Workers in Wonderland? White Miners and the Northern Rhodesian Copperbelt, 1946–1962

Abstract

Described as a paradise for the proletariat, the Northern Rhodesian [Zambian] Copperbelt provided employment for over 7 000 white miners. Emerging from the end of the Second World War with a ‘closed shop’ agreement, the white Northern Rhodesian Mine Workers Union fought a series of battles against the Copperbelt's two major mining houses, Anglo American and the Rhodesian Selection Trust. The latter company in particular has been portrayed as having played a leading role in ending the job colour bar. Both at the time and subsequently, big business was praised for its enlightened practice of confronting white racism. Yet the issue as seen from the boardroom was that white miners were paid too much, not that black workers were paid too little. Viewed from this perspective, the economic and political struggles that engulfed the Copperbelt in the 1950s appear rather less straightforward than the simple morality play presented in much of the subject's historiography. Concentrating on the business of copper mining, this article suggests that corporate policies concerning the job colour bar were shaped by the mining industry's changing cost structure and profitability.