Women in mining worlds : a socio-environmental history of women in artisanal gold mining in Zimbabwe, with specific reference to Mazowe District, c. 1932 to 2021

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dc.contributor.advisorSwart, Sandraen_ZA
dc.contributor.advisorSwart, Sandra Scotten_ZA
dc.contributor.authorShaba, Jabulanien_ZA
dc.contributor.otherStellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of History.en_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2024-03-04T13:22:51Z
dc.date.accessioned2024-04-26T22:03:28Z
dc.date.available2024-03-04T13:22:51Z
dc.date.available2024-04-26T22:03:28Z
dc.date.issued2024-03
dc.descriptionThesis (DPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2024.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis examines the socio-environmental history of women in Artisanal Gold Mining (AGM) in Zimbabwe with specific reference to Mazowe, between 1932 and 2021. Using Carlo Ginzburg’s micro-history approach and drawing from the Feminist Political Economy theory, this study joins the growing yet still nascent, scholarship on resource extraction, women, and labour in southern Africa. By examining changes and continuities in the gold mining sector, relying on new evidence from oral interviews, archival data, newspapers, mining reports, international policy reports and secondary literature, the thesis explores the changing roles of women in mining and across ancillary activities such as vending and sex work. Shifting from scholarship that emphasizes the dominant role of politics and patronage, the political economy, and illegality in AGM, this thesis makes a historiographical turn by relating stories of women in mining settlements within the broader context of survival and livelihoods. It demonstrates that women are central to the matrix of capital accumulation, shape artisanal mining life worlds and deftly navigate patriarchy and masculinity. Starting in 1932 with the rise of the white women miners of Rhodesia, the thesis shows how women contributed to gold outputs. The study expands Zimbabwean scholarship on women and the colonial economy by adding women’s participation and voices in the historiography of resource extraction. The period between 1932 and the late 1970s provides a critical historical context to understand dynamics that shaped women’s participation in AGM in the postcolonial period. It demonstrates that white women mine owners benefitted from class, connections, and capital – fundamental aspects that were critical in navigating Zimbabwe’s postcolonial AGM sector. The thesis demonstrates how women shifted from being labourers to gold pit sponsors and entrepreneurs in the post-2000 period. It analyses how they benefitted from local technologies, their networks, how they learnt new skills, tapped into the ritual world in expanding their business enterprises. The thesis engages with how women deployed local knowledges in negotiating toxic mining landscapes. The study explores critical periods in Zimbabwean history such as the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP), the Fast Track Land Reform Programme, (FTLRP), the period of Operation Chikorokoza Chapera, (No more illegal gold mining), dollarization and the Covid-19 era to understand women’s lived experiences in localities of resource extraction. Overall, the thesis offers an analysis on rethinking mining labour and livelihoods in Zimbabwe, Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.en_ZA
dc.description.abstractAFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis ondersoek die sosio-omgewingsgeskiedenis van vroue in ambagsmatige goudontginning in Zimbabwe met spesifieke verwysing na Mazowe, tussen 1932 en 2021. Deur gebruik te maak van Carlo Ginzburg se mikro mikro-geskiedkundige benadering en die Feministi ese Politieke Ekonomiese teorie, sluit hierdie studie aan by die groeiende, tog ontluikende navorsing omtrent hulpbron ontginning, vroue en arbeid in Suider Suider-Afrika. Deur die veranderinge en kontinuïteite in die goudmyn sektor te ondersoek, op nuwe bewyse van mondelinge onderhoude, argief data, koerante, mynverslae, internasionale beleidsverslae en sekondêre literatuur staat te maak, verken hierdie tesis die veranderende rolle van vroue in mynbou en bykomende aktiwiteite soos smous -en sekswerk. Deur weg te beweeg van vakkundigheid wat slegs fokus op die dominante rol van politiek en patronaatskap, die politieke ekonomie en die onwettigheid van die ambagsmatige goudontginning, maak hierdie tesis ‘n historiografiese wending deur verhale van vroue in myn neders ettings binne die breër konteks van oorlewing en lewensbestaan in verband te bring. Deur te begin in 1932 met die toename van wit vroue mynwerkers in Rhodesië, bewys hierdie tesis hoe vroue bygedra het tot die goud uitsette. Hierdie studie brei dus Zimbabwiese navorsing op vroue en die koloniale ekonomie uit deur vroue se deelname en stemme in die historiografie van hulpbron ontginning by te voeg. Die tydperk tussen 1932 en die laat 1970’s bied ‘n kritiese historiese konteks om te help verstaan wat die dina mika van vroue se deelname in die ambagsmatige goudontginning in die postpost-koloniale tydperk help vorm het. Dit demonstreer dat wit vroue myn eienaars baat gevind het by klas, konneksies en kapitaal – fundamentele aspekte wat krities was in die navigering van Zimbabwe se post post-koloniale ambagsmatige goudontginning goudontginning- sektor. Hierdie tesis wys hoe vroue in die post post-2000’s van arbeiders na goudput borge en entrepreneurs beweeg het. Dit analiseer hoe hulle baat gevind het by volkstaal tegnologieë, hul netwerke en hoe hulle nuwe vaardighede aangeleer het en by die rituele wêreld ingeskakel het deur hul sakeondernemings uit te brei. Hierdie tesis handel oor hoe vroue volkstaal kennis gebruik het om sodoende in giftige myn landskappe te kon onderhandel. Dié studie ver ken die kritieke periodes in Zimbabwe se geskiedenis soos die Ekonomiese Strukturele Aanpassingsprogram (ESAP), die Fast Track grondhervormingsprogram (FTLRP), die periode van die Operasie Chikorokoza Chapera (niks meer onwettige goudmyning), dollarisering en die Covid Covid-19 era om vroue se geleefde ervaringe in plekke van hulpbron ontginning te verstaan. In algeheel, lewer hierdie tesis die analise oor hoe vroue bygedra het tot hulle landelike lewensbestaan en neem deel in die arbeidsprosesse wat hul kwesbaarheid en vatbaarheid tot giftige chemikalieë en geweld beklemtoon het.af_ZA
dc.description.versionDoctoralen_ZA
dc.format.extentxiv, 203 pages : illustrations, includes annexureen_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttps://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/130560
dc.language.isoen_ZA
dc.publisherStellenbosch : Stellenbosch Universityen_ZA
dc.rights.holderStellenbosch Universityen_ZA
dc.subject.lcshWomen gold miners -- Zimbabwe -- Social conditionsen_ZA
dc.subject.lcshWomen miners -- Zimbabwe -- Economic conditionsen_ZA
dc.subject.lcshGold mines and mining -- Environmental aspects -- Zimbabween_ZA
dc.subject.lcshGold mines and mining -- Mazowe Rural District (Zimbabwe) -- Historyen_ZA
dc.subject.nameUCTD
dc.titleWomen in mining worlds : a socio-environmental history of women in artisanal gold mining in Zimbabwe, with specific reference to Mazowe District, c. 1932 to 2021en_ZA
dc.typeThesisen_ZA
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