I went to Africa in 1959 intending to write about the Kariba Dam. The building of that enormous hydroelectric plant was a great industrial achievement, not only because it is one of the half-dozen biggest things of its kind in the world, but also because the gorge on the River Zambesi, where it was built, was fifty miles from the nearest road, and two hundred miles from the nearest city, and seven hundred miles from the nearest seaport. Most of the difficulties of building it were due to its position in the heart of the African wilderness. But when I had studied it and thought about it, I found I was even more interested in the wilderness than in the dam. I had learned quite a lot about the effects of the environment on the building of the dam, but not so much about the effects of the dam on its environment. So in 1960 I went there again; but instead of going back to the dam, I went into the valley of the Zambesi about a hundred miles farther up the river, where the flood which the dam had caused was still rising. It was down in the wild, hot forests of the valley, in the bungalows of government officers and the villages of the local tribe, that I heard most of this curious, pathetic story; and it still seemed to me more interesting in its way than all the scientific marvels of Kariba...
Published	1961
Other information	First Edition

 

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