Introduction: Materiality and Research Approach

This chapter sets out the analytical, theoretical and thematic context for ensuing chapters in the book. Most importantly, it introduces the materiality framework on which the argument of the book is predicated. As well, it elucidates the ways in which the manuscript extends the materiality framework, using evidence and experiences from the Kariba Lake. The materiality framework is important in that it helps us understand the symbiotic relations between nature and people, the organic and inorganic, the material and immaterial. The materiality turn dismantled the conventional arguments that separated the material and immaterial. The chapter introduces the Kariba Lake by providing the reasons why it was constructed, its main topography and geographical characteristics. Lake Kariba was constructed in the late 1950s; since then it has interacted with humans in different ways—both positive and negative—as elucidated in this book. Strong winds and waves experienced in the Lake as well as crocodiles, hippos and ancestral spirits abode of the waterscape shape the everyday life of people living along it. As well, visitors and tourists are also temporarily impacted in the same way. In this chapter, I also discuss the reflexive ethnographic methodology used over five years of research.