Bibliograph

Dams, displacement, and the delusion of development, Cahora Bassa and its legacies in Mozambique, 1965/2007, Allen F. Isaacman and Barbara S. Isaacman

Type

Label

Dams, displacement, and the delusion of development, Cahora Bassa and its legacies in Mozambique, 1965/2007, Allen F. Isaacman and Barbara S. Isaacman

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 259-281) and index

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Dams, displacement, and the delusion of development

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

821067775

Responsibility statement

Allen F. Isaacman and Barbara S. Isaacman

Series statement

New African histories

Sub title

Cahora Bassa and its legacies in Mozambique, 1965/2007

Summary

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<U+0127> 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 --, Provided by Publisher

Table Of Contents

Introduction : Cahora Bassa in broader perspective -- The Zambezi River Valley in Mozambican history : an overview -- Harnessing the river : high modernism and building the dam, 1965/75 -- Displaced people : forced eviction and life in the protected villages, 1970/75 -- The Lower Zambezi : remaking nature, transforming the landscape, 1975/2007 -- Displaced energy -- Legacies

Classification