Narratives in Motion: the New Era of Dam Building in East Africa

Narratives of energy insecurity, underdevelopment, and resource conflict influence how African hydropower projects are justified within the broader context of climate change and demands for sustainable development. The challenge of meeting energy demands provides the overarching motivation for ambitious large-scale hydropower projects in East Africa, especially in Tanzania and Ethiopia. As development projects, the Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project (JNHPP) and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) can be understood as vehicles of political discourse, framed as the technopolitical solution to questions of national identity that both countries face in the midst of sociopolitical and economic transformation periods. This research shows the discursive struggles between proponents and opponents of these large-scale dam projects, as well as the varying justifications for large-scale infrastructure projects. In the Tanzanian context, the JNHPP is legitimized by a discourse centered around industrial transformation, while in the case of Ethiopia, the GERD is legitimized by a discourse of ‘unity in diversity’. Oppositional claims to each project mobilize their own discursive representations to undermine state justifications for the infrastructure projects.