Africa’s mining industry should be careful to ensure its future isn’t history.

In the periods known as ancient and modern history – humankind’s recorded history

from about 300 BC – mining in Africa holds many highlights. We’ll recount just a

few below.

In the 2nd century CE, the East African kingdom of Aksum, spanning present-day

Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Djibouti, became the first African state to produce and

mint metal coins. In Phalaborwa, South Africa, archaeologists discovered probably

the earliest sub-Saharan mine gallery or shaft, dated to 770 CE. Azurite and

malachite copper derivatives were mined then; in 1965 the precise site was opened as

an open-pit copper mine, and is still operational, although now only underground.

For centuries from the late-1200s onwards the economies of a number of Akan

states, including the Adanse, Bono Manso, Denkyira and Wassa tribes in what is now

Ghana, were based on mining and trading gold. This endeavour – artisanal and

small-scale gold mining – is still practised by an estimated one million Ghanaians,

whose output accounted for an astonishing 35% of the country’s total production in

2020.

At what point did this kind of activity scale? Sadly, the correlation is to colonialism,

in particular the “scramble for Africa” – the term for the 19 th - and early 20 th -century

European powers’ unilateral and often hostile acquisition of African lands.

A backdrop of mixed legacy

Until diamond and gold discoveries in 1867 and 1886 respectively, southern Africa

was sparsely populated and the subcontinent had an almost entirely agrarian

economy. Within 30 years Johannesburg became the centre of the world’s largest

mining enterprise. The capitalist quest for further discoveries spawned giant

corporations such as De Beers, Anglo American and Gold Fields. Simultaneously, the

political quest for empire’s expansion led especially Britain, but also Belgium,

France, Germany and Portugal to colonise swathes of territory north of

Johannesburg, including North and South Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe),

Angola, the Congo, Mozambique, South West Africa (now Namibia), and Ubangi-

Shari (now Central African Republic).

In more ways than one, mining is in African’s blood. The Witwatersrand gold rush,

and then the copper rush in Zambia and the Congo region in the early 20 th century,

were often brutal in terms of their consequences for indigenous peoples. Lands were

stolen; labour was always underpaid – and sometimes coerced. Traditional

community structures were often irreparably damaged, and mining operations

harmed the surrounding natural environments and habitats.

As one example, between 1910 and 1960 a cumulative five million migrant labourers

were railed from Sul do Save in Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique) to the

Witwatersrand’s coal and gold mines. “African labour was recruited out of site,

delivered to the industrial centres invisibly, then made to disappear into the darkness

of the underground workings of the mines before being smuggled back home, also

unseen, in the middle of the night,” writes the social historian Charles van Onselen in

his book The Night Trains. His concluding question is, “What did the railway to the

Rand ever do for ordinary men and women in southern Mozambique?”

The same question can be asked of other regions of the subcontinent, and Africa as a

whole, during the colonial period. This background contextualises why many African

countries nationalised their mining industries after gaining independence. Zambia,

for instance, in 1969 legislated a 51% stake in all mines, enacted through a state

entity, the Mining Development Corporation. These were efforts by African nations

to benefit more substantively from their mineral resources – essentially, to

compensate for decades of colonial policies that exploited local labour and remitted

profits to Europe.

However, different kinds of challenges then arose, including an exodus of expertise

and capital, instances of mismanagement – especially in times of commodity price

falls – and corruption. Continuing with the example of Zambia, the government,

realising that thousands of jobs had been lost annually, scrapped nationalisation as a

blanket policy in 1996.

The third article in the series will expand on today’s challenges, as African leaders

and the mining industry seek to maximise their gains from the continent’s resources.

Will the mining industry take heed of its history on the continent? Look out for the third

article in which we’ll draw some conclusions.

In the meantime please share your comments, or email me directly at [email protected]