Left High and Dry

Abstract

A ‘curious feminist’ analysis, according to Enloe, starts in the lives of women and values all women's lives regardless of their status, identity, location or access to power. In this article I use this perspective to highlight the intersections of international development and patriarchy in the lives of three women of different generations and class status as they are affected by dislocations resulting from the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) in the remote highland communities in rural Lesotho. I employ an intersectionality framework to demonstrate how their shared and divergent experiences, presented only partially and in my narrative form, tell a tale of the intertwining consequences of this multi-billion dollar international development project in the lives of rural poor women. Women's lived experiences of the LHWP reveal the contradictions of international development, exposing the masculinist imperatives that focus on generating national revenues to the exclusion of other development options, while organizing practices that dislocate the rural poor from their lands and livelihoods and implementing policies that reinforce patriarchy locally and globally. This article demonstrates the importance of bringing feminist scholarship to bear on development practice and argues specifically for the utility of intersectionality, narrative and curious feminist analyses.

Keywords:

• development
• gender
• globalization
• intersectionality
• Lesotho
• patriarchy

Acknowledgements

The author is indebted to the IFjP editors and reviewers as well as the Enloe Award Committee for their generous and detailed guidance in reviewing, revising and editing this article. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation and the US Fulbright Program. Thanks are also due to Michael C. Dreiling, Lynn Fujiwara, Michael Hames-Garcia, Susan Quash-Mah, Judith van Allen, the Center for the Study of Women in Society (CSWS) at the University of Oregon and particularly to the CSWS Writing and Promotion for Women Faculty workshop participants – Phaedra Livingstone, Melissa Stuckey and Tania Triana – who gave feedback on an earlier draft. I am especially indebted to the women and men in the highlands of Lesotho who so graciously and generously shared their life experiences with me.

Notes

‘Basotho’ refers to people of Sotho origin (singular, Mosotho) in Sesotho, the primary language of Lesotho. Where necessary I have used identifiers for an English audience that would be redundant in Sesotho (e.g. Basotho people).

South Africa was anticipated to pay approximately US$55 million in royalties to Lesotho each year. Recent reports show that Lesotho has received closer to US$18 million in average annual revenues because less than the estimated amounts of water have been delivered (Hassan 2002).

Unemployment was estimated at 45 percent in 2002 (Central Intelligence Agency 2010), but this is likely to be a conservative estimate at best. Unemployment trends in Lesotho have been notoriously difficult to capture, and uneven opportunities throughout the country make one number very problematic. There is agreement, however, that the rural highlands – and particularly the area around Katse dam – have the highest unemployment rates in the country.

Due to my limited language training, I always conducted interviews in Sesotho with a translator present.