Book Review: Africa: Local Government in Ghana
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206502000130 |
| Author | J. A. Peasah |
| Published date | 01 March 1965 |
| Date | 01 March 1965 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REvIEws
137
guise-could
only
come
to
present
day
Kenya
with
the
twentieth
century."
(p.
1)
If
politics
in
Kenya
today
is
a "European
guise,"
are
we
not
right
in
assuming
then
that
the activity
itself
started
with
the
European
settler
community
and
its
relations
with
the
adminis-
tration?
In
any
case,
can political
history
at
large
avoid
concentrat-
ing
on
studying
the
relatively small
group
of
decision-makers,
rather
than
the
many
more
that
are
affected
by
those
decisions?
The
later
chapters
of
Bennett
do,
of
course,
discuss
the
growth
of
African
nationalism
as
a
central factor
in
the
later
stages
of
Kenya's
recent
history.
And
one
might
argue
that
a
discussion
of
African
nationalism
while
the
Europeans
were
still
effectively
in
power
was
a
digression
from
studying
the
elite.
Yet
even
in
studying African
nationalism
Bennett
concentrates
on
its
leaders.
And in
any
case
African
national-
ism
assumed
political
importance
only
to
the
extent
to
which
it
was
challenging
the
basis
of
political
6lite-dom
in
the
country--and
was
demanding
that
the
elite
should
change
in
race.
In
a
modest
but
significant
way,
George
Bennett's
book
has
been
a subject
of discussion
within
the
intellectual
"1llte"
of
East
Africa.
But
the
importance
of
the
little
book
has
been seen
to
lie
not
in
its
contents
but
in
raising all
over
again
the
issue
of
methodology
in
the
study
of African
history
even
of
the
colonial
period.
As
for
its
actual
contents,
the
book
can
claim
little
more
than
the
quality
of
being
"useful."
Mr.
Bennett
tries
to
include too
many
"incidents"
in
his
narration-and
we
often
long
for
the
broad
theoreti-
cal
frame
of
reference
which
often
characterizes
his
seminars
in
Oxford.
We
see
a
chapter
entitled
"Closer
Union:
The
Ideas." We
turn
to
it
hungrily
for
insights into
the
origins
of
the
federal
move-
ment
in
East
Africa.
But a disappointment
awaits
us
at
the
end
of
it
all.
In
an
earlier
chapter this
particular
reviewer-for
essentially
"tribal"
reasons-was
inevitably
galvanized
into
attention
as
he
read
that
"the
Mazrui,
from
whom
had
come
before
ancient
rulers
of
Mombasa,
were
making
a
last
effort to
assert
themselves. The
affair
dragged
on
into
1896
and
required
an
Indian
regiment
to
be
fetched
for
its
final
suppression."
(p.
4)
But
such
tribal
excitement
cannot
be
expected
to
sustain
every
reader-and
Bennett's
narration
as
a
whole
must
therefore
be
accused
of
lacking
both
vigour
and
penetra-
tion.
What it
does
not
lack
is
introductory
utility
for
the
student
of
history.
Makerere University
College
of
East
Africa
Am
A.
MAZRUI
LOcAL
GOVERNMENT
IN
GHANA.
By
J.
K.
Nsarkoh.
1964.
(Accra:
Ghana
Universities
Press.
Toronto:
Oxford
University
Press.
xiv,
309pp.
$4.00)
Mr.
Nsarkoh's
book
on
Local
Government
in
Ghana, like
most
books on
institutions
in
developing
countries,
may
soon
be
out
of
date
in some
respects.
This
is
not
an
indictment
against the
book;
for,
no
author,
however
prophetic, can
guard
against this
possibility.
Perhaps
the
weakest
points
in
the
book
come
out
where
the
author
attempts
to
discuss
concepts
and
ideas.
For
instance,
on
page
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