Synopses & Reviews
andbull; Winner of the American Historical Associationandrsquo;s 2014 Martin A. Klein Prize in African History andbull; Finalist for the African Studies Associationandrsquo;s 2014 Melville J. Herskovits Award for best book in African Studies
Cahora Bassa Dam on the Zambezi River, built in the early 1970s during the final years of Portuguese rule, was the last major infrastructure project constructed in Africa during the turbulent era of decolonization. Engineers and hydrologists praised the dam for its technical complexity and the skills required to construct what was then the worldandrsquo;s fifth-largest mega-dam. Portuguese colonial officials cited benefits they expected from the damandthinsp;andmdash;andthinsp;from expansion of irrigated farming and European settlement, to improved transportation throughout the Zambezi River Valley, to reduced flooding in this area of unpredictable rainfall. andldquo;The project, however, actually resulted in cascading layers of human displacement, violence, and environmental destruction. Its electricity benefited few Mozambicans, even after the former guerrillas of FRELIMO (Frente de Libertaandccedil;andatilde;o de Moandccedil;ambique) came to power; instead, it fed industrialization in apartheid South Africa.andrdquo; (Richard Roberts)
This in-depth study of the region examines the dominant developmentalist narrative that has surrounded the dam, chronicles the continual violence that has accompanied its existence, and gives voice to previously unheard narratives of forced labor, displacement, and historical and contemporary life in the damandrsquo;s shadow.
Review
andldquo;At last a comprehensive, historically deep and ecologically knowledgeable study of a great dam. The Isaacmans brilliantly show how, all along the Zambezi below the Cahora Bassa Dam, whole worlds of riparian lifeandmdash;fish, birds, humans and other mammalsandmdash;dependent on the annual inundation of the flood plain have been stilled. They recover the voices silenced by the fear and violence deployed by states devoted to the care and feeding of this mega-project. Unparalleled in its sweep, depth and attention to the lived experience of all its victims.andrdquo;
andmdash; James C. Scott, Yale University, author of Seeing Like a State
Review
andldquo;The Isaacmansandrsquo; book is a classic, comprehensive account of how a large dam, in this case Mozambiqueandrsquo;s most important andlsquo;developmentandrsquo; project when completed, initiated a large-scale land and water grab that has adversely, and unacceptably, affected the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people living in the lower Zambezi Basin.andrdquo;
andmdash; Thayer Scudder, California Institute of Technology, author of The Future of Large Dams
Review
andldquo;Isaacman and Isaacman provide a wrenching alternative story from the perspective of peasants, fishermen, and workers whose lives were deeply and irreparably impacted by the dam. [A] major corrective to debates about the benefits of big development projects.andrdquo;
andmdash; Richard Roberts, Stanford University, coeditor of Trafficking in Slaveryandrsquo;s Wake
Review
andldquo;(
Dams, Displacement and the Delusion of Development), which is rich with first-hand quotes of people directly impacted by the massive scheme, analyzes the social, environmental and economic failures of this huge dam project. A picture emerges of a river being used as a political football in a time of waning colonial power, and a project fraught with injustices.andhellip; This excellent study offers a cautionary tale for those who would build new destructive large dams on the Zambezi River.andrdquo;
World Rivers Review
Review
and#147;This book is a passionate and richly documented critique of a disastrous high-modernist scheme, concerned not only to challenge the triumphalist narrative of Cahora Bassa, but equally, to argue against the newest and#147;delusion of developmentand#8221; as Mozambique seeks to build a second dam downstream. It is a welcome addition to the literature on large dam projects in Africa, and opens up rich possibilities of comparison around the continent.and#8221;and#151;International Journal of African Historical Studies
Synopsis
- Winner of the American Historical Association's 2014 Martin A. Klein Prize in African History
- Finalist for the African Studies Association's 2014 Melville J. Herskovits Award for best book in African Studies Cahora Bassa Dam on the Zambezi River, built in the early 1970s during the final years of Portuguese rule, was the last major infrastructure project constructed in Africa during the turbulent era of decolonization. Engineers and hydrologists praised the dam for its technical complexity and the skills required to construct what was then the world's fifth-largest mega-dam. Portuguese colonial officials cited benefits they expected from the dam -- from expansion of irrigated farming and European settlement, to improved transportation throughout the Zambezi River Valley, to reduced flooding in this area of unpredictable rainfall. "The project, however, actually resulted in cascading layers of human displacement, violence, and environmental destruction. Its electricity benefited few Mozambicans, even after the former guerrillas of FRELIMO (Frente de Libertacao de Mocambique) came to power; instead, it fed industrialization in apartheid South Africa." (Richard Roberts)
This in-depth study of the region examines the dominant developmentalist narrative that has surrounded the dam, chronicles the continual violence that has accompanied its existence, and gives voice to previously unheard narratives of forced labor, displacement, and historical and contemporary life in the dam's shadow.
Synopsis
Winner of the 2014 Martin A. Klein Prize in African History (American Historical Association)
Winner of the African Studies Association's 2014 Melville J. Herskovits Award.
Cahora Bassa Dam on the Zambezi River, built in the early 1970s during the final years of Portuguese rule, was the last major infrastructure project constructed in Africa during the turbulent era of decolonization. Engineers and hydrologists praised the dam for its technical complexity and the skills required to construct what was then the world's fifth-largest mega-dam. Portuguese colonial officials cited benefits they expected from the dam -- from expansion of irrigated farming and European settlement, to improved transportation throughout the Zambezi River Valley, to reduced flooding in this area of unpredictable rainfall. "The project, however, actually resulted in cascading layers of human displacement, violence, and environmental destruction. Its electricity benefited few Mozambicans, even after the former guerrillas of FRELIMO (Frente de Libertacao de Mocambique) came to power; instead, it fed industrialization in apartheid South Africa." (Richard Roberts)
This in-depth study of the region examines the dominant developmentalist narrative that has surrounded the dam, chronicles the continual violence that has accompanied its existence, and gives voice to previously unheard narratives of forced labor, displacement, and historical and contemporary life in the dam's shadow.
Synopsis
Cahora Bassa Dam on the Zambezi River, built in the early 1970s during the final years of Portuguese rule, was the last major infrastructure project constructed in Africa during the turbulent era of decolonization. Engineers and hydrologists praised the dam for its technical complexity and the skills required to construct what was then the world's fifth-largest mega-dam. Portuguese colonial officials cited benefits they expected from the dam-from expansion of irrigated farming and European settlement, to improved transportation throughout the Zambezi River Valley, to reduced flooding in this area of unpredictable rainfall. "The project, however, actually resulted in cascading layers of human displacement, violence, and environmental destruction. Its electricity benefited few Mozambicans, even after the former guerrillas of FRELIMO (Frente de Liberta o de Mo ambique) came to power; instead, it fed industrialization in apartheid South Africa." (Richard Roberts)
This in-depth study of the region examines the dominant developmentalist narrative that has surrounded the dam, chronicles the continual violence that has accompanied its existence, and gives voice to previously unheard narratives of forced labor, displacement, and historical and contemporary life in the dam's shadow.
About the Author
Allen F. Isaacman, Regents Professor of History at the University of Minnesota and Extraordinary Professor at the University of Western Cape, is the author of seven books, including
Mozambique: The Africanization of a European Institution,
The Zambezi Prazos, 1750andndash;1902 (winner of the Melville J. Herskovits Award for the most distinguished publication in African Studies, 1972) and
Cotton is the Mother of Poverty: Peasants, Work, and Rural Struggle in Colonial Mozambique 1938andndash;1961 (Herskovits Award finalist, 1997). He has won fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations, among others.
Barbara S. Isaacman, a retired criminal defense attorney, lived and taught law in Mozambique at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane as Professor of Law in the late 1970s. She wrote Women, the Law and Agrarian Reform in Mozambique, and co-wrote several monographs on the history of Mozambique.
Table of Contents
and#149; List of Illustrations
and#149; Acknowledgments
and#149; Abbreviations
and#149; Cahora Bassa Timeline
and#149; Chapter 1: Introduction
Cahora Bassa in Broader Perspective
and#149; Chapter 2: The Zambezi River Valley in Mozambican History
An Overview
and#149; Chapter 3: Harnessing the River
High Modernism and Building the Dam, 1965and#150;75
and#149; Chapter 4: Displaced People
Forced Eviction and Life in the Protected Villages, 1970and#150;75
and#149; Chapter 5: The Lower Zambezi
Remaking Nature, Transforming the Landscape, 1975and#150;2007
and#149; Chapter 6: Displaced Energy
and#149; Chapter 7: Legacies 167
and#149; Notes
and#149; Glossary of Select Local Terms
and#149; Bibliography
and#149; Index