‘You cannot make a camel drink water’: Capital, geo-history and contestations in the Zambian Copperbelt
2013; Elsevier BV; Volume: 45; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/j.geoforum.2012.11.010
ISSN1872-9398
Autores Tópico(s)Hydropower, Displacement, Environmental Impact
ResumoAfter prolonged economic decline, Africa is being seen widely as having turned the corner. Relatively high rates of economic growth have been witnessed since the early 2000s, in part due to the China-driven global commodity boom. In addition to older established enclaves, investment has flown into new mineral reserves. Zambia’s North Western Province (NWP)—now popularly called the New Copperbelt—has been one of the nodes of the mining boom in that country. Two large foreign-owned mines started operation in NWP’s Solwezi District between 2004 and 2009, employing more than 7000 workers. Concomitant to this, thousands of migrants also arrived seeking jobs and a share of the myriad business opportunities thus created. The mining-induced transformation of the previously subsistence-based region was, however, accompanied by autochthonous claims on its supposed developmental benefits. Keen to be seen as socially responsible, these claims were recognized by one of the two mining companies, which put in place an affirmative action system for the local Kaonde people, who were identified as the beneficiary community. But the system faced opposition from other job seekers, who alleged that it was an instance of tribalism, an accusation of considerable force in postcolonial Zambia. Using archival, historical, and ethnographic material, this paper argues that neither the delineation of the beneficiaries nor the contestations around tribe are self-evident processes. They emerge from the articulations of extractive capitalism with a specific geo-historical context, one where the legacies of colonialism continue to inform the state, economy and citizenship.
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