Science and advocacy: a review of Education, Race and Employment in Rhodesia by M. W. Murphree (Editor), B. J. Dorsey, G. Cheater and B. D. Mothobi.

Abstract

This is potentially the most important publication in Rhodesian race relations since the landmark study in 1962 by Rogers and Frantz, entitled Racial Themes in Southern RhodesiaNow, as then, officials in industry and government service must try to read it, above all for its efforts at fact finding. As an added incentive, the title, Education, Race and Employment in Rhodesia, contains three of the most emotive words in the language used by whites in Rhodesia. It is also open-ended, suggesting relationships rather than describing them; and, as in all good advertising copy, the viewers’ familiarity with the labels guarantees preliminary investigation of the latest brand name, whatever the content or size of the package. One would hate to miss anything, indeed, in such a large one, just in case its five-hundred-odd pages written during the past five years should prove radical, important, comforting, discomfiting or exasperating. Unreasonably, perhaps, this particular product manages to embody, at times, all of these descriptors. How does it do this, and in what context?