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Africa Today 48.2 (2001) 170-171



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Snyder, Margaret. 2000. Women in African Economies: from Burning Sun to Boardroom. Kampala, Uganda: Fountain Publishers.
[End Page 170]

We have here an analytical account of interviews with 74 Ugandan business women, ranging from roadside marketers to travel agents, who are representative of a major portion of Africa's labor force which on average contributes something like forty percent of Africa's GDP. These stories are essentially the self-revelation of ordinary women who are pleasantly surprised that someone is asking them about themselves, clearly expressing their needs and their goals, honestly and frankly describing their failures and successes. This is not an inquiry based on hundreds of responses reduced to percentages and categories, but rather a humanistic product of extended conversations with female achievers conducted by a woman whose decades of experience promoting the advancement of African women--as founding director of UNIFEM, advisor to UNECA, and Fulbright Scholar--give her an insight into their daily work and their long-term ambitions for themselves and their children.

Probably the most readable and informed analysis of African women entrepreneurs currently available, it is unlikely to be matched easily in the future. While its focus is on Ugandan women, its application extends to most patterns of the emerging economic behavior of African women across the continent as well as their contributions to the economy. The author informs the reader's judgment before embarking on the case studies by placing the analysis in both its broad African context as well as its historical background. Initially tracing the role of African women in their rightful and all-too-frequently unrecognized places in Africa's economy--noting the historical and traditional forces that have hindered and handicapped them, and characterizing their emergence as entrepreneurs--the author establishes the environment in which various categories of Ugandan women entreprenerurs emerge. Set in this broad context and leavened by the author's experience, the work of these traders, farmers, managers, and how they cope with the economic context within which they work, comes to life in a vivid way.

Various methods are used to inform the reader about the context of the socioeconomic system in which the women function: numerous uniquely devised tables and illustrations categorize the variety of entrepreneurs; a list of acronyms and a glossary of the indigenous terminology guide the reader through unfamiliar territory; an extensive bibliography points to further studies; and a detailed index identifies and classifies major issues.

This is a "must" book for Africanists, Third World development economists, and women's studies programs, seeking an informative text which utilizes different categories of Ugandan women entrepreneurs to illustrate how African women can and do overcome socioeconomic problems, provide for their families, and contribute to national economies.

Marion E. Doro
Professor emerita
Connecticut College



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