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Fall 1963 The African Mineral Industry: Evolution of a Supranational Level of Integration Alvin W. Wolfe Washington University, St. Louis, [email protected]
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Scholar Commons Citation Wolfe, Alvin W., "The African Mineral Industry: Evolution of a Supranational Level of Integration" (1963). Anthropology Faculty Publications. 5. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/ant_facpub/5
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THE AFRICAN MINERAL INDUSTRY: EVOLUTION OF A SUPRANATIONAL LEVEL OF INTEGRATION
ALVIN W. WOLFE Washington University
The need for some sort of human over Africa was fairly halted for a organization at a level of integration time at the point where minerals be- superior to the war-prone nation-state come important, I found the mineral has stimulated rational attempts to in- extraction industry of southern Africa vent structUres intended to reduce in- to be organized in an intricate social ternational conflict. These inventions, system based more on overlapping such as the League of Nations and the membership of a variety of groups United Nations, tend tO use the very than on a bureaucratic centralization units that are in contention, nation- of administrative power. The network states, and the same principles of or- binds groups that are different both ganization, centralized power in a bu- structurally and functionally, some reaucratic framework, that characterize business corporations, some states, the nation-state. The long history of some families, in a modern suprana- development of human social systems tional structure that is more than just suggests, however, that development international. The ties among these from one "level of sociocultUral inte- entities are such that the boundaries gration," to use the concept of Julian of the system are ambiguous. Though Steward,l to a new, wider level in- operating in a complex modern world, volves the emergence qf genuinely dif- the structure of this system appears to ferent principles which yield qualita- the anthropologist analgous to "acepha- tively different groups at the higher lous'. segmentary social systems. An level. A tribe is not a federation of even better comparison might be with families; a nation is not a federation such smaller societies as those of abo- of tribes; neither is it likely that man's riginal Australia where networks of present problem will be solved by a overlapping family, horde, and totemic federation of states. It may be that the groups provide a high degree of order current decadesof enormous upheaval, without centralized control. of crumbling political empires, of Before proceeding, I should register rapid social change and" population some reservations. A system such as growth, and of acceleration of indus- this is difficult to describe briefly. This trialization, will give rise tO some new preliminary report, based on incom- system of social control somewhat in- plete data on a system that is dynamic, dependent of the currently troublesome continuously adapting to changing units, the nation-states. The present conditions, attempts only to point out paper does not purport to describe a a few salient features which appear utopian system for establishing world important for the future development peace. It merely calls attention to a de- of this system, and to point out some veloping system with some character- of those changing conditions tO which istics that might make effective an in- this system seems adaptable. ternational, supranational, integrative SOME PA1TERNSOF INTEGRAnON system. In pursuing answers to quite anoth- IN THE MINING INDUSTRY er question, namely, why the "wind of The several hundred mining com- change" expected to sweep southward panies operating in southern Africa are integrated through a series of re- 1 Julian Steward, Theory of Culture lationships that focus on some of the Change. Urbana: University of Illinois larger among them-this system I have Press, 1955. elsewhere called the Cape-to-Katanga
f~(;." " So C.I "'l PRo BL E M.s fa II 1?,3 154 SOCIAL PROBLEMS
Miners.2 Then, in a variety of ways, exploitation of all the mineral re- these corporations are linked with gov- sourcesof southern Africa. These "key" ernmentS. companies are: Union Miniere du The most direct connections are Haut Katanga, Tanganyika Conces- those of parent companies to wholly- sions, British South Africa Company, owned subsidiaries. Thus The Anglo Anglo American Corporation of South American Corporation of South Africa Africa, De Beers Consolidated Mines, is sole parent to Lydenburg Estates, Johannesburg Consolidated Investment New Era Consolidated, South African Company, R h o k a n a Corporation, Mines Selection, Anglo American Rho- Mufulira Copper Mines, and Rhode- desian Services, and Anmercosa Land sian Selection Trust. ( See Chart 1.) and Estates.3 Johannesburg Consoli- Eighty-eight men occupy the 130 di- dated Investment Company is parent rectOrships; still closer to the hub, six to African Asbestos-Cement Corpora- men occupy twenty-tWo seats.Analysis tion, Barnato Brothers, Barnato Hold- of the relationships of these, and many ings, and others. Such relationship sys- other related corporations, suggeststhat tems based on complete ownership are, the interlocking may follow a regular of course, limited in scale in the same pattern: roughly, the units which are way as kinship groups based on filia- most similar in function and therefore tion alone are limited. most prone to compete have the high- The relationships that give this sys- est degree of interlocking. Those that tem much wider span involve the shar- are functionally disparate can rely more ing of interest in operating firms. Just on the market principle in their rela- as marriages in many social systems tions, while the similar companies must establish affinal ties between two other- create the conditions for cooperation wise separate, perhaps opposing, line- on the basis of reciprocity. Thus, Rho- ages, common financial interests estab- kana and Rhodesian Selection Trust lish a network of relations between are alike in their emphasis on mining otherwise distinct corporations. This copper in the Copperbelt, but they network is partially expressedin inter- avoid the temptation to compete by locking directorates, for any business interlocking heavily through a third group attempts to have its own repre- company, Mufulira Copper Mines, sentatives on the board of directors of whose sixteen man board is nearly another company in which it holds filled by nine directors of Rhodesian stock or has some other direct interest. Selection Trust and six directors of The extent to which this principle Rhokana. On the other hand, the Brit- operates can be readily observed from ish South Africa Company, whose the lists of directors of nine companies place in the system is functionally chosen as key companies from among unique in that it does not operate the several hundred for which such in- mines but "owns" the mineral resources formation is available because they, over vast parts of the territory includ- with their subsidiaries and associated ing the Copperbelt, needs only three firms, can be seen as dominating the joint directors with Anglo American Corporation of South Africa and only one with Tanganyika Concessions. It 2 Alvin W. Wolfe, "The Team Rules may, however, be significant that the Mining in Southern Africa," Toward Free- dom, January, 1962. three of them-BSA, Anglo-American, 3 Unless other references are ,given, all and T.C.-together own the Rhodesian p.trticulars on companies are taken from Iron and Steel Corporation ( RISCO ) ( 1) tllining Year Book, London: Walter of Southern Rhodesia. Tanganyika E. Skinner; (2) Moody's Banking and Fi- nance Manual; (3) Moody's Industrials Concessions, itself, has another func- Manual; or (4) Poor's Register, tionally distinct position in that it D~ > . . ...> ~ ~" ., " 6--c ~ ~ .c -~ N 01 :: O C " "U ~ > 01 O " ~ D .. -" ~ .~ x u " D .a ~ C " ~ 0. 0- ~D.. 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Z C O.:I: .o:c="' ..'~ou~..-E C(O 0. o o -0; 0 ~ ..~ ~ ~ 0 .!! -.= ~ ..U O > ~ "'~~.., XX"'UQ ~ 156 SOCIAL PROBLEMS owns, in addition to much of Union Independent State in 1885.4 Miniere du Haut Katanga, the Ben- The Congo government, under Leo. guela Railway, in collaboration with pold and then under the Belgians, the Portuguese government. owned significant holdings in the "pri- In the American economy, we may vate sector," in companies like Union need to be reminded, interlocking of Miniere, Forminiere, Geomines, and directorates is greatest among function- others. In fact, over the years, income ally different corporations ( except, of from direct business investments ac- course, in the parent-subsidiary rela- couQted for something like 7% of tionship) .That the pattern tends tO be total government receipts.5 As any oth- the opposite in this international, or er stockholder, the Government under supranational, system may be impor- the Belgians could vote its shares in tant enough to be re-emphasized. Be- the election of directors and other cru- tween firms that are functionally dis- cial corporate matters. We shall look tinct there already exists something more specifically at the Congo sitUation like organic solidarity, what economic later, when consideration is given to anthropologists would call integration the effects on this supranational system according to the market principle. Be- of the break-up of political empires. tweeri those that do not need each Another state which participates in other instrumentally, integration based the Cape-to-Katanga team is PortUgal. on the principle of reciprocity is de- The government of the Province of veloped by the mechanism of interlock- Angola holds 200,000 shares in the ing directorates. Companhia de Diamante de Angola (Diamang), which has monopoly rights to diamond deposits. On the INVOLVEMENT OF STATESIN THE board of this company are H. J. Joel SUPRANATIONAL SYSTEM of De Beers, H. F. Oppenheimer of Anglo American, Baron Bonvoisin of The companies forming the core of the societe Generale de Belgique, this supranational industrial system Comte M. de Fernig of the societe have usually been referred to as "pri- Miniere du Beceka ( significant in that vate" companies and their economic it is the largest single diamond-pro- activity attributed to the "private sec- ducer in the world, located in the Con- tor" as opposed tO the "public sector" go). All diamonds produced by of the various "national economies" in Diamang are distributed through The which they function. It is important, Diamond Corporation, a De Beers sub- however, to analyze carefully the status- sidiary that administers the cartel ar- es and roles of states in a ..supranation- rangementS. Aside from the regular al" system such as we are describing. benefits the PortUguesegovernment of American scholars,especially, may need Angola derives by 50% participation to be cautioned not tO expect all busi- in profits of the company, the Diamang ness and government relations to fol- low the American ideal of "separation." In southern Africa, at least, states and 4 Anthony S. Reyner, The Republic of business corporations have long been the Congo, Development of its Interna- tional Boundaries ( African Reprint Series, closely interwoven, sometimes identi- No. 9)- Institute of African Affairs, Du- cal-as in the case of King Leopold's quesne University, 1961) . International Association of the Congo 5 J. Wertz, in Organisation financiere du which was a private business until the Congo Beige et du Ruana-Urundi, Extrait United States Government recognized de L 'Encyclopedie du Congo Beige, Brux- elles, 1953; and Banque Centrale du Congo it as "a friendly power," opening the BeIge et du Ruanda-Urundi, Rapport, 1959, way tO its reconstitution as the Congo Bruxelles, 1960. The African Mineral Industry 157 board was involved enough in political Rhodesia Railways and the Kariba affairs tO loan the government $3,- hydroelectric power system. The Brit- 500,000 in 1955 at 1% interest. ish South Africa Company holds the The Portuguese government is part- Rhodesia Railways bonds, issued at the ner to another important firm of the time of its nationalization immediately Cape-to-Katanga System operating in after World War II. The Railways, as Angola. Tanganyika ConcessionsLimit- a government agency, financed renova- ed shareswith the government of An- tion and expansion by borrowing in gola control of the Benguela Railway, the United States and from the Inter- the most efficient route to the Atlantic national Bank. The Kariba Project, too, from Katanga and the Rhodesian Cop- was financed heavily by the Interna- perbelt. Since Tanganyika Concessions tional Bank, in which the American is, with the societe Generale de Bel- government is the major participant.6 gique, an important shareholder in The role of the government of South Union Miniere, it is clear that they Africa in the supranational system we have an interest in how Angola is call the Cape-to-Katanga Miners is governed. enormous, but at the same time so The governments of the Rhodesias complicated by other political dimen- were, in their beginnings, purely "pri- sions as tO demand much more discus- vate'. business, namely The British sion than can be undertaken here. Min- South Africa Company. Those ties are erals made South Africa, minerals by no means all dissolved. In Northern maintain South Africa, and South Rhodesia the mineral rights are still Africa is the axle on which fits the held by that company, which grants hub of the mineral industry of all concessions to operating companies southern Africa. Almost half of all the such as Rhodesian Selection Trust, companies directly involved in the Mufulira, Nchanga, and many others, Cape-to-Katanga mineral industry are each with its nexus tO the supranation- registered in South Africa. Despite al system. The company, or the Cape- that government's unsavory record to-Katanga Supranational System,more relative to freedom of persons, it than the government, controls the ex- acquired a fine reputation among ploitation of minerals in Northern capital inyestors, inspiring American Rhodesia. businessmento speak publicly in glow- In Southern Rhodesia, matters are ing terms of the possibilities for in- different. There the mineral rights vestment.7 The American Export-Im- were purchased by the government, a port Bank loaned $127,000,000 to a "white" government, from the British South Africa Company in 1933, so that 6 Loans to Rhodesia Railways and the the government, not the company, Kariba power project are discussed in sev- grants concessionsand receives royal- eral issues of The Annual Report of the ties. It is not irrelevant to note that International Bank for Reconstruction and Africans are not likely tO win political Development, especially the Eleventh (1955-56, p. 40) and the Thirteenth power here, in "Zimbabwe," with any- (1957-58, pp. 24-25). In addition, Andrew thing like the ease with which the Kamarck reports, "The United States gov- transfer took place in Zambia (North- ernment has put $56 million into Rhodesia ern Rhodesia) or Malawi (Nyasaland) to help develop copper and cobalt mining and to improve road and railway transport" where direct control of minerals was (p. 130, The United States and Africa, The not involved. American Assembly, New York, 1958) . The now-defunct government of the 7 See, for example, "The Pied Piper of Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland Inland Steel;' Africa Today, March, 1963; see also the South African government's was a major participant in the mining publication South African Scope, wherein industry, through its control of the American statements are frequently cited. 158 SOCIAL PROBLEMS number of South African gold mining Africans and some thousands of whites companies at the rate of 4% interest who are opposed to it-because it has in the 1950's.8The U. S. Atomic Ener- the financial and diplomatic resources gy Commission, which guaranteed the of the vast mineral industry. I add loans, reported the development in the "diplomatic resources'. advisedly, since following terms in its report pubJished these great corporations, organized in 1953: "Over a period of years, the supranationally, exert strong though South African government and mining subtle influences-as a case in point, industry, in cooperation with the the American governmental loans tO United States and the United King- Anglo American subsidiaries at 4% dom, have Jaid the groundwork for an interest at the same time as Anglo entirely new industry which recovers American was loaning tO its own affili- uranium as a by-product from the gold ates at 6V2%, and at the same time ores of Witwatersrand."9 The report as a related company, Diamang, loaned fails tO note that in addition to laying to Portugal at 1 %. This kind of diplo- "the groundwork," the governments macy shoresup the South African state, also supplied the capital and absorbed as well as the Portuguese state, as well the risk by guaranteeing to buy the as the Cape-to-Katanga Miners. product at a price fixed tO permit Those who see only the enormous amortization and "reasonable" profit.l0 growth of state power in the modern Participation of governments, includ- world apparently do not take into ac- ing that of South Africa, in the mineral count the large number of weak states industry is clear, and this is our only now existing, and the difficulties states interest at this point. encounter in attempting to form A state, of course, has considerable stronger units by federation. States bargaining power vis a vis other social cannot readily form overlapping sys- units, such as corporations, operating tems among themselves.They can and, within their territories. The govern- as we have seen, do overlap with ment of a state, after all, has the ..legiti- supranational corporations. mate" right to use force. When it occurs that the force of the state de- BOUNDARIESOF THE pends heavily on monies that come pre- SuPRANAnoNAL SYSTEM dominantly from one corporation or a Defining the boundaries of the be- systematically organized group of cor- havioral system we are here attempting porations, it is the government which to analyze entails difficulties similar may be regulated. Governments in to those met in defining effective po- Africa are weak in just this way. litical boundaries for societies without The government of The Republic of state structures-the Nuer of Sudan, South Africa is certainly the strongest the Tallensi of Ghana, or the aboriginal government in the area of our con- Australians, for example. In the min- cern. It is strong, however-and there- ing industry, as in some small societies, fore can effectively oppress 8,000,000 controlled cooperation simply becomes weaker as one moves from the point of focus outward. Familiar with such 8 Export-Import Bank, Report to CO1l- systems,anthropologists are not likely gress, annually. 9 Atomic Energy Commission, Thirteenth tO conclude that systematic organiza- .'it!11Iiannual Report. Washin~ton: .U. S. tion is not present where boundaries Printing Office, January, 1953, p. 7. are ambiguous. Rather, this can be seen 10 See also AEC Tu'enty-third !'.e11Ii- as a characteristic of the system-and d1Jliual Report, 1958, p. 450; also Hearing.l may even prove of adaptive value in before the Joint Committee on Atorrlic Energy, Eighty-fifth Congress of the United that it permits expansion when the States, 1958, pp. 20-21 and passim. conditions are right and tends to pre- The African l"Wineral Industry 159 serve the center, and thus the system des and circles intersecting circles, so itself, when conditions are adverse. that one cannot say, at any point, this The nine corporations taken as the is where the system ends, all these are focus of the southern African mining in, all those are out. industry derive their importance from their relationships with the several "ACEPHALOUS" CHARACTEROF hundred other corporations and states THE SYSTEM operating in the area and then, further, Despite the evidence of an orderly with producers and processorsof min- system, the mineral industry of south- erals in other areas of the world. It is ern Africa cannot be said to be under impossible here to list all these rela- the willful control of a few men at tionships, but some indication of the the apex of a bureaucratic hierarchy. way in which they move toward in- In other words, it is not run by a few finity can be given. Union Miniere in "evil-minded malefactors of great Katanga is now effectively controlled wealth." Certainly, differences in power by the societe Generale de Belgique. are present between corporations and The societe Generale shares with De between men, but there is no evidence, Beers, Anglo American Corporation even in the more formally organized of South Africa, and the Portuguese segment of the system known as the state, control of the Diamond Com- diamond cartel, that one man or one pany of Angola. But most of the ac- company controls directly the actions tivity of societe Generale is in Europe, of others. Though here much research where it links with some of the largest remains to be done, the cooperation industrial and financial groups in the among the units in the system appears world.ll One of the numerous lines dependent on shared interests and that could be followed leads through shared information throughout the in- a subsidiary, societe Generale des tricate network. Copper production in Minerais, with ties connecting it to 1961 was ostensibly geared down in Amalgamated Metal Corporation in the Copperbelt region in order to con- the United Kingdom. societe Gen- form tO the world market, even though erale des Minerais, together with its thc: copper industry has no formal con- parent, created a company in Can~da, $tol agency comparable to that pro- Sogemines limited, among whose in- vided by the Diamond Corporation for terests are significant holdings in Rio the diamond industry. Concerning the Tinto Mining Company of Canada, a use of the several rail routes to the subsidiary of Rio Tinto Co. limited, sea, attempts are made to satisfy the part of the Rothschild group in the various states and corporations in- United Kingdom. Rio Tinto, according volved although there is no "ministry to the Mining Yearbook, "has interests of transportation" to order such co- in Northern Rhodesia of which the operation. most important is its large holding of Granted that our information on the shares in Rhokana Corporation Limit- lines of authority within the structure ed. ..." It also has interests in South is at this point scanty, it appears cer- African mines. Tracing the intercon- tain there is no single ruler, private nections among the groups involved in or public. Yet this "tribe" pursues its the mineral field reveals circles in cir- goals with enough efficiency to contin- ue tO profit and expand. A positive ad- vantage of this acephalous character 11 For more complete particulars on the is that any sort of a coup d' etat is im- extensions of societe Generale, the reader is advised to see Morphologie des Groupes possible, as is destruction of the whole Financiers, Brussels: Centre de Rocherche system by disintegration of the execu- et d'lnformation Socio-Politiques, 1962. tive institUtion. 160 SOCIAL PROBLEMS EvoLUnONARY PROCESSES Economist Intelligence Unit Limited, From this altogether tOO brief ex- reaches similar conclusions for 1970, position of some structUral aspects of but adds that, with free trade, the the system of mineral exploitation let growth rate should become gradually us turn to view the matter in evolu- steeper after that.12 The optimism ap- tionary perspective. Three on-going pears typical of economic analyses. processestend to foster the develop- The projected growth in Europe will ment of the system: First, the process not be distributed evenly over all sec- of industrialization, pursuing man in tors of the economy, but will occur every part of the earth, will continu- strongly in the area of modern metal- ously enlarge the already great demand lurgical processing. Europe has done for minerals. Second, the continuing well in the past by processing imported process of political decolonization en- primary products, and further progress hances the freedom of action of this in the same direction is expected. essentially private system. Third, the "From the standpoint of minerals, lowering of state-imposed barriers to metals, and metalworking production, trade leaves the arena freer for the ac- the future is no more than an exten- tion of supranational economic organi- sion of the past."13 zations. How does all this affect the mineral- The rapid development of industrial exploiting system of southern Africa? systemsin the twentieth century intro- Such growth in Europe should effect duces important new factors into the major changes in the demand sched- ecological system within which man ule for ferroalloys and nonferrous operates. The idea that increasing pro- metals. By 1970, just around the ductivity is desirable has spread wher- corner, consumption in Europe alone ever men are. Once on the road to- of the major ferroalloys "can reason- ward higher productivity through in- ably be expected to double the 1955 dustrialization there appears no turn- level." The bulk of Europe's doubled ing back, no levelling off, without dis- need for ferroalloys will be expected to aster. An important meaning of this come from Africa. Africa has almost is seldom recognized. In twentieth 25% of the world supply of manga- centUry ecological systems, minerals nese, while Europe has 1%. Africa have become as necessarytO the main- contains almost 20% of the world tenance of human industrial systems supply of chromite, while western as food is to human biological systems. Europe has 1%. Africa has 60% of Without losing sight of the fact that the world's cobalt while western Eu- all mankind is becoming involved in rope has 10%. industrial systems, let us focus for a Europe's trade in nonferrous metals moment on one small segment of the will double between 1955 and 1970, species, the men in Europe. A fully according to projections, and the grow- industrialized society seems compelled ing need will have to be met from tO expand its economy. We may argue African resources.14Copper consump- whether gross national product must tion will double, and it is expected grow at 2%, 5% or 10%, but we that Katanga and the Copperbelt will agree it must grow. All predictions remain the principal source of supply. for western Europe are for growth. Dewhurst and his associates,in a sig- 12 ]. Frederick Dewhurst, et al., Europe's nificant volume entitled Europe's Needs and Resources, Twentieth Century Needs and Resources, foresee a 150% Fund, New York, 1957; Britain and Europe, increase in the European GNP by TheLondon, Economist 1957. Intelligence Unit Limited,. 1970, over the 1957 level. Another 13Dewhurst, op. cit. stUdy, Britain and Europe, by The 14 Britain and Europe, p. 78. The African Mineral Industry 161 Zinc consumption will probably be tremendous influence on the rest of the one-and-a-half times the 1957 level by world. The government was in busi- 1970, and Katanga is the major source. ness, and business was good for the Tin, still indispensable for a number seventy years that Belgians manned of uses,is concentrated in Africa, prob- governmental posts. What was handed ably as much as 50% of the "Free over to the Congolese on June 30, World" supply. Cadmium has come 1960, however, was a meager skeleton largely from the Katanga-Rhodesia of administrative structure stripped of area. its muscle and therefore heavily de- Add to this projection for Europe pendent on European businessmen the increased need for the same min- members of the supranational mining erals resulting from the growth of in- network. dustrial systemsallover the world, and The key to the Congo sitUation is the dimensions of the ecological prob- the charter company, Katanga Special lem can be appreciated. Committee, in which the government To the degree that minerals will be had the right to appoint four of six relatively more important in the years directors. Among its many holdings to come, those who control thelll, or was Union Miniere, the importance of rather the systemsinvolving their con- which is indicated by the fact that it trol, will have enhanced influence in produced annually for the Congo pub- what we now call international affairs. lic treasury an amount nearly equal to Representatives of political states may half the annual budget. The dividends, well become less influential than repre- royalties, and taxes of other mining sentatives of such functionally neces- companies in similar relation to the sary supranational systems as the state must also be considered, but of "Cape-to-Katanga Miners." these the contribution of Union Although European state power ob- Miniere is the largest. The Katanga viously made possible the establish- Special Committee owned 663,000 ment of such control over mineral re- voting shares of Union Miniere, while sources as is exercised in southern minority shareholderswer~"Xanganyika Africa, the current disintegration of Concessions with 375,000 shares and colonial empires serves more to the societe Generale de Belgique with strengthen than to weaken the "pri- 129,000 shares.15 vate" sector of the system. National Instead of appointing, through the state controls have frequently been medium of the Special Committee, di- used tO inhibit development of wider- rectors of Union Miniere who would scale economic integration, since each put public interest foremost, the gov- corporation operates under a charter ernment always named men represent- from one or another nation-state. Dis- ing the minority interests, especially solution of colonial ties strengthens the the societe Generale de Belgique. Re- position, relative to states, of corpora- ciprocally, retiring government officials tions whose operations are sufficiently were given berths on subsidiary cor- internationalized. porations. In 1960, with the wind of The Congo provides a clear case,al- change bringing independence to the most too extreme to use as a general example, of weakening of state power 15 Pierre Joye and Rosine Lewin, Les relative tO private "international" cor- Trusts au Congo, societe Populaire d'Edi- porations. By virtue of its colonial tions, Brussels, 1961, pp. 290-294. Slightly charter, the Belgian-administered gov- different figures are found in Morphologie ernment of the Congo had almost com- des Groupes Financiers, Centre de Recherche er d'Information Socio-Politiques, Brussels, plete control over the economic destiny 1962, p. 153, but the proportions are ap- of that richly endowed land and a proximately the same. 162 SOCIAL PROBLEMS Congo, one might have predicted that this started long before Tshombe an African government would remedy showed any signs of seceding and cer- the situation in the public favor. The tainly before he acquired the power to independent Congolese government force anyone to do anything. What- was never given the opportUnity to ever the case there, the situation dem- make such appointments, however, for onstrates a strengthening of the power only days before the Lumumba govern- position of the essentially private sys- ment was sworn in the Katanga Spe- tem of mineral exploitation by a de- cial Committee was dissolved, or ren- liberate weakening of public govern- dered inoperative. The initiative was mental bodies. The Congo government apparently taken by the Katanga Com- of 1963 dare not tamper with the min- pany, controlled by the societe Gen- eral rights that, once public, are now erale de Belgique, when they requested somehow «owned" by the Cape-to- of the government that their one-third Katanga team, becausethe Congo gov- holding in the Special Committee be ernment is financially dependent on granted them in shares and in real these large corporations, and on the property. According to a stUdy by the u. S., the u. N., and Belgium. These Centre de Recherche et d'Information are the Congo's only available sources Socio-Politiques this request was made for capital and technical assistancenec- on June 24, 1960, and according tO a essary to further economic develop- study by Pierre Joye and Rosine Lewin, ment.17 the Belgian colonial government ac- It is important to note that not only cepted the arrangement on June 27, was the African government weakened, 1960, just three days before independ- but the Belgian government, too, was ence.16The result was quite simple: affected by "decolonization:' With its the new Congo government was de- control of the Special Committee of prived of a right that had resided, un- the Katanga, and by virtue of its sover- used, in the Congo state structure for eignty over the Congo government sixty years. Control of Union Miniere, which possessedsignificant sharehold- and the other enterprises involved, was ings in other mining concerns, the retained in white European hands. Belgian state had considerable leverage With the retUrn of one-third of the it could apply toward controlling such Special Committee's shares to the Ka- corporate giants as the societe Gen- tanga Company, members of the Cape- erale at home. The dissolution of this to-Katanga team hold a majority of Special Committee just before Congo- 607,000 shares and can effectively pro- lese independence, then, resulted not hibit any influence from the minority only in stripping the new Congolese holding of 478,000 "public" shares. state of much of its potential to influ- As a matter of fact, because the ence the mining industry but also in administration of these companies re- diminution of the Belgian state in this mained entirely under the control of regard. Europeans and because financial trans- We have already referred to some actions take place in Europe and not aspects of the relations between state in the Congo, it was even possible for and private business in the Rhodesias. them to withhold from the Congo The effects of dissolution of the Fed- government the revenues due it in dividends, royalties, and taxes. Against 17 A much fuller discussion of the Con- the argument that Union Miniere was go's problems will be found in the au. being forced by Tshombe to pay these thor's "The Congo: Economics, Possibility to his regime there is the fact that all for Viability'. to be published in The Pro- ceedings of the Conference on Southern Africa by The American Society of Afri- 16Joye and Lewin, op. cit. can Culture. The African Mineral Industry 163 eration and the granting of political ly, the government of Zambia, alone, independence tO Zambia and Malawi is no match for the B.S.A. with or are in the direction also of weakening without the support of the United state power relative tO supranationally Kingdom. organized "private enterprise." None The government of the Federation will doubt, I presume, that the United was, as we have seen, a fairly influen- Kingdom, in giving up political con- tial government, with control of the trol over these territories, is a weaker Railways and the Kariba Project, with state in that it loses any legal right to a sizeable army and more diversified regulate matters there. But how about sources of revenue than any of its the power of the new state of Zambia constituent territories alone. But with (Northern Rhodesia) ? that state ( the Federation) dissolved, Zambia, like the Congo and every that particular public power is gone other African state, has as a primary completely. Up tO May, 1963, the only goal economic growth. It must, then, hint of the disposition of those twO attract capital from capital-exporting important public units, the Rhodesia countries and it must foster capital Railways and the Kariba Power Proj- formation from profits of its estab- ect, is the statement by Minister lished firms. Minerals are the prime Kaunda of Zambia that he favors turn- source of wealth, and the mineral ing them over tO "private financial in- rights are held by the British South terests."19 It would be a great surprise, Africa Company. It is that stalwart of indeed, if they should be tllrned over the supranational system that grants to any private interests independent of concessions to new firms. Should the the supranational system here de- Zambian government consider nation- scribed, especially since the Railways alization of the mineral rights, a num- bonds are held by the British South ber of consequenceswould ensue. Un- Africa Company and the major users der present world conditions, western of the power from Kariba are the capital sourcesboth private and public mining companies. would dry up, unless the state paid All the evidence that is in, so far, heavily for these rights. Second, the supports our hypothesis that as politi- United Kingdom would apparently cal empires dissolve, states become take some action, for Her Majesty's weaker relative to the supranational Government in 1962, according to the mining system. late Lord Robins, assuredthe company One should take into account, finally, that it would be in a position to pro- the current trend toward relaxation of tect the company's mineral rights for trade barriers-for example, the com- another twenty-four years regardlessof mon market in Europe, and American constitutional developments.18Certain- legislation to this effect in 1962. Di- rected primarily at increasing economic activity in ,r;eneral, the reductions in 18 Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland Netllsletter, Federal Information Depart- tariffs and in national-state controls of ment, Salisbury, March 30, 1962, p. 3 : many kinds benefit especially those "The President of the British South Africa firms already organized internationally. Company, Lord Robins, said on March 22 The climate now provides legal sanc- he had been assur~,1 that the British Gov- ~rnm~nt would b~ in a position to prot~<."t tion and popular support for their his company's Northern Rhodesiall mineral supranational integration. and they, rights under the territory's new constitution, Addressing th~ company's annual meeting in London, Lord Robins said the British South Africa Company would continue to III Ke111leth KaullJa, ill pr"~~ lollf"r"lIl" own the mineral rights in Northern Rho- reported in Federation of Rhodesia and desia for a further 24 years." Nyasaland Newsletter, January 25, 1963. 164 SOCIAL PROBLEMS more than "local" firms, are in a posi- CONCLUSIONS tion tO adapt to the widening markets provJded. "Gross national product" had The Tallensi of northern Ghana already been illusory insofar as such maintained a decentralized "political" productive units as those engaged in system without sharp boundaries by the African mineral industry were con- symbolizing the "dimension" of people in one kind of leader ( na'am-Chief cerned. The corporations of this group are registered in many different states, of the Land's People) and the «dimen- and are owned and directed by persons sion" of land in another (tendaana- of diverse nationalities.2° Where one Custodian of the Earth) .21While both or another is registered, or where one have an interest in what Fortes calls or another director is citizen, has little "prospering the community," neither to do with economic facts, to which kind of leader can do so without the legalisms often bow. The societe Gen- collaboration of the other. My observa- erale de Belgique, during World War tions of the operation of the mineral II, had directors resident in both Axis industry of southern Africa suggest and Allied territories without, appar- that, at the level of socio-cultural inte- ently, any disruption of their opera- gration we are now approaching in tions. That South Africa's withdrawal the West, at any rate, national states, from the Commonwealth involved no with their territorial basis, represent change in her trade and financial ar- the "dimension" of land and people, rangements with the United Kingdom while corporations represent the "di- is also a case in point. Similarly, the mension" of capital which is not ter- politically inspired resolutions of the ritorially based. While both have an United Nations General Assembly call- interest in "prospering the communi- ing for trade boycott of South Africa ty" neither can do it alone. In such a has virtually no economic conse- system national states and supranation- al corporations would interact on quences.The supranational integration in the economic sphere tends more and something like an equal basis in a de- more to supersede the political, inter- centralized structure. national, ties or cleavages.Nations are, In order to understand the world in a very real sense, becoming more that is r!lpidly becoming industrialized interdependent. The concept of "na- we ought to consider the changing tional economy" may be an illusion ecological circumstances this indus- which must be given up if we are to trialization entails. We ought, also, to understand the new world of indus- open our minds to the possibility that cultural evolution may not have ended trial systems. with the development of st!lte institu- tions. If we organize our observations of recent history in the comparative 20 The first 107 companies on which I perspectiv~ of anthropological theory collected data of this kind were registered as follows: 49 in South Africa, 16 in we may discern some principles and Northern Rhodesia, 9 in the United King- structures, however incipient, of an dom, 7 in Belgium, 7 in Congo, 7 in the emerging new and higher level of so- United States, 5 in Southern Rhodesia, 3 ciocultural integration. In this field in Portugal, 3 in Canada, 1 in Tanganyika. These proportions should not -be over- anthropology has something to offer emphasized, however, since the system does as well as something tO learn. not have definite limits, and the observer could bias the sample. One interesting ob- servation, however, is that French com- panies seem poorly represented. Could this 21 Meyer Fortes, "T he Tallensi" in Afri. have anything to do with France's negative can Political System,r, edited by Meyer attitude toward Britain's entry into the Fortes and E. E. Eva!Ils-Pritchard, London, Common Market? 1940. Reprinted from SOCIAL PROBLEN IS. Fall 1963. Volume Number 2