Artisanal Mines, Governance and Historical Generations in the Congo Copperbelt By Timothy Mwangeka Makori A thesis submitted to conform with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto © Copyright by Timothy Makori 2019 Artisanal Mines, Governance and Historical Generations in the Congo Copperbelt Timothy Mwangeka Makori Doctor of Philosophy Department of Anthropology University of Toronto 2019 Abstract What insights about social change emerge when we analyze the liberalized present as a temporal period comprised of a palimpsest of generational experiences, recursive elements and residual layers of the past? This thesis is a response to this question through a look at the Congolese mining sector from the perspective of individuals who are often marginalized by it or rendered less visible due to a popular emphasis on the intractable problems of the Congolese state, transnational mining corporations, and the on-going violence in Eastern Congo. The subjects of my inquiry are artisanal miners, customary authorities, state agents working in the artisanal mining sector, retrenched pensioners, and mineworkers’ families. Analyzing how the recently instituted liberalized regime of mining is given form through the interaction between a diverse range of social groups is intended to elucidate the distinctiveness of the (neo)liberalized present relative to the regimes of mining it purportedly replaced. To be precise, I am referring to pre-colonial modes of resource extraction and, their successor, the Belgian colonial regime of mining that was inherited and maintained after Congolese independence. ii Interrogating how the dynamics of mining in existence today are qualitatively different to the past is an attempt to analyze social change by comparing the dynamics of the present with the succession of political topographies governing mining in the past. Understanding how the various regimes of mining succeed, overlap and compare with one another allows this study to ask: how post-colonial is the present in the Congo Copperbelt? In doing so, this research contributes to other scholarly attempts aimed at understanding the structural continuities and discontinuities that define how the global economic order differentially impacts resource-rich countries like the Congo. I demostrate that the contemporary unfolding of late capitalism in the Congo Copperbelt is a complex mix of different durées that overlap in the lives of miners, local authorities and residents revealing the unfinished nature of the colonial encounter. What this signifies in the now-liberalized Congo Copperbelt is that for a wide range of actors in the resource extraction sector, there has been negligible substantive social change in society. iii Acknowledgements This thesis is a labour of love. So many people have helped make it possible starting with my Congolese family. My deepest thanks go to my host family and their children, who invited me to their home in Likasi and provided me with the support necessary to undertake key aspects of my work. Their care, attention and friendship made research in Congo not only possible but also enjoyable and, at times, very memorable. I am profoundly grateful to Mama Kyungu who, sadly, passed away a few years ago. She was my emotional pillar during difficult days of fieldwork, a source of deep insights about life in Congo, a witty and absolutely wonderful human being. May she rest in peace. Her husband, Papa Kyungu, offered me a place to stay and introduced me to key figures in the mining sector in Likasi as well as his relatives and friends. Without his help, fieldwork in the Gécamines neighbourhoods in Likasi would have been impossible. Wafwako Papa! His children, Pascale, Benoit, Didier, Kizito, Gabrielle and Gilbert made my stay in Lubumbashi and Likasi comfortable and also exciting. Special thanks go to Didier for introducing me to his parents and to Kizito for accompanying me to the mines and to many of my interviews with customary authorities. In Likasi, I owe immense gratitude to Vieux Kakompe, the artist, for providing me with valuable information about the monuments in the city. I would also like to thank Papa Kafusha, a living library of knowledge about Katanga and the Basanga people. It was he who navigated me through the intricacies of Sanga migrations, settlement, and traditions through the personal history of his father and grandfather—forming the basis of the data in chapter one of the thesis. Papa Kafusha was also instrumental in providing me with the contacts of iv knowledgeable elders and balopwe in the Sanga community. I also owe a big thanks to my research assistants, one of whom worked in the Gécamines office in Panda commune and the other in the EMAK office in Likasi, their help in the early stages of research allowed me to identify, interview and follow up with informants. The confidence I gained from them allowed me to continue working in the artisanal mines and in the neighbourhoods of Likasi for many more months. In Kilobe mine, I would like to appreciate the friendship, chauffeur skills, endless demands and valuable insights offered to me by my creuseur informants and friends, most notably, Francis, Jules, and Stino. Aksanti sana! Research in Congo would not be possible without the academic support of Professor Dibwe dia Mwembu at the University of Lubumbashi. I wish to thank Prof. Dibwe for his mentorship, assistance with documents and permits and encouragement during my fieldwork. His immense wealth of scholarship about the history of Congo has been important in shaping my thinking about how to understand the dynamics of the liberalized present in Katanga. I also wish to thank Dr. Aime Kakudji, Dr. Olivier Kahola and Pascale Kakudji for sharing their wealth of knowledge, and also for always picking me up from the airport and making my stays in Lubumbashi interesting and insightful. I wish to remember Gulda el Magambo and Ralph at the Halle de l’étoile, who introduced me to many impressive photographers and artists in Lubumbashi. Thank you to Kedrik and Christian Mushayuma for giving me a place to stay in Lubumbashi, for good company and enduring friendship. Special thank you to Mama Yvette at the guest house, for introducing me to her daughter, Yvette, who helped me find a place to stay in Likasi. v In Belgium, I would like to thank Prof. Benjamin Rubbers for accepting to meet me in Likasi in 2009 and introducing me to some of his informants in Panda commune. His contacts and extensive knowledge about the political economy of Central Africa continue to influence my thinking about the region. In the Netherlands, huge thanks go to family Dingemans, for supporting this research in cash and in kind throughout the years. I remain in your debt and truly appreciate all your support. Joop and Toos deserve extra special appreciation for accommodating me in their home during different stages of the writing and providing me with delicious food, knitted sweaters, a warm bed, sober advice and many lessons in Dutch language. To my people in the 416, a massive thanks must first go to my fellow strugglers in the journey to gain professional accreditation. My brothers; Wesley Oakes, Nathan Okonta, and Walter Ojok-Acii, thank you for being there when it really matters and being an endless source of intellectual emotional, physical and material support. Vivian Solana, Columba Gonzalez and Jacob Nerenberg, I will always be grateful for all the hours you lost sifting for meaning in my sentences, I will always be thankful for your kindness, your patience and constant desire to help me make this thesis the best it could be under conditions beyond my control. Your friendship and cutting-edge ideas continue to inspire me. Fellow friends, Lameck Zingano, Chris Little, Anna Kruglova, Dylan Gordon, Behzad Sarmadi, Asli Zengin, Secil Dagtas, Hollis Moore, Kate Rice, Laura Sikstrom, Jenny van der Aar, Rastko Cvekic, Aaron Kappeler, Jaby Matthew, Ozlem Aslan and Hulya Arik have all contributed to shaping my ideas, ethics and approach to knowledge production and I wish to recognize their brilliance and thank them for it. vi Faculty at University of Toronto and elsewhere have shaped my scholarship and left indelible marks in this thesis. First and foremost, I wish to thank Todd Sanders and Janice Boddy, my thesis supervisors, for suffering through many previous versions of this work. It is because of their meticulous attention to my writing, their determination to question my presumptions, their demand to sharpen my analyses, nuance my arguments and clarify my claims, that this research study took form and was ultimately completed. This thesis bears their imprint and I will always be grateful to them for both their academic and personal support. Nashukuru sana. Others at the University of Toronto who mentored, taught and inspired me include Michael Lambek, Girish Daswani, Katie Kilroy, Valentina Napolitano, Naisargi Dave, Andrea Muehlebach, Tania Li, David Turner, Marieme Lo, Julie MacArthur and Dickson Eyoh. I also wish to thank Stuart Kirsch at University of Michigan for inviting me to a workshop on artisanal mining, Elizabeth Povinelli for her Masterclass on intimacy at the University of Toronto, and Franco Barchiesi at Ohio university for sharing an unpublished manuscript. Finally, I wish to thank my family in Kenya for suffering and smiling in my long-continued absence. My mother for her worries, prayers and love. And, to my wife, the mother of my twins, ik hou van jou, it is obvious that none of this would have been possible without your unwavering support over the years. I dedicate this to you and our two diamonds, may they one day come to know the Congo in all of its wonder and majesty! vii Table of Contents ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................... II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................. IV LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................... X MAP OF (FORMER) PROVINCE OF KATANGA.