6 ou marchand, l'experience de la mobilit6 (beaucoup ont voyage dans divers pays africains ou en Europe), l'opposition frequemment 6tablie entre le couple et la famille 1largie, et surtout la narration, sans amenit6, des multiples effets de la domination masculine. "I1 me fal- lait admettre que je ne vaux pas un nouveau-ne male" raconte une femme deja mere de famille, alors que son phre, a soixante-neuf ans, se f6licite d'avoir enfin un fils. Les quelques epoux fiddles compagnons ou "amis intimes" de leur femme (et, de ce fait sans doute, participant aux entretiens) ne peuvent effacer l'image de la majorite des hommes que ces femmes ont croises dans leur vie: phres, fiances ou maris autori- taires, reactionnaires, laches, abandonnant A leur gre compagne et enfants.

On pourra regretter que le rapport a la ville, denonc~e par celles qui en parlent, comme lieu de turpitude, mais vecue par elles comme liberatrice, ne soit pas plus systematiquement explore. Mais on demeure surtout frappe par les extraordinaires marques de bonne volont6 et d'acceptation que manifestent les locutrices face aux pires difficultes. Sans doute ont-elles "retenu leur parole," selon les mots de l'auteur, qui, par ailleurs, a lui-mme procAd' au traitement et a la reconstruction des entre- tiens. Et l'on ne peut s'empecher de reffrer l'ang1lisme ou le ton 6difiant vers lesquels glisse inevitablement le propos, aux conditions sociales de realisation de cette

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277 Book Reviews / Comptes rendus

recherche. En ne sollicitant que les meilleurs produits de l'evangelisation, l'auteur, pour une large part, ne peut que recueillir, en miroir, le discours des institutions depuis longtemps familieres ia ses interlocutrices.

Odile Journet Universite de Lyon II et St-Etienne

Kim Forss. Planning and Evaluation in Aid Organisations. Stockholm: Institute of International Business / Economic Research, Stockholm School of Economics, 198 5. 390 pp.

International aid is a phenomenon which generates cynicism and idealism. The cyni- cism arises not only from the use of assistance funds by bilateral aid organisations to promote national objectives but also from the normative perceptions of development problems that multilaterals as well as bilaterals prod recipient governments into accepting. Nevertheless, the idealism of using these channels to "make a difference" persists and provides the ultimate rationale for their existence.

Against the background of this broad view of the phenomenon, a number of ana- lytical issues may be raised. How, for example, are aid bureaucracies organised and managed? How are objectives and priorities set? What are the administrative and managerial processes of executing projects and programmes? What impact do they have on the initiatives that are being funded? To what extent do they also become fun- damental constraints?

With a voracious Nordic appetite for detail, these are the issues addressed by Kim Forss in his comparative study of administrative and managerial processes within the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA) and their impact on industrial projects and pro- grammes funded by these donors in Tanzania. These themes are competently and neatly woven through a research strategy that follows the processes of planning, implementation, and evaluation of assistance to the industrial sector in Tanzania by these donors during the 1970s when the recession was beginning to disorient African economies.

A number of conclusions emerge. Each organisation operates within a set of nor- mative terms of reference that are externally determined: SIDA's by the Swedish par- liament; UNDP's by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Within these parameters, each maintained a Country Programme - drawn in consultation with the officials of recipient governments - as its plan for the utilisation of resources in the recipient state. UNDP's planning is medium to long term (three to seven years), "blue-print oriented, rational-comprehensive and normative" (352). SIDA's Country Programme covers only one year at a time (but contains indications of assistance in the medium term) and, as a planning tool, is "process-oriented, disjointed- incrementalist and normative" (353).

Once an initiative is being or had been implemented, each organisation employed a system of evaluation. UNDP's was the more comprehensive with standard provi- sions for monitoring, reviews, terminal assessment, and post-project evaluations. "The emphasis is on written documentation which is channelled upwards in the organisation" (355). SIDA's depended on quarterly and yearly reports from the field

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