FACULTY OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY | Seminar
Patience Mususa: Invisible Voices

Welcome to GP seminar October 6!

Patience Mususa, the Nordic Africa Institute: “Invisible Voices: Planners' Perspectives on Zambia’s Copperbelt Mining Resurgence”

Speaker

Patience Mususa, Senior Researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, Sweden, is an anthropologist studying the socio-economic, political, and environmental aspects of mining and urbanisation in Africa’s Copperbelt, particularly in Zambia. Her current work focuses on Africa’s green industrialisation and sustainable development in mining ecosystems. Patience obtained her PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cape Town. She has taught anthropology at the University of Cape Town and architecture at Copperbelt University in Zambia.

Abstract

How is a mining resurgence, driven by global demand for essential minerals required for the green transition, being handled in mining areas like the Zambian Copperbelt, Africa’s second-largest copper producer? What roles do regional and urban planners have in this process? What are their perspectives? What challenges and opportunities for the region do they identify or anticipate? Through semi-structured interviews with various stakeholders, including spatial, economic, and social planners, environmental officers, transport and mobility managers, and local politicians in seven towns of the Zambian Copperbelt in 2025, I explored these questions.

For instance, I asked how they managed land allocation for extractive and industrial purposes, as well as how they tackled environmental concerns. I also examined how they sought to address regional development issues, not only within the Copperbelt but also along transboundary transport corridors linking these mining areas to the global market, amidst a broader African initiative to transition economies from primarily extraction to manufacturing.

I point out a gap in urban governance studies in Africa, particularly concerning mining and industrial centres like the Zambian Copperbelt, to emphasise the often overlooked role of practitioners in implementing industrial policies and regional development, and how these elements interact at the intersection of local and global politics.

Welcome!