Book ID: CBB001420361

Dams, Displacement, and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and Its Legacies in Mozambique, 1965--2007 (2013)

unapi

Isaacman, Allen F (Author)
Isaacman, Barbara (Author)


Ohio University Press


Publication Date: 2013
Physical Details: xvi + 291 pp.; ill.; maps; bibl.; index
Language: English

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 Libertação de Moçambique) 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.

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Reviewed By

Review Stephen Goldfarb (2014) Review of "Dams, Displacement, and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and Its Legacies in Mozambique, 1965--2007". IA. The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology (pp. 160-161). unapi

Review Hughes, David McDermott (2014) Review of "Dams, Displacement, and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and Its Legacies in Mozambique, 1965--2007". Environmental History (pp. 585-587). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001420361/

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Authors & Contributors
Tim Riding
Rice, Carla
Manning, Dolleen Tisawii'ashii
Stonefish, Mona
Man, Zhimin
Pereira, Hugo Silveira
Concepts
Colonialism
Rivers
Flood control
Drainage; irrigation
Cross-cultural interaction; cultural influence
Science and race
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
19th century
20th century, late
20th century, early
Qing dynasty (China, 1644-1912)
Places
Canada
India
Mozambique
Great Britain
Guinea-Bissau
Bombay (India)
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