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| Srl | Item |
| 1 |
ID:
145178
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article studies the transformative nature of ‘artisanal frontier mining’ in view of sub-Saharan Africa's mining history. Artisanal gold production has generated livelihood earnings for millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet we must go beyond a study of artisanal mining as an individual livelihood choice and consider the sector's internal dynamics. In this sense, the concept of ‘labour transformation’ is helpful. It refers to a process in which individuals' skill acquisition, economic exchange, psychological reorientation, and social positioning evolve towards a shared occupational identity and collective professional norms, leaving considerable scope for self-governance amongst artisanal miners. This process is captured in the notion of the ‘frontier’, which in our case refers to occupational rather than geographic locational change. However, the frontier is necessarily of limited temporal duration given the existence of gold as a non-renewable resource, the depth of the gold supply sinking beyond the exploratory and extractive reach of artisanal miners, and the expanding interests of foreign mining corporations and the state. Our argument is illustrated through a comparison of the artisanal mining experiences of two neighbouring countries, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), whose artisanal labour patterns are remarkably similar to each other despite their very different national political contexts and the DRC's recent experience of conflict mineral production.
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| 2 |
ID:
112128
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| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article discusses the ebb and flow of theoretical ideas in African Studies, specifically the interface between African Studies and Development Studies. It explores the epistemological nature of interdisciplinarity in African Studies, interrogating when and how theoretical insight may contribute to an understanding of material reality and welfare improvement in some circumstances, and miss the mark by a wide margin in other cases. The purpose of this exercise is to stimulate reflection on the contribution of African Studies to continental and global intellectual and material change, juxtaposing African Studies theory and its role as an applied field of study. This necessitates consideration of Africa's position in the interplay of world politics and the power of agenda-setting international institutions, notably the World Bank.
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| 3 |
ID:
099366
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| Publication |
2010.
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| Summary/Abstract |
A series of murders of albinos in Tanzania's north-west mining frontier has been shrouded in a discourse of primitivism by the international and national press, sidestepping the significance of the contextual circumstances of an artisanal mining boom firmly embedded in a global commodity chain and local profit maximisation. The murders are connected to gold and diamond miners' efforts to secure lucky charms for finding minerals and protection against danger while mining. Through the concept of fetish creation, this article interrogates the agency of those involved in the murders: the miners who purchase the albino charms, the waganga healers renowned for their healing, divination and sorcery skills who prescribe and sell the charms, and the albino murder victims. The agrarian background, miners' ambitions and a clash of values comprise our starting point for understanding the victimisation of albinos.
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| 4 |
ID:
120914
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| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Tanzania, along with several other African countries, is experiencing a national mining boom, which has prompted hundreds of thousands of men and women to migrate to mineral-rich locations. At these sites, relationships between the sexes defy the sexual norms of the surrounding countryside to embrace new relational amalgams of polygamy, monogamy and promiscuity. This article challenges the assumption that female prostitution is widespread. Using interview data with women migrants, we delineate six 'wifestyles', namely sexual-cum-conjugal relationships between men and women that vary in their degree of sexual and material commitment. In contrast to bridewealth payments, which involved elders formalising marriages through negotiations over reproductive access to women, sexual negotiations and relations in mining settlements involve men and women making liaisons and co-habitation arrangements directly between each other without third-party intervention. Economic interdependence may evolve thereafter with the possibility of women, as well as men, offering material support to their sex partners.
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