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Assistance and resistance of (hydro-)power: Contested relationships of control over the Volta River, Ghana

Wissing, Kirsty

Description

In this article, I examine human attempts to control water, and water’s inherent potential for disorder, by focusing on the Volta River and Akosombo Dam in Ghana. I suggest that, in regard to the work of Wittfogel, Kwame Nkrumah’s famous vision of Ghanaian nationalism and pan-African sovereignty was a kind of Wittfogelian reading of waterscapes as manipulated to facilitate political power. In the conception and construction of the massive Akosombo Dam in the traditional area of the Akwamu...[Show more]

dc.contributor.authorWissing, Kirsty
dc.date.accessioned2022-05-09T01:32:32Z
dc.identifier.issn0263-774X
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1885/264588
dc.description.abstractIn this article, I examine human attempts to control water, and water’s inherent potential for disorder, by focusing on the Volta River and Akosombo Dam in Ghana. I suggest that, in regard to the work of Wittfogel, Kwame Nkrumah’s famous vision of Ghanaian nationalism and pan-African sovereignty was a kind of Wittfogelian reading of waterscapes as manipulated to facilitate political power. In the conception and construction of the massive Akosombo Dam in the traditional area of the Akwamu people in southern Ghana, Nkrumah attempted to reshape society through the control of water. Local Akwamu people have different visions about who can control water, how water can (or sometimes cannot) be controlled, and how deities are the most authoritative actors in any human engagements with water and its flow. Akwamu understandings of hydrosociality can be seen as a critique of Wittfogelian models of hydraulic societies. I also draw on the work of Fontein and also Keane, to suggest how water’s ‘indexical’ (causal or connective) relationship to power is always a matter of contest, and water’s material properties means it ultimately escapes definitive human control.
dc.description.sponsorshipan Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship.
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.language.isoen_AU
dc.publisherSAGE Publications
dc.rights© The Author(s) 2018
dc.sourceEnvironment and Planning C: Politics and Space
dc.subjectHydro-power
dc.subjectWittfogel
dc.subjectGhana
dc.subjectAkwamu
dc.subjectNkrumah
dc.titleAssistance and resistance of (hydro-)power: Contested relationships of control over the Volta River, Ghana
dc.typeJournal article
local.description.notesImported from ARIES
local.identifier.citationvolume37
dc.date.issued2019
local.identifier.absfor160600 - POLITICAL SCIENCE
local.identifier.ariespublicationu3102795xPUB5296
local.publisher.urlhttps://uk.sagepub.com/
local.type.statusPublished Version
local.contributor.affiliationWissing, Kirsty, College of Asia and the Pacific, ANU
local.description.embargo2099-12-31
local.bibliographicCitation.issue7
local.bibliographicCitation.startpage1161
local.bibliographicCitation.lastpage1178
local.identifier.doi10.1177/0263774X18807482
dc.date.updated2020-12-27T07:26:43Z
local.identifier.scopusID2-s2.0-85059051377
CollectionsANU Research Publications

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