The Kariba Dam, located on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, overlooks the Kariba Gorge in the Zambezi River basin. The term kariba (literally « little trap » in tonga language) refers to a dangerous stone rising in the middle of the river. The trap is not only etymological, since 57 , 000 Tongas had to be displaced, causing social upheaval as well as irreparable environmental damage. The study of the dam, from an ecopoetic point of view, associates the transformations of the space with the narratives that result from it. The texts we choose to study listen to the deep attachment of the people to their space, and reveal the energies – creative, magical, and social – that play beneath the surface of the Zambezi and beyond.