Book ID: CBB428165723

Water, History, and Politics in Zimbabwe: Bulawayo's Struggles With the Environment, 1894-2008 (2014)

unapi

Muchaparara Musemwa (Author)


Africa World Press, Inc.


Publication Date: 2014
Physical Details: 268
Language: English

This book examines the City of Bulawayo's struggles with the environment from 1894 to 2008 given its location in the perennially semi-arid region of south-western Zimbabwe. It focuses on a case-study of Makokoba, the city's first and oldest township, and explores the history of its African residents and their struggles over access to water during this period from a sustainable livelihoods perspective one which emphasizes that human security and environmental sustainability are inextricably intertwined. The book argues that water scarcity in Bulawayo, especially as it affected Africans for the most part, was a result of both biophysical conditions and man-made policies which were linked to deep-rooted struggles over access to, and management of, water resources in both colonial and postcolonial Zimbabwe. A well-researched and very lucidly written book that offers a refreshingly novel way of looking at Zimbabwean urban history through an insightful analysis of the lived experiences of the inhabitants of the city of Bulawayo s suburb of Makokoba over long periods of persistent water scarcity from the end of the nineteenth century to the present. It also examines how the politics of access to and control of scarce water resources in the town and Matebeleland region affected the dynamics of local, regional and national social, political and economic developments and relations. This is a pioneering study that focuses on Zimbabwe's environmental history, a much neglected aspect of Zimbabwe's past, whose appreciation is crucial to a meaningful understanding of the various factors that have shaped the country's socio-political and economic experience in recent times.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB428165723/

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Authors & Contributors
Morgan, Ruth A.
Alessandra Landi
Daigger, Glen T.
Giovanni Carrosio
Jennifer L. Derr
Jacobs, Jeffrey
Concepts
Water resource management
Water supply
Great Britain, colonies
Sustainability
Environmental history
Technology and politics
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
20th century, early
19th century
Early modern
Modern
Places
Zimbabwe
United States
Italy
Africa
Nile River
Mozambique
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