This book is a pacesetter in the study of mining and the environment in
Africa from multidisciplinary and spatio-temporal perspectives. The book
approaches mining from the perspectives of law, politics, archaeology,
anthropology, African studies, geography, human ecology, sociology,
history, economics and development. It interrogates mining and
environment from the perspectives of customary law as well as from the
perspectives of modern Euro-law. The book covers precolonial, colonial
and postcolonial mining and environmental perspectives. It maintains a
Pan-Africanist perspective that also speaks to contemporary debates on
African Renaissance and to the unity of Africa. From scrutinising the
lived realities of African miners who are often referred to as "illegal"
miners, the book also interrogates transnational mining corporations;
matters of corporate social responsibility as well as matters of tax
evasion by transnational corporations whose accountability to African
governments is questioned. With both theoretical chapters and chapters
based on empirical studies of mining and the environment across the
African continent, the book provides a much needed holistic, one stop
shop for scholars, activists, researchers and policy makers who need a
comprehensive treatise on African mining and the environment.
With both theoretical chapters and chapter based on empirical studies on
mining and the environment across the African continent, the book
provides a much needed holistic, one stop shop for scholars, activists,
researchers and policy makers who need a comprehensive treatise on
African mining and the environment. The book comes at the right time
when matters of African mining and environment are increasingly coming
to the fore in the light of discourses about the new 21st century
scramble for African resources, in which big transnational corporations
and nations are jostling to suck Africa dry in their race to control
planetary resources. It is a book that speaks to contemporary broader
issues of (de-)coloniality and transformation of African minds and
African environmental resources.
