Disturbing 'development': The water supply conflict in Canhane, Mozambique

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 36, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 169-188

  Baptista, João Afonso ^a  

^a MARTIN LUTHER UNIVERSITY HALLE WITTENBERG   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COMMUNITY RESOURCE MANAGEMENT; RESOURCE SCARCITY; TOURISM; WATER AVAILABILITY; WATER DEMAND; WATER MANAGEMENT; WATER SUPPLY;

CANHANE; GAZA; MOZAMBIQUE;

EID: 77951544446     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057071003607410     Document Type: Article

References (94)

1. According to data provided by local authorities, in 2006, the village of Canhane has a population of 1,105 residents, and is comprised of 203 families. Women represent 51.31 per cent of the total population. Inhabitants of Canhane are predominantly subsistence farmers, fishermen or unemployed.
2. Interview with NGO Helvetas representative, Maputo, 1 September 2006. Translations from Portuguese and Shangaan are my own.
3. Conversation with Canhane resident, Canhane, 27 January 2008.
4. A. Agrawal and C. Gibson, 'Enchantment and Disenchantment: The Role of Community in Natural Resource Conservation', World Development, 27, 4 (1999), p. 637.
5. D. Mosse, 'Epilogue: The Cultural Politics of Water - A Comparative Perspective', Journal of Southern African Studies [JSAS], 34, 4 (December 2008), p. 943.
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8. J. Shafer and R. Bell, 'The State and Community-based Natural Resource Management: the Case of the Moribane Forest Reserve, Mozambique', JSAS, 28, 2 (June 2002), pp. 401-20;
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11. T. Li, 'Images of Community: Discourse and Strategy in Property Relations', Development and Change, 27, 3 (1996), pp. 501-28;
12. D. Mosse, 'Colonial and Contemporary Ideologies of "Community Management": The Case of Tank Irrigation Development in South India', Modern Asian Studies, 33, 2 (1999), pp. 303-38.
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14. D. Nabudere, 'Beyond Modernization and Development, or Why the Poor Reject Development', Human Geography, 79, 4 (1997), p. 203.
15. Cleaver, 'Paradoxes of Participation', pp. 597-612.
16. Kumar, 'Revisiting "Community" in Community-Based Natural Resource Management', p. 277.
17. Li, 'Images of Community', pp. 501-28.
18. Agrawal and Gibson, 'Enchantment and Disenchantment', p. 635.
19. Similar critiques of development discourses have been well established in the work of, for example, A. Escobar Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1994),
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22. S. Johnson, 'The Tchumo Tchato Project in Mozambique: Community-Based Natural Resource Management in Transition', in C. Fabricius, E. Koch, H. Magome and S. Turner (eds), Rights, Resources & Rural Development: Community-Based Natural Resource Management in Southern Africa (London, Earthscan, 2004), p. 220.
23. S. Robins, 'NGOs, "Bushmen" and Double Vision: The - khomani San Land Claim and the Cultural Politics of "Community" and "Development" in the Kalahari', JSAS, 27, 4 (December 2001), p. 846.
24. Kumar, 'Revisiting "Community" in Community-Based Natural Resource Management', p. 277.
25. C. Manning, 'Conflict Management and Elite Habituation in Postwar Democracy: The Case of Mozambique', Comparative Politics, 35, 1 (October 2002), p. 64.
26. Agrawal and Gibson, 'Enchantment and Disenchantment', p. 631.
27. J. Law, Organizing Modernity: Social Ordering and Social Theory (Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell, 1993).
28. Construction of the Massingir Dam was started in 1972 by the Portuguese. Its main purpose was to provide flood control and irrigation for the Lower Limpopo Valley, further downstream. The dam was completed in 1976.
29. R. Park and E. Burgess, The City (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1925);
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36. J. Hendon, 'Having and Holding: Storage, Memory, Knowledge, and Social Relations', American Anthropologist, 102, 1 (2000), pp. 42-53;
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41. E. Lunstrum, 'Private Collection of Interviews Taken in Canhane' (unpublished paper, 2004).
42. 7 February 2007.
43. D. Gibson, 'Participation Shifts: Order and Differentiation in Group Conversation', Social Forces, 1, 4 (2003), p. 1,348.
44. Fabricius, 'The Fundamentals of Community-Based Natural Resource Management', p. 38.
45. G. Mazarire, '"The Chishanga Waters have their Owners": Water Politics and Development in Southern Zimbabwe', JSAS, 34, 4 (December 2008), pp. 757-84.
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47. A. Escobar, 'Power and Visibility: Development and the Invention and Management of the Third World', Cultural Anthropology, 20, 4 (November 1988), pp. 428-43.
48. See for example, R. Saunders and J. Warford, Village Water Supply: Economics and Policy in the Developing World (Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976).
49. Since this publication for the World Bank, there has been a growing body of literature engaged in Development Studies addressing the need for 'community' involvement in the development, operation and maintenance processes of water supply systems.
50. P. Harvey and R. Reed, 'Community-Managed Water Supplies in Africa: Sustainable or Dispensable?', Community Development Journal, 42, 3 (July 2007), p. 365.
51. Mosse, 'Colonial and Contemporary Ideologies of "Community Management"', p. 305.
52. Ibid., 322.
53. Mosse, 'Epilogue: The Cultural Politics of Water', p. 941.
54. C. Tornimbeni, '"Isto foi sempre assim": The Politics of Land and Human Mobility in Chimanimani, Central Mozambique', JSAS, 33, 3 (September 2007), pp. 485-500.
55. This suggestion came from the growing legitimacy of an emerging 'local' association (ACODEMAZA). Nhantumbo et al., 'Community Based Natural Resources Management in Mozambique', pp. 21, 24.
56. Johnson, 'The Tchumo Tchato Project in Mozambique', pp. 217, 218.
57. M. Bender, '"For More and Better Water, Choose Pipes!" Building Water and the Nation on Kilimanjaro, 1961-1985', JSAS, 34, 4 (December 2008), pp. 841-59.
58. Conversation with Canhane resident, Canhane, 25 April 2008.
59. At the beginning of 2008 the 'development' projects of Helvetas inMaputo andGaza provincewere handed over to a new Mozambican NGO called LUPA. This NGO was formed by Mozambican (i.e. former Helvetas), staff. The partnership between these NGOs is evident through their use of shared offices and vehicles. Up to December 2008, people in Canhane still referred to Helvetas instead of LUPA, despite the project having been taken over by the latter. The fact thatLUPAstaff are former Helvetas employees contributes to such confusion between the two organisations.
60. Interview with LUPA representative, Maputo, 17 September 2008.
61. According to each region, Mozambicans use different expressions to refer to individuals recognised as 'local' authorities. Mpewe, Mwene Alupale, Mwini Dziko, Fumu, Mambo, Nkhoma (C. Serra [ed], História de Moçambique [Maputo, Imprensa Universitária, 2000], p. 19),
62. Chefes das terras, Encoces, Inhamasangos, Mucazambos, Senhores dos lugares, Régulos (J. Feliciano, Antropologia Económica dos Thonga do Sul de Moçambique [Maputo, Arquivo Histórico de Moçambique, 1998], p. 155) are just some examples. In Canhane people use mainly two expressions: (1) 'Lider comunitário', which is Portuguese, literally 'community leader'; (2) 'Hosi', which is Shangane. This has a broader meaning, which includes both the delimitation of space and the main authority of a village.
63. Conversation with the manager of the Covane Community Lodge, Canhane, 6 October 2008.
64. Conversation with NGO LUPA representative, Maputo (FACIM - Bolsa de Turismo de Maputo), 16 May 2008.
65. Conversation held at the Covane Community Lodge, Canhane, 1 October 2008.
66. Conversation with Canhane resident, Canhane, 4 March 2008.
67. The Makwai dances performed by Canhaners are characterised by male foot percussion. In the past the Makwai dance was performed in lobolo (bridewealth) ceremonies; today it is mostly danced for tourism purposes or in representing the village at institutional events.
68. Conversation held on 15 November 2008.
69. D. Hammond-Tooke, Rituals and Medicines: Indigenous Healing in South Africa (Johannesburg, AD Donker, 1989), p. 84.
70. It is not my intention to generalise the opinion of these two women to the entire female population of the village. Evidently there are various opinions about various subjects among the women. The diversity of people's opinions in Canhane attest to the heterogeneous quality of the composition of any 'community'. However, this conversation did represent a perspective predominant among the women of Canhane on the issue of water. It is one illustrative example of many other, similar, episodes that occurred while I was in Canhane, which indicate one common attitude amongst women on the new water scheme in Canhane.
71. Canhu is an important drink in the region. It is made from the fruit of a sacred tree called Canhoeiro. The fruit is seasonal and ripens between January and the end of February. During this period the inhabitants of Canhane spend much of their time in Canhu-drinking gatherings, when the drink is shared between families.
72. Conversation with Canhane resident, Canhane, 27 January 2008.
73. N. Thomas, 'The Inversion of Tradition', American Ethnologist, 19, 2 (1992), pp. 213-232.
74. J. Hudson and P. Jones, '"Public Goods": an Exercise in Calibration', Public Choice, 124, 3&4 (2005), pp. 267-82.
75. This became known as Organizaça ̃o da Mulher Moçambicana - OMM.
76. After independence and the resettlement of Canhane, a machamba do povo (people's agricultural field) was established in the village, a material expression of Frelimo's socialist ideology of agricultural co-operatives and the communal sharing of produced goods. However, according to residents, this project was abandoned in Canhane even before the Mozambican civil war started in 1977.
77. Fabricius, 'The Fundamentals of Community-Based Natural Resource Management', p. 9.
78. Conversation held at the Chimbembe village in the district of Chivonguene (which borders on Guijá), 30 October 2008.
79. Conversation with Canhane resident, Canhane, 7 February 2008.
80. J. Fontein, 'Languages of Land, Water and "Tradition" around Lake Mutirikwi in Southern Zimbabwe', Journal of Modern African Studies, 44, 2 (2006), pp. 223-249.
81. Mosse, 'Epilogue: The Cultural Politics of Water', p. 947.
82. Shafer and Bell, 'The State and Community-based Natural Resource Management', pp. 401-20.
83. M. Foucault, The History of Sexuality. Volume I: An Introduction (New York, Vintage Books, 1978);
84. M. Foucault, 'The History of Sexuality - Interview by L. Finas', in C. Gordon (ed.), Power/Knowledge: Selected Interview and Other Writings 1972-1977 (New York, Pantheon Books, 1980), pp. 183-93.
85. Conversation with Canhane resident, 4 December 2008.
86. M. Edel, 'El Ejido en Zinacantan', in Z. Evon (ed.), Los Zinacantecos (Mexico, Direccion General de Publicaciones Instituto Nacional Indigenista, 1966), pp. 175-81.
87. J. Fontein, 'The Power of Water: Landscape, Water and the State in Southern and Eastern Africa: An Introduction', JSAS, 34, 4 (December 2008), pp. 737-56.
88. Mazarire, '"The Chishanga Waters have their Owners"', pp. 757-84.
89. A. Debbané, 'The Dry Plight of Freedom: Commodifying water in the Western Cape, South Africa', Antipode, 39, 1 (2007), p. 224.
90. B. Siwisa, 'Crowd Renting or Struggling from Below? The Concerned Citizens' Forum in Mpumalanga Township, Durban, 1999-2005', JSAS, 34, 4 (December 2008), pp. 919-38;
91. A. von Schnitzler, 'Citizenship Prepaid: Water, Calculability, and Techno-Politics in South Africa', JSAS, 34, 4 (December 2008), pp. 899-917.
92. K. Bakker, 'Archipelagos and Networks: Urbanization and Water Privatization in the South', The Geographical Journal, 169, 4 (December 2003), p. 335.
93. Fontein, 'The Power of Water', p. 751.
94. Phillip Selznich, cited in Manning, 'Conflict Management and Elite Habituation in Postwar Democracy', p. 81.