In describing life on the contemporary copperbelt, James Musonda (Universite de Liege) focused on how safety is a key site of entanglement between private mining companies and the mining communities, in place of the social welfare provision now withdrawn by the new mining companies. Based upon long term fieldwork including six months as an underground miner at Mopani Copper mines and the communities of Wusakile and Kankoyo, he examines how safety is embedded in the everyday life of miners, and their families and how it impacts behaviours e.g. on alcohol consumption. Added to this, are the moral judgments attached to safety campaigns which keep the memories of the past patenalistic services alive yet denied. The paper concludes that safety has significant impact on miners’ everyday life guiding what they do and how they behave, what they say and how they think on specific issues. Simultaneously, it helps to maintain connections between the company and community, awakening past memories, regrets of paternalistic withdrawal, and fuelling resource nationalistic sentiments.
Safety in everyday life
Kitwe, Zambia 23-24 July 2018. James Musonda presented a paper at the “Comparing the Copperbelt: Political culture and knowledge production in Central Africa Workshop”. Miles Larmer and Iva Pesa (University of Oxford, research project Comparing the Copperbelt) organised the workshop. Miles Larmer performed as host with different participants alternating as chairs and discussants for the different presentations.