Victoria Falls and Colonial Imagination in British Southern Africa

Turning Water into Gold

Andrea L. Arrington-Sirois

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781137596918
• eBook ISBN: 9781137596932
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: African History
• Index: History

This is the first full- length historical analysis of Victoria Falls. The text offers a critical examination of Victoria Falls providing new insight into the British Southern African project and reveals how Victoria Falls became one of the first modern African tourist destinations. This book makes a case for a critical reading of Victoria Falls as much more than a localized natural wonder.  Europeans with multiple and often competing agendas, as well as African leaders and laborers were brought into contact with one another at Victoria Falls.  Their visions of the past and hopes for the future shared Victoria Falls as a common point of inspiration.  The value these parties placed on the Falls extended far beyond its location on the Zambezi and had broad implications for the British Empire in Southern and Central Africa. 

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Chapter 1: Introduction: Toward a Transcolonial History of Victoria Falls
• Chapter 2: “A Cataract on the Zambezi”: The Waterfalls in Precolonial Context
• Chapter 3: Lewanika’s Scramble for Africa: Barotseland and the British South Africa Company
• Chapter 4: Staking Their Claim: White Settlement at Victoria Falls
• Chapter 5: Performing Europe or Redefining African: The African Social Life of a Colonial Town
• Chapter 6: “What is the Trouble?”: Dispute and Discontent in North Western Rhodesia
• Chapter 7: ‘Of More Value to South Africa than all the Diamonds Ever Found or Dreamed:’ Victoria Falls and the Hydroelectric Power Scheme
• Epilogue
• Bibliography
• Index