Dams, Displacement, and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and Its Legacies in Mozambique, 1965–2007 (New African Histories) - Softcover

Isaacman, Allen F.; Isaacman, Barbara S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 082142033X ISBN 13: 9780821420331

Publisher: Ohio University Press, 2013

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 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.

About this title

About the Authors

Allen F. Isaacman is a Regents Professor of History at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of numerous books, including the co-authored (with Barbara Isaacman) Dams, Displacement, and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and its Legacies in Mozambique, 1965–2007, winner of the ASA Best Book Prize and the AHA Klein Prize in African History. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has won fellowships from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations, among others.

Barbara S. Isaacman is a retired attorney. She has coauthored numerous books with Allen F. Isaacman, including Mozambique’s Samora Machel: A Life Cut Short and the award-winning Dams, Displacement, and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and Its Legacies in Mozambique, 1965–2007. She also coauthored, with June Stephen, Mozambique―Women, the Law, and Agrarian Reform and has written numerous law review articles.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ohio University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 082142033X
• ISBN 13: 9780821420331
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 324