Gaping Holes: Towards Multispecies Histories and Ethnographies of Mining in Southern Africa

For much of the 20th Century, industrial mining in southern Africa stood at the very forefront of modernity, where it promised progress and economic development. Yet in the present, southern Africa is bedevilled by the toxic legacy of economic collapse, societal upheaval and environmental ruin. Industrial mining has transformed southern Africa at all levels, from its flora and fauna to its water and air. Globally, it has become clear that mineral extraction, once heralded as the epitome of progress, is central to the Climate Crisis in the Anthropocene.

In this volume, the contributors acknowledge this and attempt to write histories and ethnographies of mining in southern Africa in which the human is decentred. As such, the various chapters focus on animals and plants in relation to mining, and thus show a way forward for further research in southern Africa and beyond.