Speaker: John Aerni-Flessner
Time: 4:00PM
Venue: Sewell Social Sciences, 1180 Observatory Dr., Rm. 8417
Host: Department of Anthropology
Co-sponsors: The Center for Culture, History, and Environment; African Studies Program; Department of African Cultural Studies
Talk Description
Based on a book coming out in February 2026, this talk will explore the history of the negotiations for and construction of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP). The LHWP supplies around half of Johannesburg’s water; it is an engineering marvel, successfully transferring around 800 cubic meters of water a year and yet many in both South Africa and Lesotho see it as being emblematic of governmental failure in the 21st century. Lacking access to consistent, affordable, potable water, communities in Lesotho and South Africa regularly engage in ‘service delivery’ protests. The book argues that the twenty-year history of formal negotiations on the project (1966-1986) and its signing by two undemocratic regimes—the apartheid regime in South Africa and a military government in Lesotho—has worked against any popular perception of benefit from the project. Inequitable access to water means that many citizens in both countries see the LHWP as a continuation of the Cold War and apartheid.
Speaker’s Bio: Dr. John Aerni-Flessner
John Aerni-Flessner is an Associate Professor at the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities in Michigan State University. He earned his Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis in African History and taught at SUNY Cortland in Upstate New York before joining the RCAH at MSU. He has researched and written extensively on youth, nationalism, development, borders, and decolonization in Lesotho. John’s first book, Dreams for Lesotho: Independence, Foreign Assistance, and Development, drew on research in London, Washington D.C., and Pretoria (South Africa), but most of it came from archives in Lesotho. He has also conducted extensive oral histories with Basotho in Lesotho, as well as American volunteers through programs like the Peace Corps. He has articles relating to the history of development in Lesotho in the Journal of African History and International Journal of African Historical Studies. He co-edited the volume (with MSU-Ph.D.-graduate Leslie Hadfield) in the IJAHS on “Localizing the History of Development in Africa.” He also wrote a piece on refugee smuggling and women in rural Lesotho published in Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies. Click here to read more.
Questions? Contact Dr. Falina Enriquez fenriquez2@wisc.edu