Beyond the artisanal mining site: migration, housing capital accumulation and indirect urbanization in East Africa

ABSTRACT

During the past 30 years, Tanzania has experienced successive precious mineral rushes led by artisanal miners. Their settlement, livelihood and housing strategies have evolved amidst high mobility in pursuit of mineral wealth. Cumulatively, the spatial movement of artisanal miners and an associated following of economically motivated migrant service providers have catalysed large-scale “direct urbanization” at artisanal mine sites-cum-small towns. These settlements have been generally characterized by relatively makeshift accommodation, which may mask accumulated savings of in situ earnings for housing investment elsewhere. In this article, in addition to documenting the mine-led direct urbanization process, we draw attention to a subsequent “indirect urbanization” phenomenon, whereby many successful artisanal miners and other entrepreneurial mining settlement residents make strategic house building investments in larger towns and cities. In anticipation of declining mineral yields and retirement from days of “roughing it” in mining sites, they endeavour to channel savings into housing in more urbanized locations, aiming to diversify into profitable business activities, living a life with better physical and social amenities. Their second-wave onward migration from mine sites encompasses more diverse destinations, particularly regional towns and cities, which accommodate their work and family life cycle needs and lifestyle preferences. Such mine-led direct and indirect urbanization processes arise from sequential migration decision-making of participants in Tanzania’s artisanal mining sector. In this article, we interrogate mining settlement residents’ locational choices on the basis of fieldwork survey findings from four artisanal gold and diamond mining settlements in Tanzania’s mineral-rich regions of Geita, Mwanza and Shinyanga, and from in-depth interviews with miners-cum-entrepreneurs residing in Mwanza, Tanzania’s second largest city, situated in the heart of Tanzania’s gold fields.

KEYWORDS:

• Tanzania
• artisanal mining
• migration
• housing
• urbanization
• investment
• multi-locational

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the artisanal miners, residents of mine sites and key informants who made this study possible. Thanks also to Christina Nsekela and Catherine Sarunday for commenting on earlier drafts of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Jønsson and Bryceson, “Rushing for Gold”; Fisher et al., “The Ladder That Sends Us to Wealth.”

2. Bryceson and Jønsson, “Gold Digging Careers in Rural East Africa.”

3. Chachage, “The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth”; Emel and Huber, “A Risky Business”; Kulindwa et al., Mining for Sustainable Development in Tanzania; Roe and Essex, Mining in Tanzania.

4. Carstens and Hilson, “Mining, Grievance and Conflict in Rural Tanzania”; Lange, “Gold and Governance.”

5. Fisher et al., “The Ladder That Sends Us to Wealth”; Kitula, “The Environmental and Socio-economic Impacts of Mining on Local Livelihoods in Tanzania”; Bryceson et al., Mining and Social Transformation in Africa.

6. Banchirigah, “Challenges with Eradicating Illegal Mining in Ghana”; Fisher et al., “The Ladder That Sends Us to Wealth”; Geenen; “Qui cherche, trouve”; Werthmann, “Following the Hills.”

7. Bryceson and MacKinnon, “Eureka and Beyond.”

8. Bryceson et al., “Unearthing Treasure and Trouble.”

9. United Republic of Tanzania, Bomani Report of the Presidential Mining Review Committee to advise the government on oversight of the mining sector.

10. Chachage, “The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth.”

11. Bryceson, “African Rural Labour, Income”.

12. Lange, “Gold and Governance”.

13. United Republic of Tanzania, Draft Final Report on Baseline Survey on Artisanal.

14. Ministry of Energy and Minerals Tanzania, The Mining Act 2010.

15. Bryceson, “Birth of a Market Town in Tanzania.”

16. Jønsson and Bryceson, “Rushing for Gold”.

17. Ghirotti, “A Simple Method of Scoring Housing.”

18. Werthmann, “Following the Hills,” 112.

19. Bryceson and Jønsson, “Gold Digging Careers in Rural East Africa”; Bryceson et al., “Unearthing Treasure and Trouble.”

20. Ouředníček, “Urban Mobility.”

21. Seto, “Global Forecasts of Urban Expansion.”

22. Jarmila, “Evaluation of Urbanization Conditions.”

23. Deshingkar and Farrington, Circular Migration and Multilocational Strategies.

24. Start and Johnson, Livelihood Options?

25. Schmidt-Kallert, “A New Paradigm of Urban Transition.”

26. Jønsson and Bryceson, “Rushing for Gold.”

27. Mr John J., 4 September 2011, Nyarugusu Village.

28. Mr Zaidi M. (60-year-old), 8 July 2011, Ikuzi Village.

29. Focus group discussion, 3 October 2011, Nyarugusu Village.

30. Mr Richard K. (40-year-old), 4 September 2011, Nyarugusu Village.

31. Mr Kapella M. (72-year-old), 6 September 2011, Nyarugusu Village.

32. Mr Harune M. (48-year-old), 21 September 2011, Maganzo Village; Mr Justin N. (26-year-old), 19 September 2011, Maganzo Village; and Mr Hendry P. (20-year-old), 20 September 2011, Maganzo Village.

33. Mr Juma G. (51-year-old), 22 December 2012, Mwanza City.

34. Mr Samuel M. (55-year-old), 21 December 2012, Mwanza City.

35. Mr Yusuph, M. (54-year-old), 18 December 2012, Mwanza City.

36. Mr Leonard M. (41-year-old), 20 December 2012, Mwanza City. Concealing one’s financial status due to social pressure to share wealth, witchcraft threats, and witchcraft accusations is a well-known phenomenon in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere reported by several observers (e.g. Gershman, “Witchcraft Beliefs and the Erosion”; Maranz, “African Friends and Money Matters”). However, in the case of migrant artisanal miners, they are often in possession of considerable more wealth than their relatives in the rural areas, making the challenge of returning to one’s home area more pronounced, prompting many to consider building their primary dwelling elsewhere.

37. Mr Ahmed B. (49-year-old), 20 December 2012, Mwanza City.

38. Mr Samweli M, (55-year-old), 21 December 2012, Mwanza City.

39. Mr Leonard M. (41-year-old), 21 December 2012, Mwanza City.

40. Mr John J. (49-year-old), 18 December 2012, Mwanza City.

41. Mr Leonard M. (41-year-old), 21 December 2012, Mwanza City.

42. Mr Leonard M. (41-year-old), 20 December 2012, Mwanza City.

43. Mr Kambi A. (42-year-old), 20 December 2012, Mwanza City.

44. Mr Yusuph, M. (54-year-old), 18 December 2012, Mwanza City.

45. Mr Juma G. (51-year-old), 22 December 2012, Mwanza City.

46. Mr Yusuph, M. (54-year-old), 18 December 2012, Mwanza City.

47. Mr Kambi A. (42-year-old), 20 December 2012, Mwanza City.

48. Bryceson et al., “Unearthing Treasure and Trouble.”

Additional information

Funding

Research for this article was made possible due to the University of Glasgow’s Urbanization and Poverty in Mining Africa (UPIMA) project funded by the Department for International Development UK Government and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC RES-167–25–0488).