Undermining the urban present: Struggles over toxicity and environmental knowledge in Zambian mining cities A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Hillary Waters IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Dr. Vinay Gidwani October 2019 Ó Hillary Waters 2019 Acknowledgements Vinay Gidwani’s unending support and patience made this project possible. He encouraged me to explore all the tangents and rabbit holes of fieldwork that led to the more interesting moments within. More significantly, after I returned, he prodded me into new conceptual territory and helped me home in on the crux. His meticulous editing turned my occasionally jumbled writing into exactly what I wanted to say. I spent many intellectually formative hours with Valentine Cadieux in long chats that often started with one of us popping a head in the other’s office door just to say hello. Bruce Braun turned my attention to many of the major works that frame my argument, and Tomas Frederiksen met me in Zambia on the drop of a hat (I think the day he was returning to the UK) and gave fantastic advice on the practicalities of researching the mining industry in Zambia. Together, I am thankful for the kindness, generosity, and intellectual passion of my committee—both in their own work and in guiding mine. Being a part of the research and scholarly community in Zambia is quite honestly the highlight of everything. You all give me faith in the future. The Southern African Institute for Policy and Research (SAIPAR) played an enormous intellectual and social role for me and I am grateful for the community you have molded. Marja Hinfelaar, thank you for taking me on! Visiting Elizabeth Colson with you was a treat and emblematic of one of the things I love most about SAIPAR: your transgression of disciplinary boundaries. Jessica Achberger, thank you for your friendship and support both in Zambia and after I returned. Within the SAIPAR community, I want to specifically thank “The people who can’t decide”: Cynthia Matare, Salif Jaiteh, Lovisa Arlid, and Antonia Grönvall – I hope our lives cross again one day. Special mention should also go to Christian Straube, Hélène Blaszkiewicz, Edna Litana, Hikabwe Chipande, Duncan Money, Erin Hern, Michael Wahman, Josaphine Katoma, and Hangala Siachiwena. Citizens for a Better Environment (CBE), headed by Peter Sinkamba, is an engaged scholar organization based in Kitwe. They shared some data and helped connect me with several research assistants. I hope my work can contribute to their mission in some small way. Mwelwe Musosha is the best research partner one could ever ask for. He joined me for focus groups and helped to translate for me in the moment while staying engaged and asking questions himself. Out of sheer interest he also joined me for interviews in Mufulira. His questions, comments, and understandings deepened this work. I also worked with three other fantastic research assistants, Stallone Chishimba, Nkhatazo i Lungu, and Bright Munali. Focus groups were translated by Musosha and I—and then when we became too busy to find the time, Lunda Banda and Towela Ndhlema took over. This work could not have been done without the support of various institutions including NGOs such as Morgan Katati’s Zambian Institute for Environmental Management, ActionAid, Amnesty International, and various organizations under the umbrella of the Catholic Church. Within the government, people at the Mine Safety Department, the Zambian Environmental Management Agency, the National Archives and ZCCM-IH Archives, and local government offices were all instrumental in this work. There is a lot about ‘government’ in these pages, but there are people within the Zambian government fighting the good fight every day. And finally, there are many friends I can’t name because you also participated in this research. Thank you for hours of fascinating conversations, trips, and pushing me to think in new ways. My graduate education at the University of Minnesota was supported by assistantships from the Department of Geography; a summer of funding from the Department and pre- dissertation help from Vinay Gidwani; a Fulbright Fellowship for fieldwork; and a University of Minnesota Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship. Sara Braun and Glen Powell helped immensely with university details, requirements, funding, and all things administrative. At the last minute, Andrea Prichard answered my plea for maps—thank you for orienting my readers. Crossing paths with me at the University of Minnesota, I would not be where I am today without the talented friends and colleagues in the department. I would like to especially thank Nicki Simms, Ilona Moore, Basil Mahayni, Jake Barney, Sian Butcher, Lalit Batra, and Daniel Hawes for your friendships, especially early on. Thank you to Joe Getzoff, Kwame Adovor, Jay Bowman, Joseph Witik, Raj Reddy, Asli Erensu, Laura Matson, Kai Bosworth, Aaron Mallory, Sara Nelson, Nikhil Anand, Scott St. George, and Paula Pentel for being wonderful colleagues and friends. Larry Baker, on my committee while this was still a water quality project, provided immense support throughout my graduate journey. Special mention must go to Jessica Finlay, writing partner extraordinaire. Finally, I must thank my family for their continued support and willingness to stop asking me if I was “done yet.” Thank you, Dad, for believing in me—and for reading, discussing, and guiding me through things the whole way, starting with my graduate school application. Christine, your love, support, and abundant faith in me made completing this possible. ii Dedication To those who appear in these pages: thank you for sharing your hearts, lives, and homes with me. My biggest fear has been that I wouldn’t do you justice; I hope one day you find it. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements i Dedication iii Table of Contents iv List of images and maps viii List of AbbreViations xi Orientations xiii Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Research Questions and Argument 7 The Scene 11 Sites 16 Some housekeeping 27 Organization of Dissertation 28 Chapter 2: The biopower of ignorance: Individualizing blame for lead poisoning in Kabwe, Zambia 33 Quasi-becoming through the biopower of ignorance 36 Kabwe’s Broken Hill 40 Secrecy 44 De-politicization narratives 50 Lead is natural 50 Individual responsibility for toxic exposure 57 Chapter 3: ‘There are no facts’: Manufactured ignorance through a regulatory apparatus and seductive enumerations 69 Construction 72 Creating an apparatus 72 Seductive Enumerations 78 Simple fictions 81 iv Regulations 85 Enumerations 96 97% of [redacted] 96 Pollution (Mis)Counted 103 The experts 108 Chapter 4: “We have even stopped waiting”: Life amidst toxicity in Mufulira and Kabwe, Zambia 115 Waiting, redefined 119 Conditions 125 Waiting, Everyday 130 Ordered life 130 Active waiting 134 Furious Waiting 146 Waiting Effects 153 Suspicion 153 The dehumanization of waiting 156 Chapter 5: Kitwe’s Black Mountain: The politics and livelihoods of ruination and refiguration of mining debris 159 Interventions 164 Violence, Danger, and Disagreements 176 Not for Sale 181 Knowing how to re-mine 183 Chapter 6: ‘Senta is better than acid that is gas’: Embodied knowledge and the politics of refusal in Kankoyo, Mufulira 188 Sensed, Emplaced, Recounted: A sketch of the (em)body 193 Mopani’s Account 197 “Senta is better than acid that is gas” 200 Plantspeak 204 Sensing Senta 216 V Re-countings 218 The proof is in the wind 226 Chapter 7: Contesting claims with embodied knowledge at Mopani’s Mufulira heap leach 230 Mopani’s Heap Leaching 233 Life beside the heap 237 The first multi-stakeholder meeting 240 Contesting technical facts with embodied knowledge 248 The Gadget 252 The Survey 258 Chapter 8: “In the dark”: A conclusion 264 Bibliography 273 Appendix A: Methods 284 Interviews 284 Focus Groups 285 Mine Visits 288 Data collection 288 Note on exclusions 289 Appendix B: MOH and DMMU Report 291 vi List of Tables and Charts Table 1: Township overview ............................................................................................ 22 Table 2: Focus Groups .................................................................................................... 286 vii List of images and maps Image 1: Map of Zambia .................................................................................................. xiii Image 2: Map of Kabwe, Zambia .................................................................................... xiv Image 3:Map of Mufulira, Zambia ................................................................................... xv Image 4: Map of Kitwe, Zambia ...................................................................................... xvi Image 5: Timeline of world copper prices, Zambian production ..................................... 14 Image 6: Welcome to Mufulira, a place of abundance ..................................................... 17 Image 7: Kankoyo, Mufulira ............................................................................................. 19 Image 8: Butondo, Mufulira ............................................................................................. 21 Image 9: Lack of vegetation in Kankoyo .......................................................................... 23 Image 10: Children playing in Chowa .............................................................................. 26 Image 11: Lead in Kabwe's soil .......................................................................................