A Dam for Africa

Stephan F. Miescher

Description

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.

Acknowledgment
List of Abbreviations

Prologue
Introduction

Part I. The Volta River Project
1. The Volta Project and the Promise of Modernization
2. "Nkrumah's Baby": Realizing Akosombo within the Cold War

Part II. The Volta Aluminium Company
3. Volta Aluminium Company: A U.S. Outpost in West Africa
4. Working on VALCO's American Island

Part III. Settlements of Modernization
5. "No One Should Be Worse Off": Resettlement
6. Building the City of the Future

Part IV. Power Struggles
7. Waiting for Light: Stories of Rural Electrification
8. Electricity Politics, Droughts, Self-Help

Epilogue

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Histoire
• África
• Volta Aluminum Company
• Akosombo Dam
• History of Africa
• West
• Africa
• Ghana

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 12 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253059987
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

A DAM FOR AFRICA
Frontispiece 1. Spilling at Akosombo, May 4, 1968. Photographer: Paul Anane. Courtesy: Ghana Information Services Department, Photographic Library, Ref. no. R/R/9045/16.
A DAM FOR AFRICA
Akosombo Stories from Ghana

STEPHAN F. MIESCHER
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
The author and publisher acknowledge permission to use:
Excerpts from chapters one and two appeared in:
Stephan F. Miescher, Nkrumah s Baby : The Akosombo Dam and the Dream of Development in Ghana, 1952-1966, Water History 6, no. 4 (2014): 341-66.
Excerpts from chapter five appeared in:
Stephan F. Miescher, No One Should Be Worse Off : The Akosombo Dam, Modernization, and the Experience of Resettlement in Ghana, in Modernization as Spectacle in Ghana , edited by Peter J. Bloom, Stephan F. Miescher, and Takyiwaa Manuh (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2014).
An earlier version of chapter six appeared as:
Stephan F. Miescher, Building the City of the Future: Visions and Experiences of Modernity in Ghana s Akosombo Township, Journal of African History 53, no. 3 (2012): 367-90.
Excerpts from chapters seven and eight appeared in:
Stephan F. Miescher, The Akosombo Dam and the Quest for Rural Electrification in Ghana, in Electric Worlds/Mondes lectriques: Creations, Circulations, Tensions, Transitions (19th-21st C.) , edited by Alain Beltran, L onard Laborie, Pierre Lanthier, St phanie Le Gallic (Bruxelles: Peter Lang, 2016).
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
Office of Scholarly Publishing
Herman B Wells Library 350
1320 East 10th Street
Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.org
2022 by Stephan F. Miescher
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2022
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Miescher, Stephan, author.
Title: A dam for Africa : Akosombo stories from Ghana / Stephan F. Miescher.
Description: Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021045407 (print) | LCCN 2021045408 (ebook) | ISBN 9780253059970 (hardback) | ISBN 9780253059956 (paperback) | ISBN 9780253059963 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Volta River Project (Ghana)-History. | Dams-Ghana-Volta River Valley. | Water resources development-Ghana-Volta River Valley. | Electric power production-Ghana. | Akosombo Dam (Ghana)-History.
Classification: LCC TC558.G62 A436 2022 (print) | LCC TC558.G62 (ebook) | DDC 627/.809667-dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021045407
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021045408
In memory of my father Felix Miescher
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Prologue
Introduction
PART I . The Volta River Project
1. The Volta River Project and the Promise of Modernization
2. Nkrumah s Baby : Realizing Akosombo within the Cold War
PART II . The Volta Aluminum Company
3. Volta Aluminum Company: A US Outpost in West Africa
4. Working on VALCO s American Island
PART III . Settlements of Modernization
5. No One Should Be Worse Off : Resettlement
6. Building the City of the Future
PART IV . Power Struggles
7. Waiting for Light: Stories of Rural Electrification
8. Electricity Politics, Droughts, Self-Help
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For enabling me to write this book and to complete, in collaboration with R. Lane Clark, the accompanying documentary film Ghana s Electric Dreams , I owe most to the Ghanaian men and women who agreed to speak with me about their recollections and involvement in the Volta River Project. I am especially grateful to the staff and leadership of the Volta River Authority (VRA). When I began the research for this project in 2005, the late Marian Antwi and Charlotte Selom Adza-Yawo welcomed me at the VRA archive in Tema and Charles Addy did the same at the VRA library in Accra. Later, I encountered the same supportive environment at the VRA library in Akuse and the VRA s public affairs office in Akosombo. Without this generous support and unrestricted access to the VRA s archival material, I could not have conducted the research for this book. VRA elders, particularly the late Louis Casely-Hayford and E. A. K. Kalitsi, both former chief executives, and Professor Akilagpa Sawyerr, who led Ghana s renegotiation with the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO) and later chaired the VRA board, took an interest in this project. Casely-Hayford, Kalitsi, and Saywerr offered enthusiastic support and encouragement for this book and the accompanying film. They were willing to reflect critically on their own participation in the history presented here.
At the center of A Dam for Africa lie the stories and observations of the some 100 people I interviewed. Their names are listed in the notes and in the bibliography. I am deeply grateful to all of them. Here, I would like to express my gratitude to those who made these interviews possible. Joseph Kwakye accompanied me on my first trip to a Volta resettlement town and shared his enthusiasm for the project, which made me realize that I had a larger story to tell. The late Kwame Fosu opened doors in Besease and narrated his experience with electrification in a captivating way. It fills me with sadness that Fosu is no longer with us; he will not talk about this book on his radio show. In Akosombo, Doris Soku and Samuel Mawuko introduced me to former residents of old Combine. In Tema, Marina Ofei-Nkansah helped me find former employees of the Volta Aluminium Company (VALCO). At the VALCO plant, I am grateful to Emmanuel Lartey, the chief executive in 2011, for granting me permission to conduct research, and to J. P. Appiah for facilitating interviews. The current chief executive, Daniel Acheampong, has continued this support. In Kete-Krachi, Sister Dorcas Mighty Stone and Paul van den Bosch opened doors when I was looking for people to share their recollections about the experience of flooding and displacement. In Salaga, Maria Don Chebe facilitated interviews and translated from Dagamba. In Kpando, Cecilia Dusi enabled interviews and translated from Ewe. Finally, in Mepe, Ishmael Naworkpor assisted with interviews and translated from Ewe.
I am grateful to the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Legon for giving me research affiliation. Three directors, Professors Takyiwaa Manuh, Akosua Adomako Ampofo, and Dzodzi Tsikata, took an interest in this project and provided institutional support. The staff of the Public Records and Archives Administration in Accra and Koforidua, particularly Bright Botwe, the staff of the archive of the Electricity Company of Ghana, and the staff of the Padmore Library provided crucial assistance. The staff of the Information Services Department, particularly its director David Owusu-Amoah, were supportive of my research and granted permission to publish photos from their superb photographic library and to include footage from historical films in our documentary. The newspapers Daily Graphic, Daily Dispatch , and Ghanaian Chronicle permitted reprints of images. In Accra and Abetifi, Mrs. Emily (Auntie) Asiedu and Mrs. Janet Saka welcomed Lane and me into their homes and families. Over the past thirty years, the Asiedu Institute has become legendary as a unique meeting place for scholarly exchanges across generations. Auntie, overseeing all of it, persisted in asking when she would be able to add this book to the Institute s library. I am happy finally to deliver.
In the course of crafting this book, I have benefited from conversations and engagements with several scholarly groups. I am grateful to the former and current presidents of the Ghana Studies Association (GSA), Dennis Laumann, Benjamin Talton, Nana Akua Anyidoho, and Kwasi Ampene. A big thank-you to other GSA members: Jeffrey Ahlman, Emanuel Akyeampong, Kofi Baku, Akosusa Darkwa, Jennifer Hart, Benjamin Lawrance, Nate Plageman, Samuel Ntewesu, Abena Osseo-Asare, David Owusu-Ansah, Elisa Prosperetti, Carina Ray, Naaborle Sackeyfyio, Victoria Ellen Smith, and particularly Akosua Adomako Ampofo, with whom I edited six volumes of Ghana Studies . The co-organizers of the Revisiting Modernization Conference at the University of Ghana in 2009, Takyiwaa Manuh and Peter Bloom, helped in laying the foundation for this book. Dzodzi Tsikata has inspired me to think critically about the legacy of modernization and the fate of dam-impacted communities in Ghana. The conversations with her and Yao Graham were crucial as I developed my research. At several points, I faced intellectual hurdles that I could not have overcome without my writing group: Laura Fair, Lisa Lindsay, and Lynn Thomas, as well as affiliate members Kenda Mutongi and Luise White, who suggested the book s title. A group of friends has accompanied my scholarly path. They include my advisors and mentors Martin Schaffner in Basel, David William Cohen in Ann Arbor, Tom McCaskie and Lynne Brydon in Pont de Cirou, as well as friends since (almost) graduate school: Kwame Braun, Catherine Cole, Paul Edwards, Gabrielle Hecht, Michele Mitchell, Keith Shear, Naoko Shibusawa, Benjamin Soares, and the late Leslie Ashbaugh. Conversations and friendships that began at the Asiedu Institute have seen this book through its gestation process. I am especially grateful to Jean Allman, Serena Dankwa, Brenda Chalfin, Anne Hugon, Kate Skinner, and Paul Nugent.
I have been blessed to work at the University of California, Santa Barbara for over twenty years