Calling for Justice in the Goldfields of Tanzania

Madoshi H. Makene, Jody Emel and James T. Murphy
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Madoshi H. Makene: National Environmental Management Council, Regent Estate Plot No. 29/30, P.O. Box 63154, Dar es Salaam 35091, Tanzania
Jody Emel: Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01610, USA
James T. Murphy: Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01610, USA

Resources, 2012, vol. 1, issue 1, 1-20

Abstract: Tanzania is the third largest gold exporter in Africa, thanks in part to the liberalization of the mining sector which started in the early 1990s. Neoliberal mining reforms promised a win-win situation in which government, investors and local host communities would benefit through export earnings, profits, local employment, and corporate social responsibility initiatives (e.g., the building of schools and clinics). While the rising price of gold and foreign investments in mining activities have delivered on some of these promises, many residents in mining regions have not benefited socioeconomically. Worse still, their communities have unjustly borne the brunt of the environmental, social, and public-health costs associated with large-scale mining operations. This paper examines these injustices through research in Geita and Kahama, two of the most active gold mining areas of Tanzania. Drawing on Kuehn’s [1] taxonomy of environmental injustice, we detail the negative impacts of mining activities in these communities and describe how residents have developed strategies of resistance as means to obtain reparations. We then explore the political, financial, organizational, and social limitations on these resistance strategies and argue that the social movements associated with mining lack the political space necessary to affect significant changes to structure, quality, and impact of the industry in western Tanzania.

Keywords: environmental justice; rural development; political ecology; gold mining; Tanzania (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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