[Sci-tech-public] FW: April 15 - The Deterritorialisation of Cahora Bassa Dam - Allen Isaacman

[Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga]

Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga
Associate Professor, Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT
http://mit.academia.edu/ClappertonMavhunga
Transient Workspaces: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/transient-workspaces
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From: MIT Energy Initiative [jtwomey=mit.edu at mail60.atl31.mcdlv.net] on behalf of MIT Energy Initiative [jtwomey at MIT.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2014 2:31 PM
To: Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga
Subject: April 15 - The Deterritorialisation of Cahora Bassa Dam - Allen Isaacman

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Extending South Africa’s Tentacles of Empire: The Deterritorialisation of Cahora Bassa Dam

Allen Isaacman
University of Minnesota

Tuesday, April 15

4:45 PM
Reception to follow

Room E19-319<http://mit.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=1a57a715520513505ca5cda89&id=84db457b1e&e=6f67fb330c>
MIT Campus




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Abstract

In 1965, when Portugal proposed constructing a dam at Cahora Bassa, colonial officials envisioned that numerous benefits would flow from the US$515 million hydroelectric project and the managed environment it would produce. These included the expansion of irrigated farming, increased European settlement and mineral output and reduced flooding in this zone of unpredictable and sometimes excess rainfall.

Despite these pronouncements, the realities on the ground forced Portugal to drastically modify its vision for the dam. During construction, the growing success of the liberation struggle against Portuguese colonialism in Mozambique turned the dam into a focal point in a larger struggle, and Cahora Bassa became a security project, which the minority regime in South Africa and the Salazar dictatorship in Portugal masked as a development initiative.

In return for South Africa’s strategic assistance, Portugal agreed to export to South Africa the vast majority of the energy that Cahora Bassa would produce at an artificially low price. This agreement transformed the dam from the multi-purpose hydroelectric project into a dam whose principal function was to provide cheap energy to mines and industry at a fraction of the world price—thereby enhancing Pretoria’s energy security. Of greater significance, the agreement enabled the apartheid regime to extend its tentacles of empire to the dam site in very heart of the colony, leading to the deterritorialization of Cahora Bassa.

About the Speaker

Allen Isaacman is Regents Professor at the University of Minnesota. He also holds the position of Extraordinary Professor at The University of Western Cape and taught at Univerdade Eduardo Mondlane shortly after Mozambican independence. His first book Mozambique: The Africanization of a European Institution: The Zambezi Prazos 1750 - 1902 won the African Studies Association Melville Herskovits Award.

The Seminar Series is made possible with the support of IHS-CERA.

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