Africa's Wars and Prospects for Peace by Raymond W. CopsonReview by: Gail GerhartForeign Affairs, Vol. 74, No. 4 (Jul. - Aug., 1995), p. 158Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20047282 .

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Recent Books

offer a clear and concise analysis of the

factors obstructing and abetting peace and regional cooperation, and they assess (at mid-1993) the ways in which

South Africa's transition will continue

to affect its neighbors. They argue that

the resolution of future intra- and inter

state conflicts will depend on how well

the governments of the region build per manent institutions for dialogue.

The Heritage of Islam: Women, Religion, and Politics in West Africa. BY BARBARA CALLAWAY AND LUCY

creevey. Boulder: Lynne Rienner,

1994, 221 pp. $40.00 (paper, $19.95). Does religion shape society less or more

than society shapes it? Less, according to this solidly researched study of the

comparative status of Muslim women in

northern Nigeria and Senegal. Histori

cally and geographically less exposed to

Western influences than Senegal, north

ern Nigeria today secludes women and

bars them from public life, whereas

Senegalese social and religious norms

are less discriminatory. In Senegal, Muslim women have achieved at least a

toehold in the modern sector, and a

feminist agenda is supported by a

nascent women's movement. By

con

trast, in northern Nigeria (where women were denied the vote until 1976 and today less than one percent attend

universities today), patriarchy and social

conservatism are so pervasive that

women's only hope of advancement, the

authors argue, lies in promoting gender

equality as a matter of reform within

Islamic law, or sharia. Muslim funda

mentalists, who use different interpreta tions of sharia to justify their opposition

to equality, are striving in both countries

to roll back even the minor gains of

Muslim women; But here again, the

authors predict, the greater openness of

Senegal to modern economic and social

influences (as well as the buffer against fundamentalism provided by Muslim

brotherhoods) make Senegal less likely than northern Nigeria to be swept by fundamentalist reaction.

?fricas Wars and Prospects for Peace.

by Raymond w. copsoN. Armonk:

M. E. Sharpe, 1994, 211 pp. $50.00

(paper, $19.95).

Anyone who needs to sort quickly

through Africa's catalog of contempo

rary conflicts, from Western Sahara to

Mozambique to the Horn, will welcome

this concise yet comprehensive update

(to late 1993). Organized to supplement basic international relations texts, there

are chapters on the domestic and exter

nal causes of African wars, costs and

consequences, changing contexts in the

post-Cold War world, and the prospects for positive international intervention.

The commentary is well informed, and

there are helpful maps and tables.

South Africa: Twelve Perspectives on the

Transition, edited by helen a.

KITCHEN AND J. COLEMAN

kitchen. Westport: Praeger, 1994,

203 pp. $55.00 (paper, $18.95). Most of the pieces in this volume are by

acknowledged experts, and all originally

appeared as issues of CSIS Africa Notes

published by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International

Studies. Dating from January 1988 to

January 1994, they address a range of

[158] FOREIGN AFFAIRS-Volume74N0.4

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