Before the Rise of the Modern Copperbelt

About the Book

In Zambia, the history of industrial and commercial mining is over 115 years. The earlier period, from 1900 to 1920, is least known. It is ignored, passed over, or referred to in passing by academics and non-academics. The earlier period forms the building blocks on which the later more successful mining enterprise in the mid-1920s was anchored. This study looks at this period and discusses the beginning of mining enterprises from the beginning. Colonial rule began with the British South Africa Company, administering the two territories acquiring mining the Barotse concessions in North-Western Rhodesia, followed by an assortment of treaties with a number African chiefs in North-Eastern Rhodesia. As the country did not have geological maps, mineral deposits had to be found by amateur prospectors employed by a number of mining companies. With this support, prospectors fanned parts of the country, looking for valuable and economically exploitable minerals deposits in various parts of the country. Copper deposits were dominant. Some deposits located on sites of ancient mines in the Kafue Hook, Kansanshi, and Bwana Mkubwa were pegged with the help of African chiefs and citizens as guides. Others, such as the zinc and lead found at Broken Hill mine and the Sassare gold in Petauke, were found by sheer luck and chance.

About the Author

The author is a graduate of the Universities of Zambia in Lusaka (1974), Wisconsin at Madison, USA (1976, 1981) and Uppsala, Sweden (1994). He has taught at the University of Zambia 1974 –1997, 2005 - to the present. As a member of staff at the University of Zambia from 1974 to 1997, he served in many positions as Head of Department, Dean of the School of Education, Director of the Institute of Human Relations and Research and Graduate Studies He was also a visiting scholar at Miami University, oxford, Ohio), in United States of America(1984 to 1985); Cape Town (1991) and Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa(1993); Chancellor College, Malawi (1995) the several universities in the USA, South Africa, Malawi, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Burundi, Madagascar and France. History He was also a recipient of many awards. Between1997 to 2000, he taught at the University of Namibia as Professor and Head of the Department of History. Between September 2000 and March 2005, he served as Zambia’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative at the United Nations, New York and was non -resident Ambassador to the Republic of Cuba, and nonresident High Commissioner to Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Guyana and other English-speaking Commonwealth countries in the West Indies. Currently, he is Professor of History at the University of Zambia. He has done extensive research and published widely on in political, economic, social, health, veterinary, and environmental issues in Eastern and Southern Africa.