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Abstract
This study employs an explorative case study methodology, which utilises interviews, historical analysis and observations to identify and analyse the local powers and politics that influence large-scale mining development in developing societies. It uses the Trident Mine Project in Kalumbila in rural North-Western Zambia as a case study. The Trident Project comprises an existing copper mining/processing operation at Sentinel Mine and a nickel mining development project at Enterprise Mine. It is owned by Kalumbila Minerals Ltd, a subsidiary of the Canadian-listed metal and mining company First Quantum Minerals Ltd. Situated on land previously managed under customary tenure, the Trident Project presents a useful case study to explore the tensions and contradictions that arose in this large-scale mining development. The findings reveal how several local actors influence large-scale mining and the nature and direction of the mining-induced socio-economic benefits. This implies that the state is not limited to a duality (civil and customary powers) of the type identified by Mahmood Mamdani. Instead, the paper explores several public and ‘private’ power poles that often function as a fractured state.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the editors and two anonymous reviewers for constructive feedback.
Notes
1 Here, the term public authority is used to refer to an instant power that is exercised through impersonal administrative operations and seeks at least a minimum of voluntary compliance and thus is legitimated in some way: see C. Lund, ‘Twilight Institutions: Public Authority and Local Politics in Africa’, Development and Change, 37, 4 (2006), pp. 685–705.
2 P. Abrams, ‘Notes on the Difficulty of Studying the State’, Journal of Historical Sociology, 1, 1 (1988), pp. 58–89.
3 For example, V.I. Lenin, Selected Works, Vol. II (Moscow, Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1947); T. Bierschenk and J.-P. Olivier de Sardan, ‘Local Powers and a Distant State in Rural Central African Republic’, Journal of Modern African Studies, 35, 3 (1997), pp. 441–68.
4 Abrams, ‘Notes on the Difficulty of Studying the State’, p. 59.
5 N.A. Poulantzas, Political Power and Social Classes (London, New Left Books, 1973).
6 For example, B. Jessop, State Theory: Putting Capitalist States in their Place (Oxford, Polity Press, 1990), p. 341.
7 Ibid., p. 82.
8 See, for example, J.-P. Oliver de Sardan, Anthropology and Development: Understanding Contemporary Social Change (London, Zed Books, 2005), p. 16; G. Steinmetz, ‘Introduction: Culture and the State’, in G. Steinmetz (ed.), State/Culture: State Formation after the Cultural Turn (Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1999), pp. 1–49, 9.
9 Lund, ‘Twilight Institutions’.
10 See, for example, S. Berry, No Condition is Permanent: The Social Dynamics of Agrarian Change in Sub-Saharan Africa (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1993); C. Bonne, ‘State Building in the African Countryside: Structure and Politics at the Grassroots’, Journal of Development Studies, 34, 4 (1998), pp. 1–31; M. Mamdani, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1996); R. Rathbone, Nkrumah and the Chiefs: The Politics of Chieftaincy in Ghana 1951-1960 (Accra, F. Reimer, 2000).
11 R. Negi, ‘The Mining Boom, Capital, and Chiefs in the “New Copperbelt”‘, in A. Fraser and M. Larmer (eds), Zambia, Mining, and Neoliberalism: Boom and Bust on the Globalized Copperbelt (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. 209–36.
12 For example, R. Kesselring, ‘The Local State in a New Mining Area in Zambia’s North-Western Province’, in J. Schubert, U. Engel and E. Macomo (eds), Extractive Industries and Changing State Dynamics in Africa: Beyond the Resource Curse (London, Routledge, 2018), pp. 129–47; Negi, ‘The Mining Boom, Capital, and Chiefs’; R. Kapesa, J. Bwalya and O. Sichone, ‘Ethnic Mobilization and Collective Grievances in the Copper Mining Areas of Zambia’, in H.E. Ali and L.-E. Cederman (eds), Natural Resources, Inequality and Conflict (Cham, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), pp. 97–127, available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73558-6_5, retrieved 16 August 2023.
13 Lund, ‘Twilight Institutions’, p. 685.
14 Bierschenk and Olivier de Sardan, ‘Local Powers and A Distant State in Rural Central African Republic’.
15 For example, T.B. Hansen and F. Stepputat, ‘Introduction: States of Imagination’, in T.B. Hansen and F. Stepputat (eds), States of Imagination: Ethnographic Explorations of the Postcolonial State (Durham, Duke University Press, 2001), pp. 1–38, p. 2; Poulantzas, Political Power and Social Classes.
16 Mamdani, Citizen and Subject, p. 19.
17 Ibid., p. 18.
18 S.B. Merriam, Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education (San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 1998), p. 12.
19 Kapesa, Bwalya and Sichone, ‘Ethnic Mobilization and Collective Grievances in the Copper Mining Areas of Zambia’.
20 Ibid.
21 D. Beach and R.B. Pedersen, ‘Selecting Appropriate Cases when Tracing Causes Mechanisms’, Sociological Methods and Research, 47, 4 (2018), pp. 837–71.
22 S.E. Baker and R. Edwards, ‘How Many Qualitative Interviews Are Enough? Expert Voices and Early Career Reflections on Sampling and Cases in Qualitative Research’, National Centre for Research Methods Discussion Paper, 2012, available at https://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/id/eprint/2273, retrieved 11 November 2023.
23 L.M. MacLean, Informal Institutions and Citizenship in Rural Africa: Risk and Reciprocity in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 106.
24 P. Nag, Population, Settlement and Development in Zambia (New Delhi, Concept Publishing, 1989).
25 K. Kaunda, Zambia: Independence and Beyond: The Speeches of Kenneth Kaunda, edited by C. Legum (London, Nelson, 1966), p. 94.
26 J. Ubink, Traditional Authority in Africa: Resurgence in an Era of Democracy (Leiden, Leiden University Press, 2008).
27 L. Buur and H.M.K. Kyed, State Recognition of Traditional Authority in Mozambique: The Nexus of Community Representation and State Assistance (Uppsala, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2005).
28 C. Ankisiba, ‘Traditional Chiefs, Land and the Politics of Development: A Case Study of Birim North District, Ghana (doctoral dissertation, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, 2013).
29 Buur and Kyed, State Recognition of Traditional Authority in Mozambique.
30 Mamdani, Citizen and Subject.
31 Ibid., p. 135.
32 R.I. Rotberg, Ending Autocracy, Enabling Democracy: The Tribulations of Southern Africa, 1960-2000 (Cambridge, World Peace Foundation, 2002; Washington, DC, Brookings Institution Press, 2002).
33 Ibid.
34 Rotberg, Ending Autocracy, Enabling Democracy.
35 S. Sishuwa, ‘Multi-Ethnic Vision or Ethnic Nationalism? The Contested Legacies of Anderson Mazoka and Zambia’s 2006 Elections’, Canadian Journal of African Studies, 57, 2 (2023), pp. 431–57, available at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1080/00083968.2023.2196084, retrieved 17 January 2024.
36 Government of the Republic of Zambia, Constitution of Zambia (Amendment) Act, No. 2 of 2016, Part XII: Chieftaincy and House of Chiefs, Article 165, Parts 1 and 2 (Lusaka, Government Printers, 2016).
37 E. Munshya, ‘When a Cobra Spits at Crocodiles: Why President Sata Shouldn’t Fight the “Bashi Lubemba”‘, available at https://munshya18.rssing.com/chan-17728169/article11-live.html, retrieved 12 May 2023.
38 O. Sicilia, ‘A Chiefly Succession Dispute in the Mid-Zambezi Valley: Contemporary Challenges and Dynamics’, Social Evolution and History, 13, 2 (2014), pp. 119–50.
39 R.A. Chileshe, ‘Land Tenure and Rural Livelihoods in Zambia: Case Studies of Kamena and St Joseph’ (PhD thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2005).
40 Kapesa, Bwalya and Sichone, ‘Ethnic Mobilization and Collective Grievances in the Copper Mining Areas of Zambia’.
41 Government of the Republic of Zambia, Lands Act, No. 29 of 1995 (Lusaka, Government Printers, 1995), Article 4(b).
42 Government of the Republic of Zambia, Mines and Minerals Development Act, No. 11 of 2015 (Lusaka, Government Printers, 2015), Article 52(1c).
43 Ibid.
44 ‘Social licence’ refers to the perceptions and ongoing acceptance of local stakeholders or community that a project, company or industry that operates in a given area or region is socially acceptable or legitimate. Ideally, a licence refers to a document issued by an authorised legal entity, for example a local or national government, whereby the government grants an authorisation to build, operate or change activities with clearly established spatial, temporal, financial or social parameters. ‘Social licence’ refers to a more implicit form of agreement between a company and local stakeholders/community: for more detail see B. de-Miguel-Molina, V. Chirivella-González and B. García-Ortega, ‘CEO Letters: Social License to Operate and Community Involvement in the Mining Industry’, Business Ethics: A European Review, 28, 1 (2019), pp. 36–55.
45 Government of the Republic of Zambia, Environmental Management Act, No. 12 of 2011 (Lusaka, Government Printers, 2011); Government of the Republic of Zambia, The Environmental Management (Licensing) Regulations (Statutory Instrument No. 112 of 2013) (Lusaka, Government Printers, 2013).
46 Chief Musele, interview, Kalumbila, Solwezi, 3 July 2015.
47 The Patriotic Front, ‘The 2011-2016 PF Manifesto’ (Lusaka, The Patriotic Front), p. 15.
48 Ibid., p. 109.
49 Electoral Commission of Zambia, ‘Elected Members of Parliament in the 2021 National Assembly Election’ (Lusaka, Electoral Commission of Zambia, 2021).
50 Ibid.
51 J.C. Mitchell, The Kalela Dance: Aspects of Social Relationships among Urban Africans in Northern Rhodesia (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1956).
52 Ibid.
53 Government of the Republic of Zambia, Mines and Minerals Development Act, No. 11 of 2015 (Lusaka, Government Printers, 2015), Part IV, Article 52(e).
54 Zambia Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (ZEITI), ‘13th Zambia EITI Final Report’ (Lusaka, ZEITI, 2023).
55 Zambia Statistics Agency (ZSA), ‘Preliminary Report: 2022 Census of Population and Housing’ (Lusaka, ZSA, 2022).
56 C.T. Sakupapa, ‘Ethno-Regionalism, Politics and the Role of Religion in Zambia: Changing Ecumenical Landscapes in a Christian Nation, 2015-2018’, Exchange, 48, 2 (2019), p. 119.
57 Catholic priest, interview, Caritas Zambia, Solwezi diocese, 8 August 2023.
58 S. Sperber and E. Hern, ‘Pentecostal Identity and Citizen Engagement in Sub-Saharan Africa: New Evidence from Zambia’, Politics and Religion, 11, 4 (2018), p. 831.
59 N. Mwale, ‘Religion and Development in Zambia: The Role of the Roman Catholic Church in the Political Development of Zambia, 1890-1964. Alternation Special Edition, 11 (2013), pp. 110–33.
60 H. Munene, Copper King in Central Africa: Corporate Organisation, Labour Relations, and Profitability of Zambia’s Rhokana Corporation (Lanham, Roman and Littlefield, 2022).
61 Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) secretariat, interview, Kitwe, 5 September 2023.
62 R. Negi, ‘The Micropolitics of Mining and Development in Zambia: Insights from the North-Western Province’, African Studies Quarterly, 12, 2 (2011), pp. 27–44.
63 See also R. Kapesa and T. McNamara, ‘We are not just a union, we are a family’: Class, Kinship and Tribe in Zambia’s Mining Unions’, Dialectical Anthropology, 44, 2 (2020), pp. 153–72.
64 MAU secretariat, interview, Solwezi, 22 July 2023; Consolidated Miners and Allied Workers Union of Zambia (CMAWUZ) branch leader, interview, Sentinel Mine, Kalumbila, 10 July 2023.
65 Ibid.
66 Ibid.
67 M. Larmer, ‘Historical Perspectives on Zambia’s Mining Boom and Busts’, in A. Fraser and M. Larmer (eds), Zambia, Mining, and Neoliberalism: Boom and Bust on the Globalised Copperbelt (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. 31–58.
68 Kapesa and McNamara, ‘We are not just a union, we are a family’.
69 First Quantum Minerals Ltd (FQM), ‘Trident Project: North-Western Province, Zambia: NI 43-101 Technical Report’ (FQM, West Perth, 2020), p. 40.
70 Coastal & Environmental Services (CES), ‘Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Trident Copper, Nickel Project, Zambia’ (CES, Grahamstown, 2011), p. 145.
71 Chief Musele, interview, Kalumbila, 3 July 2015.
72 Musele Traditional Authority (MTA), ‘Proposed Additional Relevant Points to be Embedded into Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)’, MTA correspondence with KM, November 2010.
73 Ibid.
74 Catholic priest, interview, 8 August 2023.
75 Chief Musele, interview, 3 July 2015.
76 Government of the Republic of Zambia, Lands Act, No. 29 of 1995 (Lusaka, Government Printers, 1995).
77 Chief Musele, interview, 3 July 2015.
78 Ibid.
79 P. Samawano, interview, Wanyinwa village, Kalumbila, 15 August 2023. Other than known public figures, named interviewees have been given pseudonyms in this article to protect their identity.
80 Ibid.
81 The Zambia Environmental Management Agency is a semi-autonomous government agency established in 1992 to ensure sustainable management of natural resources and protection of the environment. It also enforces the prevention and control of pollution. Since 2011 it has been operating under the Environment Management Act (No. 12) of 2011.
82 M. Mis, ‘Women Pay the Price for Zambia Mining Expansion’, Business Day, 15 September 2015, available at Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/women-pay-the-price-for-zambia-mining-expansion/, retrieved 7 June 2024.
83 MiningWatch Canada, ‘Civil Society Organizations’ Response on the Zambian Government Position Regarding the Protection Order of the Chisola Dam Project in Kalumbila’, press statement (Lusaka, MiningWatch Canada, 2013), available at https://miningwatch.ca/news/2013/7/27/civil-society-organizations-response-zambian-government-position-regarding-protection, retrieved 7 June 2024.
84 Chief Musele, interview, 3 July 2015.
85 R. Kapesa, ‘Local Perceptions of Horizontal Inequalities, Collective Grievances, and Ethnic Mobilisation in Emerging Mining Areas of North-Western Zambia’ (doctoral dissertation, Dag Hammarskjöld Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, The Copperbelt University, 2019), p. 168.
86 Chief Musele, interview, 3 July 2015.
87 MiningWatch Canada, ‘Civil Society Organizations’ Response’.
88 MAU secretariat, interview, Solwezi, 22 July 2023; CMAWUZ branch leader, interview, Sentinel Mine, Kalumbila, 10 July 2023.
89 FQM, ‘Trident Project: NI 43-101 Technical Report’, p. 40.
90 If the Ministry of Lands approves the land application in Zambia, the client is issued with an ‘Invitation to Treaty’ (ITT) document. The client is then requested to pay the fee (‘revision fee’) indicated on the ITT. After payment of the fee, the Ministry issues the client with an ‘Offer Letter’. Once the client is deemed to have submitted all the relevant documents stipulated in that letter, they will then receive a ‘Certificate of Title’.
91 Catholic priest, interview, 8 August 2023.
92 Ibid.
93 Including United Nations Development Programme, World Vision Zambia, ActionAid Zambia, Green Earth Zambia, MiningWatch Canada, Extractive Industry Transparency Alliance, Southern Africa Resource Watch, Centre for Environmental Justice, and Publish What You Pay coalition.
94 Such as Musele Community Task Force.
95 Of the 818 graves within the mine concession, 184 bodies were severely exposed and needed to be properly buried and 61 graves were to be completely exhumed and relocated to an identified safe location to pave the way for mining. A total of 573 graves lay in the mining area, so the relatives of those buried there had completely lost access to their family graves: Kalumbila Minerals Ltd (KM), ‘Resettlement Budget’ (Kalumbila, KM, 2012).
96 Chief Musele, interview, 3 July 2015.
97 Kalumbila Minerals Ltd, ‘Trident Copper, Nickel Project, Sentinel Deposit North-Western Zambia: Final Environmental Impact Statement’, p. 321.
98 Ibid., p. 322.
99 Ibid., p. 323.
100 F. Kambita, interview, Kalumbila, Solwezi, 18 June 2015.
101 Initially, KM promised to construct a house for each affected family on a 50 x 50-metre plot: see Kalumbila Minerals Ltd, ‘Trident Copper, Nickel Project, Sentinel Deposit North-Western Zambia: Final Environmental Impact Statement’, p. 157.
102 The test results showed a high concentration of iron and copper in the water. The Copperbelt University Laboratory in the School of Mines was used to test the water samples collected from several boreholes within the settlement.
103 ActionAid Magazine, ‘Why Corporate Accountability Matters for Human Rights and Women’s Lives Everywhere’ (Lusaka, ActionAid, 2020), p. 9.
104 J. Kalala, community leader, Northern settlement, interview, Kalumbila, 4 July 2015.
105 Kalumbila Minerals Ltd, ‘Trident Copper, Nickel Project, Sentinel Deposit North-Western Zambia: Final Environmental Impact Statement’, p. 11.
106 F. Vanclay, ‘Project-Induced Displacement and Resettlement: From Impoverishment Risks to an Opportunity for Development?’, Impact of Assessment and Project Appraisal, 35, 1 (2017), pp. 3–21.
107 ActionAid Magazine, ‘Why Corporate Accountability Matters’, p. 9.
108 Mis, ‘Women Pay the Price for Zambia Mining Expansion’.
109 Mining and Construction, ‘Zambia: FQM Production Figures Highlight Investment Decisions’, available at https://miningconstruction-sadc.com/zambia-fqm-production-figures-highlight-investment-decisions/, retrieved 10 June 2024.
110 Musele Traditional Authority (MTA), ‘Proposed Additional Relevant Points to be Embedded into Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)’, MTA correspondence with KM, November 2010.
111 Chief Musele, interview, Kalumbila, Solwezi, 3 July 2015.
112 Mitchell, The Kalela Dance.
113 Here, ‘database system’ has a context-based meaning, with the system listing the names of all the potential workers from the community through the traditional leaders in order to form a pool from which the mine could select candidates for any recruitment except for skilled labour.
114 Musele Traditional Authority (MTA), ‘Proposed Additional Relevant Points to be Embedded into Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)’, MTA correspondence with KM, November 2010.
115 See R. Negi, ‘Copper Capitalism Today: Space, State and Development in North-Western Zambia’ (doctoral dissertation, Graduate Programme of Geography, Ohio State University, 2009).
116 MUZ secretariat, 5 September 2023; NUMAW secretariat, interview, Kitwe, 6 September 2023.
117 P. Mususa, There Used to Be Order: Life on the Copperbelt after the Privatisation of the Zambia Consolidated Copper Mines (Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 2020).
118 G. Bupe, interview, Solwezi, 23 February 2016; F. Chibwe, interview, Solwezi, 16 January 2016; J. Hantimba, interview, Solwezi, 5 December 2015.
119 R. Kapesa, J. Mwitwa and D.C. Chikumbi, ‘Social Conflict in the Context of the Development of New Mining Concessions in Zambia’, Southern African Peace and Security Studies 4, 2 (2015). p. 49.
120 S. Mwansa, interview, Lumwana, 13 November 2015; H. Mwitwa, interview, Solwezi, 16 October 2015.
121 MUZ secretariat, interview, 5 September 2023; NUMAW secretariat, interview, 6 September 2023.
122 FQM, ‘Trident Project: NI 43-101 Technical Report’, p. 45.
123 Chief Musele, interview.
124 MUZ secretariat, 5 September 2023.
125 Mamdani, Citizen and Subject.
126 Lund, ‘Twilight Institutions’.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Robby Kapesa
Robby Kapesa Research Fellow, Dag Hammarskjöld Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, The Copperbelt University, PO Box 21692, Jumbo Drive, Riverside, Kitwe, Zambia. Email: [email protected], [email protected]