Wider family in post-privatisation Zambia

Abstract

This article traces the economic and social dynamics animating kin-like relations amongst workers on the Zambian Copperbelt, their implications in everyday life and broader conceptions of family they engender. The article argues that the ability of mineworkers’ families to cope with the deteriorating economic situation that accompanied the privatisation of the mines in Zambia has, besides their close family members, the house and the union, rested on their ability to craft and maintain kin-like social relationships in the workplace and in their communities. This article draws on ethnographic fieldwork in the underground mines and mineworkers’ families conducted in 2015, between 2016 and 2021 and for a short period in 2023.