Vanished Water: Imperialism, Capital, and Rural Ecologies in Late-Colonial Kenya (Carter G. Woodson Institute Series)

James D. Parker

ISBN 10: 0813954843 / ISBN 13: 9780813954844

Published by University of Virginia Press, 2026

About this Item

Seller Inventory # V9780813954844

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Vanished Water: Imperialism, Capital, and Rural Ecologies in Late-Colonial Kenya (Carter G. Woodson Institute Series)
• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813954843
• ISBN 13: 9780813954844
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

The trickle-down effects of empire on the environment

Vanished Water examines the ecological and social consequences of British imperial rule―and its inherently extractive aims―on water development in late-colonial Kenya. Examining the arid northern and eastern parts of the country between 1938 and the mid-1960s, James Parker demonstrates how the British colonial state manipulated scant water supplies to drive cash crop production, rerouting critical resources away from the pastoral and riverine communities who relied on them for their existence. In doing so, the state sought to force these communities away from their traditional subsistence economies and into the capitalist economy, a move that fundamentally altered relationships to the land and between ethnic groups themselves. Vanished Water describes how these nefarious programs devastated rural communities, while also showing how they were resisted and manipulated and how Kenyans adapted to these life-altering changes imposed on them from the outside. These developments, as Parker shows, echo into the present, continuing to test the resiliency of arid communities now dealing with climate change.

About the Author

James D. Parker is an Assistant Teaching Professor and Honors Faculty Fellow at Arizona State University.