Ifda dossier 47, May/June 1985

6change apportera un supplement d'infonaation 2 cous ceux que Ie combat
des homes et des femmes du Sud pour Ie developpement de leurs pays et
pour des rapports plus justes et plus equilibres entre les nations, ne
laissent pas indifferents. Luis Echeverria est membre du Conseil de la
FIPAD .
. Ricardo Ffrench-Davis, "Deuda Externa y Alternativas de Desarrollo
en America Latina", pp.111-130 y Alejandro Foxley, "Formas de la
Politica Despues del Autoritarismo", pp.203-210. Estudios CIEPLAN NO15
(Casilla 16496, Correo 9, Santiago, Chile).
. Edem Kodjo, ... Et demain 1'Afrique (Paris: Editions Stock, 1985)
366pp. 38 millions d'Africains sont menaces de famine. Pourtant 11 exis-
te en Afrique 500 millions d'hectares de terres arables susceptibles
d'etre mises en valeur. Ce continent recele des ressources fabuleuses:
tresors du sous-sol, ressources en gaz naturel, mais il abrite en meme
temps Ie plus grand nombre de pays les moins avances. L'Afrique est
pleine de paradoxes: faut-il desesperer de son sort? Secretaire general
de 1'O.U.A. (1978-1983). l'auteur explique avec clarts les raisons qu'il
y a de croire au destin de 1'Afrique. I1 propose un reamsnagement hard!
de l'espace politique d'un continent morcele, une strategic de develop-
pement oii l'education, la recherche scientifique, s'harmoniseraient avec
l'identit6 des peuples du continent. Enfin, une prise de conscience par
les Africains de leur place et de leur r3le dans Ie monde. Un long che-
min reste 5 faire mais une nouvelle approche de l'unite africaine s'im-
pose. La volonte politique precede la realisation des grandes oeuvres
6conomiques et sociales.
. Timothy M. Shaw and Olajide Aluko (eds), The Political Economy of
African Foreign Policy (Aldershot: Gower Publishing Co.,Ltd., 1984)
397pp. The perpetuation of dependence and under-development is causing
African leaders to rethink their development strategies and scholars to
redesign their analytical perspectives. This collection adopts a novel
political economy approach to the comparitive study of African foreign
and development policy. It seeks to explain and identify alternative
strategies as Africa moves towards a difficult mid-term future. The con-
tributors - all experts on their respective countries - compare the his-
torical inheritance, national structures and external linkages of 13
African states. This comprehensive set of comparative studies, incorpo-
rating a critical mode of analysis will benefit students and scholars of
Africa, decision-makers, politicians and bureaucrats, international or-
ganisations and those concerned with the issues of development, depen-
dence, comparative analysis and political economy.
. Susantha Goonatilake, Aborted Discovery, Science and Creativity in
the Third Wor1.d (London: Zed Press). In this thought-provoking formula-
tion of the social and historical nature of science, the author shows
how modern Western science, despite its original borrowings from Arab
and other non-Western societies, overwhelmed the rich intellectual and
scientific traditions of various non-European civilisations and has
today established an unparalleled hegemony. Dr. Goonatilake - himself an
engineer turned political economist - argues that this historical pro-
cess of displacement was closely related to the growth of European impe-
rialism and colonialism. Today Western science has pre-empted any scien-
tific formulations outside its own parameters, resulting in an imitative
rather than creative science in the Third World. The consequences of