Mining, expectations and turbulent times: locating accelerated change in rural Sierra Leone

ABSTRACT

In 2006 the iron mines in Marampa Chiefdom, in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone, re-opened. This event sparked a widespread feeling of excitement and hope among the local population, and gave rise to a landscape of expectations in which memories of both relative prosperous and “dark” pasts were invoked and imaginations of a better future flourished. However, soon after the re-opening and initial development of the mines, it appeared that the expected opportunities would not materialize everywhere and for everybody. Frustration, disappointment and loss of hope became part and parcel of the dynamics in this place, which is seen as a hot-spot, a notion that is applied to highlight the numerous frictions and negotiations within this investment landscape. This paper examines this momentum of rising expectations in the hot-spot by scrutinizing its connection to the area’s recent past of boom and bust, the increased global demand for raw materials, especially from China, national development agendas and life-cycles of mining operations. Subsequently, some spatial and social dynamics of accelerated change in Marampa will be discussed. Exploring these dynamics allows to see accelerated change in these investment landscapes from a diverse angle. Through highlighting these temporal, spatial and social dynamics of change in the hot-spot, the paper argues that overheating, a phenomenon often associated with accelerated change, may play out not only as a result of accelerated change, but also as a result of deceleration and the experience of being excluded from the potential opportunities of change.

KEYWORDS:

• Sierra Leone
• mining
• temporality
• change
• overheating

Acknowledgements

Many thanks go to Thomas H. Eriksen, the editor and an anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments on drafts of this paper. Naturally, my appreciation also goes to all of those who I engaged with during fieldwork. Field research for this paper was conducted in 2013–2014 as part of the research project “Overheating: the three crises of globalisation”, at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Robert Pijpers is a PhD fellow in the Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo. His research focuses on the micro-politics of large-scale foreign investments and processes of social and economic change in Sierra Leone.

Notes

1 This paper draws upon fieldwork conducted in May 2013 and between October 2013 and July 2014, prior to the outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa in 2014 and the dramatic fall of the iron price starting in December 2013. Per 16 October 2014, London Mining PLC went under administration and, although Timis Corporation has taken over the Marampa mines, the future of the operation is uncertain. Even though these recent developments are not taken into the analysis here specifically, as will become clear, they fit well into the boom and bust dynamics studied.

2 Sierra Leone’s political administration is divided into provinces (4) and districts (14), governed by (decentralized bodies of) the national government on the one hand and chiefdoms (149), governed by Paramount Chiefs, on the other. The boundaries between these distinct spaces of governance often cross and overlap, resulting in situations in which multiple political authorities engage in decision-making processes, such as regarding the establishment of large-scale investments.

3 This is a reworked version of an earlier conceptualization proposed in Pijpers (2014).

4 PRSPs are policy documents that describe macroeconomic, structural and social policies and programs to promote growth and reduce poverty. As an initiative of the IMF and World Bank, they are prepared by governments and are crucial to the IMF’s economic and financial programs in low-income countries. See for more information http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/prsp.htm.

5 For more detailed studies on secrecy in Sierra Leone, see e.g. Ferme (1999, 2001) and Shaw (2000, 2002).

6 A methodological reflection is crucial here. Although the statements made in these villages are sincere, they have to be seen as part of a larger strategy to ensure a better future. As a researcher, being able to move between local communities, political authorities and company staff and management, I could serve as a translator of, in this case, community interests. It is, therefore, crucial to acknowledge the context in which negative or positive reflections on the situation are made. This makes people’s opinions not less relevant, on the contrary, I would argue, as they illustrate expectations, desires and frustrations that are crucial for understanding hot-spots.

7 In Sierra Leone, like in most other countries in the world (the US being a well-known exception), sub-surface rights are vested in the state, whereas surface rights can be with either the state, local authorities or local land-owners. This means that while a local land-owner can own the surface rights, the interest of the state in natural resource extraction may overrule these rights. In such cases, surface rent needs to be paid to the owners of the land. Naturally, all property destroyed by a mining operations is required to be compensated as well.

8 The emphasis on “satisfactory” is important here. The experience of development and progress is entangled in imaginations and expectations. Life did improve a great deal in many of these villages compared to 2003, when I first visited the area after the war. However, according to local communities, improvements have not been sufficient and satisfying.

9 See e.g. Park and MacDiarmid (1975), Dumett (1998), Ferguson (2005), Hilson (2011), Appel (2012), Sosa (2012), Kirsch (2014), Golub (2014), Welker (2014) and Luning and Pijpers (forthcoming).

10 It is not surprising that large-scale investments attract considerable amount of people who seek employment. Unemployment is a serious issue in Sierra Leone and large-scale investments offer a good proportion of the few employment opportunities available. This has serious consequences, as the pressure on both investors as well as on local environments increases. The influx of strangers from elsewhere in Sierra Leone creates, e.g., tension as local populations fear that others will be picking the fruits of the investments. This may result in a fierce local identity politics based on ideas of autochthony and belonging (Pijpers, 2016).

11 The remaining 50% is divided over four other recipients: the Paramount Chief 15%, the District Council 15%, the ?Chiefdom Administration 10% and the Constituency Development Fund (under the responsibility of the local Member of Parliament) 10%.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the European Research Council (ERC), project number 295843.