Date of Award
5-11-2025
Date Published
June 2025
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
African American Studies
Advisor(s)
Horace Campbell
Keywords
Artisanal and Small Scale Miners;Gold;Politics of Gold Mining;Tanzania
Subject Categories
African American Studies | Arts and Humanities | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies
Abstract
This study investigates the politics of Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM) in 21st-century Tanzania, focusing on the organization of miners towards access to key resources, namely land, capital, markets, geological information, technology, and examining environmental degradation, health, and safety concerns affecting miners and surrounding communities. Grounded in historical and dialectical materialism, the research traces ASGM’s evolution from the pre-colonial period through colonial exclusions, post-independence reforms, and neoliberal restructuring. The study employs qualitative methods, including interviews, field observations, and document analysis, conducted over two months across key mining sites in Tanzania. Findings reveal that ASGM is shaped by systemic exclusion, class stratification, and contradictions in state and corporate mining policies that prioritize large-scale mining operations over ASGM. Furthermore, the findings indicate the persistent environmental problems that affect miners, communities in mining vicinities, and the natural environment. This contradicts the livelihoods proposition associated with ASGM operations in Tanzania and elsewhere. Moreover, ASGM remains marginalized within legal frameworks and policy implementation thus affecting their operation and flourishing. The research highlights the potential of cooperatives as a transformative model for empowering ASGM miners, enhancing collective access to resources, promoting environmental sustainability, and facilitating bottom-up policy influence. The study contributes to debates on resource control, labor, and economic equity and equality, advocating for people-centered mining reforms that integrate ASGM into national transformation strategies and Pan-African visions of resource sovereignty, self-reliance, and total economic self-determination in the continent and Global Africa.
Access
Open Access
Recommended Citation
Kabamanya, Eliud Atugonza, "THE POLITICS OF ARTISANAL AND SMALL-SCALE GOLD MINING (ASGM) IN TANZANIA IN THE 21ST CENTURY." (2025). Theses - ALL. 951.
https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/951
