Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #asauk18
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Final paper for me at the conference is our very own Matteo Grilli (postdoc @UFSweb) on the Basutoland Congress Party and its international networks.
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Grilli: The BCP was heavily influenced by the ideas of Kwame Nkrumah and George Padmore. Pan-Africanism became the ideological foundation of the party.
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Grilli: Ntsu Mokhehle (BCP leader) sent party members to Israel and Yugoslavia to learn about communal work and ownership that could be adapted to traditional forms of labour organisation in Lesotho.
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Next up is @drjustinpearce with a paper comparing wartime behaviour, peace settlements and post-war politics in #Angola and #Mozambique.
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.@drjustinpearce: If opposition parties don't have a chance of taking power, then what are they for?
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.@drjustinpearce: There were important differences between UNITA and RENAMO. UNITA had clear origins, ideology, political identity, constituency and skilled cadres. RENAMO lacked these.
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Attending the panel on Portuguese-Speaking Africa Beyond Borders this afternoon. First paper is Ana Lúcia Sá on Equatorial Guinea and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.
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Equatorial Guinea is a case of authoritarian resilience where the state has the resources to either repress or co-opt the opposition.
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Sá: The official function of the CPLP is vaguely defined and doesn't have a human rights policy that allows it to suspend member governments who commit human rights abuses.
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Second paper is from Luca Rimoldi on working-class identity among formal and informal workers at a waste dump in Dakar, Senegal.
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Rimoldi: Everyday hundreds of trucks dump waste at the site. Many informal workers who sort this rubbish and extract items are organised into officially recognised workers associations.
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Rimoldi: Rubbish items collected could be sold at different prices according to the age, gender and ethnic origin of the worker who collected it.
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Back at the #ASAUK18 conference in time to catch the final panel of the day about revisiting the making of a working class. First paper is Marco Gardini on domestic workers in Madagascar.
Gardini: The formation of a working class cannot take divorced from other forms of oppression, which, in Madagascar, includes the legacies of slavery which structures some workers experience of domestic work.
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Gardini: Local elites crushed the emancipatory potential of the abolition of slavery and reproduced similar experiences of work for the descendants of slaves. This has continued in the post-colonial period.
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Next paper is Thomas McNamara on wage negotiations and branch executives of the Mineworkers' Union of Zambia.
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McNamara: wages (adjusted for inflation) for miners in #Zambia are lower today than they were in 1971. McNamara argues that this is partly due to union branch officials persuading members to except below-inflation pay offers.
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McNamara: branch officials see themselves as distinct from the miners they represent and with separate interests. The union's governing belief is that providing services to members does more to advance their members' interests than militancy.
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Third and final Copperbelt panel now beginning in room G33 with Kristien Geenen talking about a wildcat strike at a Chinese-owned mine in Katanga.
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Geenen: the company was a joint Chinese-Congolese venture that is closely associated with President Kabila. The strike therefore had a strong political component as miners sought to capitalise on the campaigns over the much-delayed presidential elections.
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Geenen: Sicomines managers selected union delegates at the mine, so the strikers bypassed the union.
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The third paper is Francesca Pugliese on safety policy and culture in Katanga's contemporary #mining industry
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Second panel on the Copperbelt is now underway in the grand surroundings of the G33 lecture theatre next to the Great Hall. #ASAUK18
Final paper on our first panel is Mostafa Abdelaal who arrived at the conference from Zambia this morning!
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Abdelaal is examining how colonial and post-colonial authorities in Zambia and Congo attempted to plan industrial development. #ASAUK18
Second paper is Enid Guene on cultural production on the Copperbelt. She is beginning a project on the differences in the production and reception of visual arts in Congo and Zambia.
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Guene: social and cultural activities were encouraged by the mining companies to occupy the time of their workers outside work hours, and to reduce the time they spent drinking. #ASAUK18
Guene: The Zambian Copperbelt emerged as a cultural centre in Zambia partly due to the influence of Congolese painters and music.
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First paper is Iva Pesa on understandings of pollution and industrial mining on the Central African Copperbelt #ASAUK18 #mininghistory #envhist
Pesa: Mine officials were fully aware of environmental destruction caused by industrial mining from the 1930s. Imperatives of production governed response to pollution in this era.
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#ASAUK18 #mininghistory #envhist
Pesa: When the extent of environmental damage became obvious (such as when tailings dams burst) it was assumed that technological and engineering knowledge could overcome any problems that arose.
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#ASAUK18 #mininghistory #envhist
