Different pathways of accumulation in mining and conservation displacements in Botswana

Abstract

Displacements of local populations for resource extraction, energy infrastructure, and conservation are a hallmark of the development state. However, differential impacts from the diverse forces of displacement, owing to their specific material, spatial, and social characteristics, are far from well understood. Southern Africa, in particular, has experienced a wide range of large-scale human displacements in its development history. Through an examination of two histories of community displacement in the Ngamiland district of Botswana, this research evaluates how different logics of development produce divergent personal experiences. The work draws on archival research and interviews with displaced people and local officials in two communities, Khwai and Toteng, that serve as representative case studies for different drivers of displacement: conservation and copper mining, respectively. Conservation displacements are frequently state-led projects while mining displacements are state-sanctioned but corporate-led. Residents of Khwai recall being transported to their current village site outside of the Moremi Game Reserve and becoming subject to conservation and wildlife tourism in the area, which has squeezed them out of leadership positions, access to land, and incorporated them into the industry. Copper mining in the region, conversely, is driven by international private investment. In Toteng, private companies have individually compensated displaced people, rather than provide them with new land. The resulting socio-economic, experiential, and socio-cultural impacts differ dramatically as a result, including increased dispersal of the community, familial tensions, and strategic land acquisitions. The results of the analysis suggest that displacements, while having a common, severely adverse impact on local communities, play out in dramatically different ways. In this case, conservation behaves (paradoxically) more within Marxist industrial models rather than mining.