AFRICANUS Vol 30 No 2 ISSN 0304-615X - University of South Africa

lescence of new perspectives in Ferguson's work. Despite Ferguson's theoreticist
tilting at the windmills of ``modernity'', much of this text manages to reflect
some of what is known by ordinary people, and his use of new theory seems to
clarify rather than obfuscate.
At the same time, Ferguson indulges in a negative populism which at least
implicitly denies the relevance of formal, modern structures such as formal
democracy, government structures and the formal economy, weak though it be.
There is an uncomfortable disjuncture between western scholars illustrating the
pathos of African states, and those scholars, politicians and organisations in
Africa endeavouring to take responsibility for these troubled and pluriform
states and social economies. One thinks here of efforts of CODESRIA, the
efforts of the Economic Commission for Africa, the OAU's program for an
African Economic Community, and the work of scholars such as Thandika
Mkandawire and Achille Mvemve who are associated with these organisations
± one even thinks of certain political leaders and governments. What is the use
of a politics which occludes the terrain of government?
PETER STEWART
Department of Development Administration
Unisa
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