A Dam for Africa
Akosombo Stories from Ghana
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Indiana University Press
Published:12th Jul '22
Should be back in stock very soon
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£39.00(9780253059956)
Since its construction in the early 1960s, the hydroelectric Akosombo Dam across the Volta River has exemplified the possibilities and challenges of development in Ghana. Drawing upon a wealth of sources, A Dam for Africa investigates contrasting stories about how this dam has transformed a West African nation, while providing a model for other African countries.
The massive Akosombo Dam is the keystone of the Volta River Project that includes a large manmade lake 250 miles long, the VALCO aluminum smelter, new cities and towns, a deep-sea harbor, and an electrical grid. On the local level, Akosombo has meant access to electricity for people in urban and industrial areas across southern Ghana. For others, Akosombo inflicted tremendous social and environmental costs. The dam altered the ecology of the Lower Volta, displaced 80,000 people in the Volta Basin, and affected the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Ghanaians.
In A Dam for Africa, Stephan Miescher explores four intersecting narratives: Ghanaian debates and aspirations about modernization in the context of decolonization and Cold War; international efforts of the US aluminum industry to benefit from Akosombo through cheap electricity for their VALCO smelter; local stories of upheaval and devastation in resettlement towns; and a nation-wide quest toward electrification and energy justice during times of economic crises, droughts, and climate change.
This is a detailed and fascinating case study in the research field of international dam and hydropower plant construction.
- Aurelia Ohlendorf (Connections)To say that this book caters to scholars with a broad range of interests and opens several areas for further research is an understatement. With the diversity of sources, familiar and new untapped archives, such as those of the Volta River Authority and Electricity Company of Ghana, oral histories, and qualitative and quantitative surveys, A Dam for Africa is a new and refreshing perspective on the VRP.
- Adwoa Opong - Chapman University (H-Net Reviews)By approaching the Akosombo Dam as a Cold War project built through skillful negotiation between the Americans and Soviets, Miescher is able to construct a truly international history of development that depicts the geopolitical significance of dam building for a wide array of global actors in the mid-twentieth century. His inclusion of voices from the diaspora allow us to see the dam as a truly pan-Africanist project. Finally, Miescher's work refines a body of scholarship that emphasizes the repressive, statist aspects of postcolonial development agendas.
- Dimitri Diagne - University of California Berkeley (H-Environment)The book will surely become a classic on the history of dams and development, postcolonial nation-building, Cold War politics and electrification, as well as, more generally, on how to write nuanced, non- extractive histories that many people—those affected by such histories as well as students sitting in classrooms in a faraway continent—will value and learn from.
- Julia Tischler – University of Basel (American Historical Review)A Dam for Africa is a monumental work and a wonderful addition to the rich literature on dams published in the last two decades.
- Allen Isaacman - University of Minnnesota (Canadian Journal of African Studies)Miescher brings a fresh perspective to the debate on large dams. The depth of research, both archival and ethnographic, is extraordinary and emerges from Mieshcher's two-decade-long relationship with Ghana, some of which can be seen in the book's length and extensive endnotes—which make it an approachable read.
- Satyajit Singh - University of California, Santa Barbara (Journal of Political EcolISBN: 9780253059970
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 975g
598 pages