Before the flood: Loss of place, mnemonics, and ‘resources’ ahead of the Metolong Dam, Lesotho

Abstract

Natural resource extraction projects such as dams and mines entail alteration to or destruction of natural and cultural landscapes. Heritage mitigation efforts often propose compensating for or salvaging material heritage, largely because this can be inventoried and evaluated alongside economic and environmental resources. Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) is often overlooked, despite the fact that tangibles, intangibles, and economic resources together constitute the impacted landscape. Writing from the perspective of western Lesotho’s Metolong Dam, we view landscape as an embodiment of intangible heritage to explore what ‘landscape loss’ consequent on dam-building entails. We contend that this process involves dissociating intangibles from their material correlates, and transforming landscape experiences by dissolving and re-constituting boundaries and ‘resources’ in line with developer perspectives. We suggest that considering interdisciplinary approaches to landscape theorisation and ICH achieves a more nuanced view of how landscape loss and ICH interrelate, and thus improves mitigatory practice.