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International African Institute
Review
Reviewed Work(s): The Rentier State in Africa: Oil Rent Dependency and Neo-colonialism
in the Republic of Gabon by Douglas A. Yates
Review by: Florence Bernault
Source:
Africa: Journal of the International African Institute,
Vol. 71, No. 3 (2001), pp.
535-536
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African Institute
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1161572
Accessed: 05-02-2020 14:41 UTC
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SHORTER NOTICES SHORTER NOTICES
reb in a number of ways, not least in
problematising in her clear introduction
the notions of post(-)colonialism. The
author situates her own analysis firmly
within the postmodern, which she sees
as promoting the 'positivity of difference
and ethnicity by including all races,
literatures, ethnicities, and nationalities
on equal terms' as opposed to the
'essentialising' force of postcolonialism
(p. 2). In keeping with this she draws on
the philosophical and theoretical frame-
work of Deleuze and Guattari's concepts
of the becoming-woman, nomadology,
and the plane of consistency, and on
Homi Bhabha's notion of the Third
Space of culture. This theoretical under-
pinning is generally convincingly
handled, particularly in the chapter of
Leila Sebbar's trilogy, which I found the
strongest in the book, and the point at
which literary analysis and theoretical
application provide a rewarding reading
of the novels. A further aim of the book
is to provide a cogent historico-cultural
background in addition to a critical
analysis of the various texts analysed,
and this also is successful, providing a
generally solid appreciation both of the
historical and contemporary situations in
North Africa (especially Algeria). The
book therefore offers an important his-
torical and cultural contextualisation for
the reading of this literature which
students and those less familiar with
these issues will appreciate.
A first chapter sets out the definition
of terms used in the analysis together
with its theoretical framework, and then
goes on to consider questions of femi-
nine identity in some of the founding
texts of 'francophone literature of the
Maghreb', written by male authors such
as Kateb Yacine, Mohammed Dib, and
Nabile Fares. A second chapter con-
tinues with the use made of the male/
female figure by another well known
male writer, Tahar Ben Jelloun, in
L'Enfant de sable and La Nuit sacree.
While it is true to say that several male
writers have indeed used the position of
women to criticise their traditional
societies and the roles in which both
men and women are often constrained,
the author makes no mention of the
near fetishistic portrayal of women's
bodies in some of these works. This is
an essential aspect of the debate sur-
rounding male/female relations in North
reb in a number of ways, not least in
problematising in her clear introduction
the notions of post(-)colonialism. The
author situates her own analysis firmly
within the postmodern, which she sees
as promoting the 'positivity of difference
and ethnicity by including all races,
literatures, ethnicities, and nationalities
on equal terms' as opposed to the
'essentialising' force of postcolonialism
(p. 2). In keeping with this she draws on
the philosophical and theoretical frame-
work of Deleuze and Guattari's concepts
of the becoming-woman, nomadology,
and the plane of consistency, and on
Homi Bhabha's notion of the Third
Space of culture. This theoretical under-
pinning is generally convincingly
handled, particularly in the chapter of
Leila Sebbar's trilogy, which I found the
strongest in the book, and the point at
which literary analysis and theoretical
application provide a rewarding reading
of the novels. A further aim of the book
is to provide a cogent historico-cultural
background in addition to a critical
analysis of the various texts analysed,
and this also is successful, providing a
generally solid appreciation both of the
historical and contemporary situations in
North Africa (especially Algeria). The
book therefore offers an important his-
torical and cultural contextualisation for
the reading of this literature which
students and those less familiar with
these issues will appreciate.
A first chapter sets out the definition
of terms used in the analysis together
with its theoretical framework, and then
goes on to consider questions of femi-
nine identity in some of the founding
texts of 'francophone literature of the
Maghreb', written by male authors such
as Kateb Yacine, Mohammed Dib, and
Nabile Fares. A second chapter con-
tinues with the use made of the male/
female figure by another well known
male writer, Tahar Ben Jelloun, in
L'Enfant de sable and La Nuit sacree.
While it is true to say that several male
writers have indeed used the position of
women to criticise their traditional
societies and the roles in which both
men and women are often constrained,
the author makes no mention of the
near fetishistic portrayal of women's
bodies in some of these works. This is
an essential aspect of the debate sur-
rounding male/female relations in North
African societies and one explored in a
very different perspective by several
women writers and critics. Chapter 3
explores two texts by one of the best
known of these, Assia Djebar, and
provides a solid analysis of the rewriting
of history and of feminine identity in
L'Amour, la fantasia and Vaste est la
prison. A fourth chapter, previously
mentioned here, concentrates on the
work of Leila Sebbar and the problems
of identity of the young Beur both in
France and in the Arab world, while the
final chapter looks at recent works by
the Tunisian Hajer Djilani, Et pourtant
le ciel etait bleu . .. and by the Algerian
Malika Mokkedem, L'Interdite, both of
which the author sees as 'forging new
parameters for feminine identity in the
Maghreb' (p. 13) through their use of
current socio-cultural and political
ideas. The book suffers from the lack
of a real concluding chapter which
draws comparisons and differences
across the works analysed and it finally
fails to engage therefore with the
thornier issues of the apparent celebra-
tion of the feminine in this literature.
This open-endedness looking to future
developments of 'francophone literature
of the Mahgreb' is, however, entirely in
keeping with the overtly positive tone of
the book, which could be said to under-
play the problematic nature of asserting
a feminine identity and agency, and not
only in North African societies. Can the
'mondialiste conception of feminine
subjectivity' (p. 204) on which the
book ends truly be said to exist?
DEBRA KELLY
University of Westminster
DOUGLAS A. YATES, The Rentier State in
Africa: oil rent dependency and neo-
colonialism in the Republic of Gabon.
Trenton NJ: Africa World Press,
1996, 249 pp., ?12.99, ISBN 0
86543 521 9 paperback.
Gabon belongs to the handful of African
countries that does not attract significant
scholarship among specialists of modern
Africa. Since Brian Weinstein's seminal
work (Nation-building on the Ogooue,
1966) few political scientists have been
interested in studying this small, under-
populated country. As a consequence,
Gabon suffers from a widespread repu-
African societies and one explored in a
very different perspective by several
women writers and critics. Chapter 3
explores two texts by one of the best
known of these, Assia Djebar, and
provides a solid analysis of the rewriting
of history and of feminine identity in
L'Amour, la fantasia and Vaste est la
prison. A fourth chapter, previously
mentioned here, concentrates on the
work of Leila Sebbar and the problems
of identity of the young Beur both in
France and in the Arab world, while the
final chapter looks at recent works by
the Tunisian Hajer Djilani, Et pourtant
le ciel etait bleu . .. and by the Algerian
Malika Mokkedem, L'Interdite, both of
which the author sees as 'forging new
parameters for feminine identity in the
Maghreb' (p. 13) through their use of
current socio-cultural and political
ideas. The book suffers from the lack
of a real concluding chapter which
draws comparisons and differences
across the works analysed and it finally
fails to engage therefore with the
thornier issues of the apparent celebra-
tion of the feminine in this literature.
This open-endedness looking to future
developments of 'francophone literature
of the Mahgreb' is, however, entirely in
keeping with the overtly positive tone of
the book, which could be said to under-
play the problematic nature of asserting
a feminine identity and agency, and not
only in North African societies. Can the
'mondialiste conception of feminine
subjectivity' (p. 204) on which the
book ends truly be said to exist?
DEBRA KELLY
University of Westminster
DOUGLAS A. YATES, The Rentier State in
Africa: oil rent dependency and neo-
colonialism in the Republic of Gabon.
Trenton NJ: Africa World Press,
1996, 249 pp., ?12.99, ISBN 0
86543 521 9 paperback.
Gabon belongs to the handful of African
countries that does not attract significant
scholarship among specialists of modern
Africa. Since Brian Weinstein's seminal
work (Nation-building on the Ogooue,
1966) few political scientists have been
interested in studying this small, under-
populated country. As a consequence,
Gabon suffers from a widespread repu-
535 535
This content downloaded from 128.104.46.206 on Wed, 05 Feb 2020 14:41:09 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
SHORTER NOTICES SHORTER NOTICES
tation of being a rich, tiny, and uncom-
plicated country, ruled by an undeterred
dictator. In this regard, Douglas Yates's
short book is a welcome exception.
According to Yates, the situation in
Gabon can be summarised by under-
development, dictatorship, and lack of
social justice. Fuelled by moral outrage at
injustices, Yates argues that the plagues of
Gabon can be explained by a double
dependence: the country's exaggerated
reliance on oil revenues, and the fact that
it remains a neo-colonial enclave of French
interests. While the argument is not new,
the author provides a detailed, useful
analysis of the 'rentier state' in Gabon:
five short chapters engage with current
theories of rentier states (a concept for-
mulated with respect to the Middle East
and the Persian Gulf), the rentier economy
in Gabon itself, the rural crisis and the
decline of the oil industry, the modem
Transgabonais railway project, and a com-
parative analysis of other rentier states in
Africa. Within the somewhat narrow
scope of this argument, the demonstration
is clear and convincing. It will also
introduce the reader with a good sample
of the francophone literature on Central
Africa and, more generally, with theories
of economic dependence.
When it comes to a deeper social and
historical analysis of Gabon, however,
Yates's model-driven demonstration
falls short of being convincing. Chapter
three, for example, seeks to uncover the
deeper roots of Gabon's authoritarian
regime that, according to Yates, 'is
almost caricatural in its exaggeration of
dependency and personal rule' (p. 85).
One could easily apply those very terms
to Yates's analysis: the whole chapter,
glossing over four centuries of history,
never takes off from deterministic stan-
zas. In Gabon, the author argues, the
colonial power was totalistic and brutal.
African agency and resistance non-exis-
tent, and independence evidently 'false'
(p. 96). In chapter six, where Yates
attempts to contextualise the emergence
of a 'rentier mentality', the Gabonese
political class is not worthy of a more
generous-or subtle-treatment: nation-
alist politicians are denounced as either
puppets of French foresters, or driven by
ethnic hatred, while the modern elites
cannot escape being spoiled in the
decadent wealth and powerlessness of
the postcolony. Although Yates briefly
tation of being a rich, tiny, and uncom-
plicated country, ruled by an undeterred
dictator. In this regard, Douglas Yates's
short book is a welcome exception.
According to Yates, the situation in
Gabon can be summarised by under-
development, dictatorship, and lack of
social justice. Fuelled by moral outrage at
injustices, Yates argues that the plagues of
Gabon can be explained by a double
dependence: the country's exaggerated
reliance on oil revenues, and the fact that
it remains a neo-colonial enclave of French
interests. While the argument is not new,
the author provides a detailed, useful
analysis of the 'rentier state' in Gabon:
five short chapters engage with current
theories of rentier states (a concept for-
mulated with respect to the Middle East
and the Persian Gulf), the rentier economy
in Gabon itself, the rural crisis and the
decline of the oil industry, the modem
Transgabonais railway project, and a com-
parative analysis of other rentier states in
Africa. Within the somewhat narrow
scope of this argument, the demonstration
is clear and convincing. It will also
introduce the reader with a good sample
of the francophone literature on Central
Africa and, more generally, with theories
of economic dependence.
When it comes to a deeper social and
historical analysis of Gabon, however,
Yates's model-driven demonstration
falls short of being convincing. Chapter
three, for example, seeks to uncover the
deeper roots of Gabon's authoritarian
regime that, according to Yates, 'is
almost caricatural in its exaggeration of
dependency and personal rule' (p. 85).
One could easily apply those very terms
to Yates's analysis: the whole chapter,
glossing over four centuries of history,
never takes off from deterministic stan-
zas. In Gabon, the author argues, the
colonial power was totalistic and brutal.
African agency and resistance non-exis-
tent, and independence evidently 'false'
(p. 96). In chapter six, where Yates
attempts to contextualise the emergence
of a 'rentier mentality', the Gabonese
political class is not worthy of a more
generous-or subtle-treatment: nation-
alist politicians are denounced as either
puppets of French foresters, or driven by
ethnic hatred, while the modern elites
cannot escape being spoiled in the
decadent wealth and powerlessness of
the postcolony. Although Yates briefly
engages with Jean-Francois Bayart in his
introduction, the complexity of Gabo-
nese society, the agency of the subal-
terns, as well as the multiple divides and
contrasted ideologies of Gabonese poli-
ticians and intellectuals, seem to escape
his scrutiny entirely. As a result, Yates's
moralistic standpoint seems at times to
run against its own purpose. For exam-
ple, chapter five discusses the project of
the Transgabonese railroad to illustrate
the failure of the Gabonese modern
sector, arguing that President Bongo
failed to purchase 'modernity' for
Gabon even though he spent billions of
CFA francs (p. 173). Not only has Yates
not read carefully Roland Pourtier's
nuanced discussion of the railroad in
his magisterial two-volume study (Le
Gabon, 1989), but the chapter leaves
the reader with an odd feeling: that of
being back in Libreville listening to the
cynical, derogatory jokes of French
expatriates delighting in the so-called
failures of the regime.
For Gabonese opponents to the Bongo
regime, or for the blame-hungry Western
'expert', this book may provide a useful
road map. For other scholars, the para-
doxical result of Yates's denunciation is to
add another chapter to the reductionist,
caricatural stereotype of modern Gabon.
FLORENCE BERNAULT
University of Wisconsin-Madison
RUTH WEISS, with Jane L. Parpart, Sir
Garfield Todd and the Making of
Zimbabwe. London: British Academic
Press, 1999, 254 pp., ?39.50, ISBN 1
85043 693 2.
A biography ought to include either new
material or a new interpretation of its
subject and the times in which he or she
lived. This book, unfortunately, does
neither. Despite biography's potential
to make historic figures come alive for
readers, Todd remains enigmatic.
Although Weiss's numerous anecdotes
about him are in themselves entertain-
ing, her attempt to stitch them together
into a coherent text fails badly, rendering
them trite rather than insightful.
The book's failure to grip the reader's
interest may be in part because of the
very awkwardness of the subject matter;
many remain uncomfortable with the
role of 'white liberals', although it is a
engages with Jean-Francois Bayart in his
introduction, the complexity of Gabo-
nese society, the agency of the subal-
terns, as well as the multiple divides and
contrasted ideologies of Gabonese poli-
ticians and intellectuals, seem to escape
his scrutiny entirely. As a result, Yates's
moralistic standpoint seems at times to
run against its own purpose. For exam-
ple, chapter five discusses the project of
the Transgabonese railroad to illustrate
the failure of the Gabonese modern
sector, arguing that President Bongo
failed to purchase 'modernity' for
Gabon even though he spent billions of
CFA francs (p. 173). Not only has Yates
not read carefully Roland Pourtier's
nuanced discussion of the railroad in
his magisterial two-volume study (Le
Gabon, 1989), but the chapter leaves
the reader with an odd feeling: that of
being back in Libreville listening to the
cynical, derogatory jokes of French
expatriates delighting in the so-called
failures of the regime.
For Gabonese opponents to the Bongo
regime, or for the blame-hungry Western
'expert', this book may provide a useful
road map. For other scholars, the para-
doxical result of Yates's denunciation is to
add another chapter to the reductionist,
caricatural stereotype of modern Gabon.
FLORENCE BERNAULT
University of Wisconsin-Madison
RUTH WEISS, with Jane L. Parpart, Sir
Garfield Todd and the Making of
Zimbabwe. London: British Academic
Press, 1999, 254 pp., ?39.50, ISBN 1
85043 693 2.
A biography ought to include either new
material or a new interpretation of its
subject and the times in which he or she
lived. This book, unfortunately, does
neither. Despite biography's potential
to make historic figures come alive for
readers, Todd remains enigmatic.
Although Weiss's numerous anecdotes
about him are in themselves entertain-
ing, her attempt to stitch them together
into a coherent text fails badly, rendering
them trite rather than insightful.
The book's failure to grip the reader's
interest may be in part because of the
very awkwardness of the subject matter;
many remain uncomfortable with the
role of 'white liberals', although it is a
536 536
This content downloaded from 128.104.46.206 on Wed, 05 Feb 2020 14:41:09 UTC
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