"This collection of eighteen essays of uneven richness underserved by an overly thin two-page introduction brings together some of the best known names in Development Communication in an attempt to understand African aspirations, experiences, challenges and the place of communication in development. Coming at this stage in a debate that has generated much conventional and critical scholarship, one would have expected the editors to aim at much more than simply providing space for contributors to offer "a fillip and not necessarily a panacea for development" (Page x). The "desirable and useful" (Page x) approaches the book explores would certainly have served their purpose better, within a framework of the need to critically rethink conventional scholarly assumptions about communication and development, especially in relation to Africa [...] Nonetheless, a good number of the contributions competently discuss competing perspectives on development communication (e.g. Pye, Servaes, Jacobson), drawing attention to how practices on and in Africa have tended to impair or enhance the participatory and emancipatory potential of development communication. Some focus closely on communication technologies and their applications (e.g., de Beer, Melkote and Steeves, Eribo), advocating strategies and approaches informed by varying degrees of faith in the capacity of modern information and communication technologies (ICTs) to transform individuals and societies in the name of development. Most of the book makes a strong, even if not always substantiated or negotiated, case for the importance of "indigenous African cultures," if media and communication practices are to adequately serve and service African thirsts for development (Asante, Mazrui and Okigbo, Okigbo, Hachten, Stevenson, Amienyi, Akhahenda, Moemeka, Singhal et al., Okumu, Nganje and Blake). A conscious effort to engage similar debates in anthropology and cultural studies for example, could have yielded further insights." (https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=10843)