Mining with a ‘Vuvuzela’: reconfiguring artisanal mining in Southern Zimbabwe and its implications to rural livelihoods

Mabhena, Clifford

doi:10.1080/02589001.2012.664416

Cited by 41 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…According to Skeyi, ‘You don't have to wait for the government to come and support you; you will starve to death… we started our own plans’ ( Daily Dispatch ). As is the case elsewhere in sub‐Saharan Africa, political and economic marginalization underlie the drive to explore the development potential which ASM offers communities (see, for example, Hilson ; Jonsson and Fold ; Mabhena ; Maconachie ; Maconachie and Binns ).…”

Section: Corporate Mining Asm and Brick‐making In Indwementioning

confidence: 99%

Community development at the coal face: networks and sustainability among artisanal mining communities inIndwe,EasternCapeProvince,SouthAfrica

Nel

Binns

Gibb³

2013

Geographical Journal

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Artisanal, or small‐scale mining, is widely recognised as a key, but often controversial, survival strategy adopted by low‐income communities in the global South. This paper examines how members of one community in South Africa, that of Indwe, in a desperate effort to create self‐employment, have initiated micro‐level coal‐mining enterprises, which have had the downstream effect of supporting local transportation and brick‐making operations. Government concerns over the legality of these activities overlie the recent depletion of the local resource and the involvement of a mining corporate in the region. In terms of the way forward, the paper explores the uneasy compromise which has emerged between the corporate's social responsibility initiatives and the suspicions of the artisanal miners.

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Section: Corporate Mining Asm and Brick‐making In Indwementioning

confidence: 99%

Community development at the coal face: networks and sustainability among artisanal mining communities inIndwe,EasternCapeProvince,SouthAfrica

Nel

Binns

Gibb³

2013

Geographical Journal

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“…Smallholder farming and small-scale mining are now two of the pillars of Zimbabwe's economy. Although illegal under Zimbabwe's colonial era mining laws, which still structure present-day mining policies (Dube et al, 2016;Spiegel, 2015), ASGM has become an increasingly widespread economic activity undertaken by socially differentiated groups with a wide range of education levels and economic backgrounds (Mabhena, 2012;Mpofu & Mpofu, 2017). Across the country, ASGM contributes to the livelihoods of over one million people directly (PACT, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artisanal Gold Mining and Farming: Livelihood Linkages and Labour Dynamics after Land Reforms in Zimbabwe

Mkodzongi¹,

Spiegel

2018

The Journal of Development Studies

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While the rural development consequences of Zimbabwe's Fast Track Land Reform Programme have been heavily debated, there is a dearth of literature focusing on the post-land reform interrelations between artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) and farming. This article discusses the growing ASGM sector, encapsulated by the phrase 'mari yaputika'/'gold has detonated', examining the impacts of 'liberating' mineral resources in farming areas previously inaccessible to the rural poor. Drawing on research in Mhondoro Ngezi District, we argue for more subtle understandings of smallholder farming/ASGM linkages in relation to changing labour and class dynamics, challenging accounts that under-recognise the multifaceted interconnectedness of artisanal mining and farming.

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“…This economic decline deepened reliance on artisanal mining -the extraction of minerals using rudimentary practices -as a survival strategy (Kamete, 2008;Mabhena, 2012). In the early 2000s, estimates suggested that artisanal mining in Zimbabwe directly involved at least 500,000 people, supporting the livelihoods of two million people -primarily in the gold sector (Shoko and Veiga, 2004).…”

Section: Contextualising Marange's Diamond Conflicts In a Shifting Tementioning

confidence: 99%

Contested Diamond Certification: Reconfiguring Global and National Interests in Zimbabwe’s Marange Fields

Spiegel

2014

The Global Diamond Industry

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Abstract:This study examines the political uses of "conflict diamond" discourse in global debates about commodity certification and socially responsible mining in Zimbabwe. Engaging critical literature on "conflict-free" corporate branding initiatives, the study focuses on representations of conflict in Marange, in Zimbabwe's eastern highlands. In 2006, a diamond rush in Marange drew in tens of thousands of artisanal miners from across Zimbabwe as well as foreigners, and the government initiated military crackdowns in 2008. In a highly contested vote in 2009, the international government delegates who comprised the voting members in the Kimberley Process Certification System (KPCS) ruled that conflict in Marange did not meet the KPCS definitions of "conflict diamond." The study examines discourses of key stakeholders in the multinational diamond industry, human rights organizations, policymakers as well as artisanal miners in Zimbabwe between 2006 and 2014. The article argues that advocacies against diamond certification as well as advocacies favouring certification both tended to overlook the interests of artisanal miners, focusing narrowly on certain forms of conflict while associating artisanal mining with illicitness. The Marange case illustrates how conventional discourses on "conflict diamonds" not only obscure the complex nature of conflicts in contemporary capitalist accumulation processes; they also risk contributing to new forms of structural violence. This analysis highlights the need to pay careful attention to how global commodity certification discourses inter-relate with political agendas at multiple scales. The study draws attention to dilemmas for geographers when portraying the interests of marginalized groups in -and affected by -the diamond mining sector.

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Mining with a ‘Vuvuzela’: reconfiguring artisanal mining in Southern Zimbabwe and its implications to rural livelihoods

Cited by 41 publications

References 5 publications

Community development at the coal face: networks and sustainability among artisanal mining communities inIndwe,EasternCapeProvince,SouthAfrica

Community development at the coal face: networks and sustainability among artisanal mining communities inIndwe,EasternCapeProvince,SouthAfrica

Artisanal Gold Mining and Farming: Livelihood Linkages and Labour Dynamics after Land Reforms in Zimbabwe

Contested Diamond Certification: Reconfiguring Global and National Interests in Zimbabwe’s Marange Fields

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