Colonial Extractions: Race and Canadian Mining in Contemporary Africa

397 Pages·2015·2.953 MB·English

by  Paula Butler

COLONIAL EXTRACTIONS
Race and Canadian Mining in
Contemporary Africa
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PAULA BUTLER
Colonial Extractions
Race and Canadian Mining in
Contemporary Africa
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press 2015
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in the U.S.A.
ISBN 978-1-4426-4932-3
Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with
vegetable-based inks.
____________________________________________________________________________
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Butler, Paula, 1960–, author
Colonial extractions : race and Canadian mining in contemporary
Africa / Paula Butler.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4426-4932-3 (bound)
1. Mineral industries – Social aspects – Africa. 2. Mineral industries –
Economic aspects – Africa. 3. Mining corporations – Africa. 4. Mining
corporations – Canada. 5. Miners – Africa – Social conditions. 6. Africa –
Race relations. I. Title.
HD9506.A372B88 2015 338.2096 C2015-900426-8
____________________________________________________________________________
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the
Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support of the
Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for its
publishing activities.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Acronyms xi
1 Contemporary Canadian Mining: Colonial Continuities 3
The Canadian Global Mining Industry: A Profile 8
Methodology for Critical Social Research 14
Research Design and Ethics 15
The Scope of the Book 19
2 Theorizing Canada’s Twenty-First-Century Colonialist
Mining Project 21
Racism, Colonialism, Capitalism 22
Race in Contemporary Neoliberal Capitalism 29
The Colonial Imaginary, Colonial Subjectivities, and Narratives of
Nationhood 35
The Modern State: White Supremacist, Fascist, Neoliberal 39
Canada as a Colonialist White Supremacist State 48
Lastly … Why “Colonialist” versus “Imperialist”? 57
3 “I Hear the Rustling of Gold under My Feet”: Mining, Race,
and the Making of Canada 60
Colonial Law and Mineral Appropriation 63
The Colonial Contact Zone: Power, Treaty Negotiation, and
Resource Access 65
Settler Mining and Its Socio-legal Infrastructure 72
vi Contents
Resistance to Settler Mining 75
Mining Labour and the Production of the White Nation 78
Race, Resistance, and Mining in Contemporary Canada 80
Conclusions 83
4 “Something from Nothing”: Generating Wealth in the
Racialized Mining Economy 85
Tracking Structural Violence 86
Mineral Wealth, Inequality, and Underdevelopment: “Resource
Curse” 87
Localized Experiences of Mining-Related Structural Violence 91
How Is Mining-Related Structural Violence in Africa
Explained? 101
Does Canadian Mining Presence Develop or Underdevelop African
Countries? 107
Quantifying the Benefits: What African Mining Contributes to
Canada 113
Economic Contribution and Tax Revenues 114
Summary: How Does Canada Benefit from Canadian Mining in
African Countries? 121
Conclusion 123
5 Racial Rule: Resource Appropriation and the Rule of Law 126
Law in Critical Social Theory 127
Tracking Racially Coded Repertoires in Mining Reform Texts
and Talk 131
Reforming Mining Laws in African States 138
Bulyanhulu and the Rule of Law 146
Conclusion 159
6 Who Do We Say We Are? Narratives of Canadian Mining
Professionals in African States 162
Introduction 162
Tracing the Genealogy of the Canadian Mining Professional as a
White Neoliberal Subject 163
Canadian Mining Professionals Operating in African Countries: A
Profile 169
Introducing the Research Participants 172
Risk-Taking Explorers in Wild Lands 179
Contents vii
Good Guys, Inside a Fortress, Besieged 182
“Just Rock-Jocks” 187
Virtuous Subjects: “Doing Good Wherever We Are” 189
Canadians as “Quite Sensitive People” 191
Canadians as Culturally Sensitive 194
Canadians as Environmentally Responsible 195
Canadians Do Not Participate in Bribery or Corruption 196
Canadians as Philanthropists 199
The Callous Capitalist: Psychic Dimensions of Whiteness 202
The Stories Told: “Capital Pouring into the Country” 205
Conclusion: Performing Twenty-First-Century
Whiteness 208
7 “I Wouldn’t Glorify Them as Prospectors”: Colonial Contact
Zones and the Eradication of African “Artisanal” Miners 211
What Are “African Citizen-Miners”? 212
Why Focus on Canadian Miners’ Relationships with African
Citizen-Miners? 215
Producing the Artisanal Miner as a Subject 217
Artisanal Miner as Savage Subject 217
Eradication by Assimilation 225
Alternative Livelihoods: Refashioning African Citizen-Miners
as Poor People Requiring Development Assistance 229
Erasing the Other: Canadian Miners Encountering Autonomous
Miners in African Countries 234
The White-Out of African Miners 236
Colonization = “Thingification” 238
When Contact Becomes Confrontation 240
Distancing the Other 242
Non-Recognition: The Other as a Different Kind of Human 245
Conclusion 247
8 Refusing the “White Man’s Burden”: Investing in Colour-Blind
Mining in Post-Apartheid South Africa 250
Theorizing Racial Equality in South African Mining 251
Drafting the New South African Mining Law 253
What Was So Unusual about the South African Mining Law? 255
Anti-Racist Mining Law versus “Colour-Blind” Mining Law 259
viii Contents
Installing Colour-Blind Governance of South Africa’s Mining Sector:
Discursive Strategies Introduced 260
PDAC: Refusing the Burden of Responsibility and Redress 266
Effrontery: “You can’t just grab it from people” 268
Redeploying Colonial Binaries in the Defence of White Property
Rights 271
Canadian Miners: Guiding South Africa’s Future 279
Conclusion 281
9 Conclusion: Imagining Decolonized Relations 286
Notes 295
Bibliography 335
Index 365
Acknowledgments
This book has been a ten-year project that began as doctoral research
at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the Univer-
sity of Toronto. I wish to acknowledge with gratitude profound insights
from faculty in what was the Department of Sociology and Equity
Studies in Education, with very special thanks to Dr Sherene Razack,
who consistently supported the value of my work, and to Dr George
Dei, in whose courses I took early steps in understanding the systemic
character of racism in Canada. I also acknowledge the seminal work of
Dr Bonnie Campbell of Université du Québec à Montréal, whose writ-
ing catalysed my thinking about the Canadian global mining industry.
I wish to thank those who agreed to be interviewed for this book; all
were generous with their time and thoughts. Thanks are due to Kiri
Staples and Jonathan Alphonsus for research assistance, and to the sup-
portive colleagues at Trent University. Many thanks to staff at Univer-
sity of Toronto Press, the late Virgil Duff, Doug Hildebrand, and Anne
Laughlin, as well as to Matthew Kudelka and Ruth Pincoe for their
roles in the production of the book. Very special thanks are expressed
to three anonymous reviewers for their invaluable comments and sug-
gestions on earlier versions of the manuscript.
The questions raised in this book are grounded in my lengthy experi-
ence working in the field of “international cooperation.” Among a wide
circle of valued professional colleagues, I wish to acknowledge a num-
ber who played key roles in enhancing my appreciation of the Afri-
can continent and of relations between Canada and Africa: Kimpianga
Mahaniah, Makaniah Bita, Julia Mulaha, Louise Tappa, Omega Bula,
Jonah Katoneene, Christine Mtango, Nzeba Kalombo, Tundu Lissu, Jim
Kirkwood, Lee Holland, John Mihevc, Gary Kenny, and Denis Tougas.