Crossing the Zambezi : the politics of landscape on a Central African frontier / JoAnn McGregor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McGregor, JoAnn.

Contributor:

George R. Fink Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History.

Zambezi River--History.

Zambezi River.

Zambezi River Valley--History.

Zambezi River Valley.

Zambezi River Region.

Physical Description:

x, 237 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Woodbridge, UK ; Rochester, NY : James Currey ; Harare, Zimbabwe : Weaver Press, 2009.

Summary:

This book is a history of claims to the Zambezi, focussed on the stretch of the river extending from the Victoria Falls downstream into Lake Kariba, which today constitutes the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is a story of 150 years of conflict over the changing landscape of the river, in which the tension between the Zambezi's 'river people' and more powerful others has been central.

The Zambezi is one of Africa's longest and most important rivers - securing access to its waters and control over its banks, traffic and commerce were crucial political priorities for leaders of precolonial states no less than their colonial and postcolonial successors. By investigating how the claims made today by Zambezi 'river people' relate to a longer history of claims and appropriations, the book contributes to long-standing debates over the relationship between geography and history, landscape and power.

Contents:

Introduction: the politics of landscape on the Zambezi

Crossing the Zambezi: landscape & precolonial power

Mapping the Zambezi: imperial knowledge & the Zambezi frontier

Violence & law in the borderlands: early colonial authority & extraction

Bridging the Zambezi at Victoria Falls: science & early colonial expansion

Damming the Zambezi at Kariba: late colonial developmentalism

Reclaiming the borderlands: ethnicity, nationalism & war

Unsettled claims: the Tonga & the politics of recognition

Surviving in the borderlands: the unfinished business of Lake Kariba

Unravelling the politics of landscape: a conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 214-228) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George R. Fink Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

184701402X

9781847014023

9781779220776

1779220774

OCLC:

243545100

Publisher Number:

99949627333