Mosaic or Patchwork: Canadian Policy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1980s

Raymond A. Jones is a history professor at Carleton University in
Ottawa.

This bilingual book, written by Andrew Clark on behalf of the
North-South Institute and Partnership Africa Canada, describes Canadian
policy toward sub-Saharan Africa in the 1980s. Clark’s argument, as
the title clearly indicates, is premised on the assumption that Canadian
policy thus far has been a patchwork; it could become a mosaic, but only
if government policy-makers were to engage in a more meaningful dialogue
with the variety of nongovernmental organizations that are involved in
finding solutions for the desperate economic and social problems that
bedevil Africa.

The author has organized his work around Canada’s stated
foreign-policy objectives vis-а-vis the region: development with social
justice; the promotion of commercial links; expressing the Canadian
identity; and promoting peace and security. The book is aimed at an
informed audience in the hope that public pressure will not only produce
a more co-ordinated policy, but continue to keep African development
adequately funded in the 1990s.