Nyami Nyami, the Zambezi river god, has a head resembling a tiger fish and a serpent-like body that symbolises the river, curling from the Angolan highlands to the Indian Ocean. Many of the river folk, the Tonga, believed Nyami Nyami took vengeance on the people building the dam by conjuring the two immense floods, in 1956 and 1958, that took the lives of many construction workers. Overall, 86 people died building the dam. Before flooding the valley, more than 50 000 Tonga were relocated from the river sides to settlements on higher land. As the wall was built, animals were overtaken by the rising water and Operation Noah was initiated in 1958 to rescue wildlife. Led by game warden Rupert Fothergill, more than 6 000 animals were relocated to dry…
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Getaway (Digital) - 1 Issue, October 2022