Planning Kariba

Abstract

This credo of modernisation theory succinctly summarises the rationale behind the Kariba Dam scheme, following the interpretation of David Howarth. In his 1961 book The Shadow of the Dam, the American journalist presents Kariba as a logical consequence of the powerful dynamics transforming the British Empire in the post-war period. Indeed, Central Africa was not ‘standing still’. Following the unification of Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland in 1953, the region underwent a period of unprecedented economic growth, boasting one of the highest expansion rates in the world.¹ At the same time, there were serious social tensions: white settlers’ aspirations to become completely independent from British control exerted considerable pressure on the colonial government, while nationalist movements in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland had also gathered momentum by protesting against the establishment of the Federation.

Once this colonial process has begun in any country, nobody can stop it. The native population grows, because it is more or less protected from strife and famine and disease. It becomes too big to subsist on the primitive agriculture which kept it alive before the process started. So it has to turn or be turned to industrial work to maintain itself; and industry has to be expanded to absorb it. A colony of this kind can never stand still […]: it must either rush on towards becoming an industrial power, or else fall back towards famine and chaos worse than before it began.

Howarth (1961: 34)