A Copperbelt Laborer's Lifeworld: On Female Miners and Miners' Wives, Miners' Consumption of Arts and Assumption of Labor Rights

A welter of scholarly books and articles homed in on labor the mining industry in the Copperbelt, both in colonial and postindependent times (among many others, Perrings, Higginston, Ferguson, Rubbers, Larmer and Dibwe). To offer additional insights, this panel goes down in scale and takes the worker and his or her relatives, and their life experiences, as a focal point. Against a backdrop of gargantuan companies such as ZCCM or UMHK/Gécamines, this panel considers the worker as the driving force behind mining production and as such opens up space for alternative views. As such, the panelists offer novel ways to reflect upon the energies of the individual laborer and relatives. Various approaches to the worker are possible. A first one concerns the female worker. Recently, female miners appeared in the – mainly masculine – sector, and panelists explore if their entrée affected the authority of the man as head of family, or as mineworker. Secondly, the panel explores patterns of consumption within the miner’s ‘personal sphere,’ with a particular focus on artistic production in the Copperbelts. Thirdly, the panel considers the unionized worker: How does the disgruntled worker show disapproval of dismal labor conditions? Does he perceive a union delegation as a high-powered tool or as a spent force? Finally, the panelists take the wives of the worker into consideration too: How does working in the mining sector affect family life? How do family members deal with the company disciplinary code in daily experiences? What about the influence of the church upon miners’ wives? Through these core themes, the panel gauges the lifeworld of the Copperbelt worker and next of kin, both in past and in present.