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Abstract
This article traces the intersections between flows of water, flows of power and flows of history. It argues that because water knows no political or disciplinary boundaries, water remains one of the quintessential issues that can only be tackled comprehensively just like climate change through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaborations between the natural and social sciences. Recognizing that, for far too long, history had only been referred to tangentially, the article argues for the location of historical analysis at the center of interdisciplinary water discourses. The article proposes that history is an essential discipline that has much to offer other disciplines because of its established association with the nuanced study and understanding of society. It examines the birth and growth of the field of water history and how historians have now developed a formidable body of historical scholarship, raising new questions that relate to research and understanding of this natural resource. It traces how, from the first UNESCO impetus, water history began to mature, and even to command interdisciplinary appeal as it links humanity with nature so directly. It does this by focusing on how a global historical association, the International Water History Association (IWHA) was formed and how it has over the years promoted the growth of water history by involving other disciplines and developing the Water History journal. It finally focuses on how a growing body of water history scholarship concerned with examining the power and control behind black people’s relations with water and the environment in southern Africa has been developed. It concludes by noting that history, which once formed a marginal backdrop to water discourses has finally claimed its place in transdisciplinary studies.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Professors Jane Carruthers (University of South Africa) and Alois Mlambo (University of Pretoria) and Dr Prinisha Badassy (University of the Witwatersrand) for providing insightful comments that have helped in shaping the final product of this article. Any errors or omissions remain mine.
Notes
1 D. Worster, ‘The Flow of Empire: Comparing Water Control in the United States and China’, Rachel Carson Center Perspectives, 5 (2011), 3.
2 J. Carruthers, ‘All for One: One for All? Leveraging National Interests with Regional Visions in Southern Africa’, Keynote Address: Southern African Historical Society 24th Biennial Congress, 28 June 2013. Special Issue: South African Historical Journal, 66, 2 (June 2014), 209.
3 Ibid., 208–209.
4 CFP: Southern African Historical Society 26th Biennial Conference, 21–23 June 2017, Wits University, Johannesburg.
5 I. Ll. Griffiths, The Atlas of African Affairs, 2nd edn (London: Witwatersrand University Press, 1994), 20.
6 J. Fontein, ‘The Power of Water: Landscape, Water and the State in Southern and Eastern Africa: An Introduction’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 34, 4 (2008), 738.
7 G. McGranahan, ‘Beyond Inaccurate Crisis Narratives: Meeting the Water and Sanitation MDGs’, The Millennium Development Goals and Local Processes: Hitting the Target or Missing the Point? (November 2003) http://pubs.iied.org/G00447/?a=G+Mcgranahan&p=5, accessed 29 May 2017, 50.
8 T. Krueger, C. Maynard, G. Carr; A. Bruns, E. Mueller and S. Lane, ‘Tensions Between Opening Up and Closing Down Moments in Transdisciplinary Water Research’, Geophysical Research Abstracts, 18 (2016), 370.
9 M. Reuss, ‘Historians, Historical Analysis, and International Water Politics’, The Public Historian, 26, 1 (2004), 65.
10 C. Hein, ‘Port Cities and Urban Waterfronts: How Localized Planning Ignores Water as a Connector’, WIREs Water, 3 (2016), 419.
11 P. Davies and S. Lawrence, ‘Flows of Water on a Nineteenth-Century Australian Goldfield’, Water History, 5, 3 (2013), 2.
12 S. Touissant, ‘Introducing Water: A Symposium, and this Volume’, in Marnie Leybourne and Andrea Gaynor, eds, Water: Histories, Cultures, Ecologies (Perth: University of Western Australia Press, 2006), xi.
13 Krueger et al., ‘Tensions’, 1.
14 D.R. Wiener, ‘A Death-Defying Attempt to Articulate a Coherent Definition of Environmental History’, Environmental History, 10 (2005), 416.
15 Ibid.
16 Krueger et al., ‘Tensions’, 1.
17 Ibid., 384.
18 T. Tvedt and E. Jakobsson, ‘Introduction: Water History is World History’, in T. Tvedt and E. Jakobsson, A History of Water: Water Control and River Biographies, Vol. 1 (London: I.B. Taurus, 2006), xv.
19 A.F. Isaacman and B.S. Isaacman, Dams, Displacement, and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and Its Legacies in Mozambique, 1965–2007 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2013), 6–7.
20 A.K. Nevanlinna, ‘Urban History as a Form of Politics’, in A. Blafield, The Use and Abuse of History (Helsinki: Siltala, 2016), 219.
21 See e.g. M. Reuss, ‘Historical Perspectives on Global Water Global Water Challenges’, Special Issue, Water Policy, 2, 4-5 (2000) v–viii; Reuss, ‘Historians, Historical Analysis’; S.L. O’Hara, ‘Lessons from the Past: Water Management in Central Asia’, Water Policy, 2 (2000), 365–384. C. Hamlin, ‘“Waters” or “Water”? Master Narratives in Water History and their Implications for Contemporary Water Policy’, Water Policy, 2, 4-5 (2000) 313–325.
22 Reuss, ‘Historians, Historical Analysis’, 73.
23 International Water History Association webpage. www.iwha.net/news-activities, accessed 17 May 2019.
24 Ibid.
25 For example, in July 2003, the University of Western Australia hosted an interdisciplinary symposium with the theme: ‘Water Histories, Cultures, Ecologies’ convened by historians Dr Andrea Gaynor and Pam Sharpe, among other scholars from other disciplines: see Natalie Lloyd, ‘Water: Histories, Cultures, Ecologies Symposium: Interdisciplinarity in Practice’, in M. Leybourne and A. Gaynor, eds, Water Histories, Cultures, Ecologies (Perth: University of Western Australia, 2006), 117–120. Similarly, on 28–29 March 2007, a conference on the theme ‘The Power of Water: Landscape, Water and the State in Southern and Eastern Africa’, was held at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre of African Studies: see Journal of Southern African Studies, 34, 4 (2008). As in the Australian one, water historians were well represented by the likes of the late Terence Ranger, Meredith McKittrick, Gerald Mazarire, and Mucha Musemwa – among other scholars from other disciplines such as anthropology and sociology.
26 http://www.hispagua.cedex.es/?q=en/formacion/congreso/67951, accessed 24 May 2019.
27 Reuss, ‘Historians, Historical Analysis’, 77.
28 N.J. Jacobs, Environment, Power, and Injustice: A South African History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 148.
29 Fontein, ‘The Power of Water’, 738.
30 N. Penn, ‘The Orange River Frontier Zone, c1700–1805’, in A.B. Smith, ed., Einiqualand: Studies of the Orange River Frontier (Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press, 1995), 21–109; M. McKittrick, ‘Landscapes of Power: Ownership and Identity on the Middle Okavango River, Namibia’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 34, 4 (2008), 758–784; J.W.N. Tempelhoff, ‘Travel Writers’ Perspectives on the Cultural Environment of Water in Southern Africa’, in J.W.N. Tempelhoff, ed., African Water Histories: Transdisciplinary Discourses (Vanderbijlpark: North-West University, 2005).
31 L. Gulke and R. Shell, ‘Landscape of Conquest: Frontier Water Alienation and Khoikhoi Strategies of Survival, 1652–1780’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 18, 4 (1992), 803–824; N.J. Jacobs, Environment, Power, and Injustice: A South African History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 148–172; M. Musemwa, Water, History and Politics in Zimbabwe: Bulawayo’s Struggles with the Environment, 1894–2008 (Trenton: Africa World Press, 2014), 1–23; G. Mazarire, ‘“The Chishanga Waters have their Owners”: Water Politics and Development in Southern Zimbabwe’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 34, 4 (2008), 757–784.
32 L. Van Sittert, ‘The Supernatural State: Water Divining and the Cape Underground Water Rush, 1891–1910’, Journal of Social History, 37, 4 (2004), 915–937; W. Beinart, The Rise of Conservation in South Africa: Settlers, Livestock, and the Environment, 1770–1950 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 158–265.
33 M. Musemwa, ‘Disciplining a “Dissident” City: Hydropolitics in the City of Bulawayo, Matabeleland, Zimbabwe, 1980–1994’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 32, 2 (2006), 239–254.
34 A.F. Isaacman and B. S. Isaacman, Dams, Displacement and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and Its Legacies in Mozambique, 1965–2007 (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2013); M. Thabane, ‘Shifts from Old to New Social and Ecological Environments in the Lesotho Highlands Water Scheme: Relocating Residents of the Mohale Dam Area’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 26, 4 (2000), 633–654; H.J. Hoag, ‘The Damming of Africa: The Spread of River Basin Planning in Post-war Africa’, in Tempelhoff, African Water Histories, 171–184.
35 Krueger et. al., ‘Tensions’.
36 Ibid.
37 These volumes are T. Tvedt and E. Jakobsson, eds, A History of Water. Vol. 1: Water Control and River Biographies (London: I.B. Taurus, 2012); R. Coopey and T. Tvedt, eds, A History of Water. Vol. 2: The Political Economy of Water (London: I.B. Taurus, 2006); T. Tvedt and T. Oestigaard, eds, A History of Water. Vol. 3: The World of Water (London: I.B. Taurus, 2005).
38 I borrowed this concept from the recently established International Network of Historians without Borders. It was founded in May 2016 in Helsinki, Finland with the aim of bringing together historians across national frontiers to bridge the gap between academia, policymakers and the general public. For more details visit the website: https://www.historianswithoutborders.fi/en/about-us/ Historians Without Borders Webpage. Accessed: 19/09/2019.
39 Reuss, ‘Historians, Historical Analysis’, 69–70.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Muchaparara Musemwa
Author Biography
MUCHAPARARA MUSEMWA is an Associate Professor of History and is currently the Head of the School of Social Sciences in the Faculty of Humanities at Wits University. He is the immediate past President of the Southern African Historical Society and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Consortium of Environmental History Organisations. He is also a member of the Executive Council of the International Water History Association and serves on its publication, Water History Journal. He has published widely on environmental history topics especially on water history and politics in Zimbabwe.