When Women Support the Patriarchal Family: The Dynamics of Marriage in a Gécamines Mining Camp (Katanga Province, DR Congo)

Abstract

Based on ethnographic research among the ex-Gécamines workers of Panda (Likasi, DR Congo), this article studies the dynamics of the spousal relationship in a post-industrial context that has been long characterized by paternalism. The results of this research suggest that, though men and women living in this mining community talk about their spousal relationships by invoking the ideal of Christian marriage promoted during the colonial period, in practice such relationships faced important changes following Congolese independence in 1960. The nationalization and subsequent dramatic decline of Gécamines caused changes which directly affected three central dimensions of the colonial family model, namely monogamy, the ideal of domesticity, and male authority. If men and women continue to reference this model, it is because, in times of growing poverty, it allows spouses to remind one another of their respective duties as docile housewives and responsible husbands, and to command respect as virtuous Christian families in the local community.

Undermining gender: women mineworkers at the rock face in a Zambian underground mine

“…On the surface, the traditional workers' family model -with the man as "breadwinner" and woman as "housewife" -imposed by colonial mining companies, and then reproduced under the ZCCM, remains prevalent. The media, religious teachings and public discourse generally reproduce this model as moral standard for men and women (Rubbers 2015). However, men's dominance as providers is long gone.…”

“…In the Copperbelt, domestic work was historically defined as the responsibility of women. Most authors who have addressed this question suggest that this gendered division of labour persisted even when women started to develop income-generating activities and contributed significantly to household budgets from the 1980s onwards (Evans 2014;Rubbers 2015). Only Alice Evans (2016, 11) suggests that men were contributing more to domestic chores than was usually acknowledged, but that this work happened outside of public view.…”

Small-scale mining and child labour in Kolwezi, Democratic Republic of Congo

“…In 1906, the Belgian colonizer founded the Union Minière du haut Katanga (UMHK)lately renamed Gécamineswhich was the jewel of the Congolese mining industry (Rubbers, 2015). In 1938 Kolwezi town was founded by the UMHK as the headquarters of its newly created western division (Mthembu-Salter, 2009).…”