1 option
Diamonds in the rough : corporate paternalism and African professionalism on the mines of colonial Angola, 1917-1975 / Todd Cleveland.
Lippincott Library HD9677.A542 C55 2015
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Cleveland, Todd, author.
- Series:
- New African histories series
- New African histories
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Diamond industry and trade--Angola.
- Diamond industry and trade.
- Diamond mines and mining--Angola.
- Diamond mines and mining.
- Diamond miners--Angola--Social conditions.
- Diamond miners.
- Social conditions.
- Angola.
- Physical Description:
- xv, 289 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, 2015.
- Summary:
- In Diamonds in the Rough, Todd Cleveland upends monolithic conceptions of mining life in Africa. He explores the lives of African laborers on the mines of the Diamond Company of Angola, or Diamang, from 1917 to the colony's independence from Portugal in 1975. After a tumultuous initial period, the company's mines experienced a remarkable degree of stability, in striking contrast to the labor unrest and ethnic conflicts that flared in other mining settings on the continent. The fellowship that pervaded Diamang's encampments challenges notions of these spaces as inherently violent and socially acrimonious. Cleveland brings together a wealth of oral and documentary material to reframe our understanding not only of life in the mines but also of the laborers themselves as active participants who were able to negotiate life at Diamang on their own terms. The contrast between the harshness of the colonial labor regime elsewhere and the relatively agreeable conditions and employee professionalism at Diamang opens up new ways of thinking about how Africans in colonial contexts engaged with forced labor, mining capital, and, ultimately, each other. Book jacket.
- Contents:
- An introduction to Angola's diamond past : paternalism, professionalism, and place
- A bountiful place : the political economy of Lunda, 1870-1975
- The recruitment process, 1921-75
- A group effort : the collaborative process of diamond extraction, 1917-75
- Negotiating stability : laborers' work-site strategies, 1922-75
- Eventful evenings : life after the whistle blew, 1925-75
- To stay or to leave : the end of the labor contract, 1921-75.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-282) and index.
- ISBN:
- 9780821421352
- 0821421352
- 9780821421345
- 0821421344
- 0821445219
- 9780821445211
- OCLC:
- 895302038
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.