The uneasy location of a mining camp in Kolwezi

This presentation discusses an inconveniently located mining camp in Kolwezi and the repercussions this mislocation has in the present day.

Currently called cité Gécamines, this very first labour camp was created in 1937, when the future expansion of the city seemed to be the least of the authorities’ concerns. Indeed, a comprehensive urban planning only took off from the end of the 1940s onwards, in an attempt to regroup the then scattered city that was concentrated around UMHK’s mines and plants. By that time, the mine next to the labour camp was abandoned and inundated, but the concentrator remained where it was, and so did the camp. Recently however, the mine that laid dormant for more than fifthy years was taken over by a Chinese company. The resumed mining activities cause tremors to the dwellings in cité Gécamines, and many inhabitants are forced to move to give way to the expansion of the mining industry.

Based upon archival research and ethnographic fieldwork, in this paper I present preliminary thoughts on the colonial organisation of Kolwezi’s urban environment, and how this affects the everyday lives of city dwellers today.