SubsidieMeestersEnvironmental Histories of Resource Extraction in Africa: Understanding Cultural and Political Responses to Environmental Transformation
AFREXTRACT analyzes human responses to environmental changes caused by resource extraction in Africa through case studies, cultural expressions, and a new analytical framework for broader discussions.
Projectdetails
Introduction
Resource extraction industries have propelled environmental transformation across Africa, most notably between 1950 and 2020. The undeniably dramatic effects of mining and oil drilling on landscapes and lifeworlds have elicited radically divergent cultural and political responses, from apparent acquiescence to violent protest and accusations of ecocide.
Research Gap
Yet the nature of the relationship between environmental change and human response in African localities remains extremely poorly conceptualised. AFREXTRACT addresses this gap by analysing how various actors in three emblematic sites - the Witwatersrand, the Copperbelt, and the Niger Delta - have experienced and responded to environmental change.
Study Significance
The first study to investigate this comprehensively and comparatively, AFREXTRACT demonstrates that insights from environmental history, political ecology, and environmental humanities are crucial to topical debates about coloniality/decoloniality and the Anthropocene.
Objectives
Our main objectives are:
- To identify the causal factors informing human response to environmental transformation through three in-depth case studies (gold mining in South Africa; copper mining in Zambia; oil drilling in Nigeria).
- To analyse how cultural expression (specifically literature and music) has made sense of environmental change.
- To conceptualise varieties of environmentalism beyond a binary of resistance and resignation.
Methodology
AFREXTRACT will combine archival research with oral history, literary analysis, and ethnomusicology to document changing values regarding the environment. A new analytical framework will facilitate engagement with global discussions about extractivism, colonialism/postcolonialism, environmental inequality, and climate change.
Conclusion
As resource extraction and its toxic legacies are set to continue, a historical understanding of these issues is imperative.
Financiële details & Tijdlijn
Financiële details
| Subsidiebedrag | € 1.498.778 |
| Totale projectbegroting | € 1.498.778 |
Tijdlijn
| Startdatum | 1-9-2022 |
| Einddatum | 31-8-2027 |
| Subsidiejaar | 2022 |
Partners & Locaties
Projectpartners
- RIJKSUNIVERSITEIT GRONINGENpenvoerder
Land(en)
Vergelijkbare projecten binnen European Research Council
| Project | Regeling | Bedrag | Jaar | Actie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Resource spirits: An interactionist approach to animism and extractivism in Southeast AsiaThis project employs long-term ethnographic research across Southeast Asia to explore the interactions between animism and extractivism, revealing how both influence human-environment relations. | ERC Consolid... | € 1.981.951 | 2025 | Details |
Foraging, Fishing and Hunting as Agency in Colonial Central Africa (c. 1885 - c. 1960)FORAGENCY investigates indigenous strategies in colonial Central Africa, focusing on foraging and trade practices to resist colonial encroachment and develop a new conceptual framework on indigenous ecologies. | ERC Starting... | € 1.497.190 | 2023 | Details |
Artisanal Mines, Economic Development and Social ImpactThe ArtiMinDev project aims to map artisanal and small-scale mining in sub-Saharan Africa using machine learning and satellite data to assess its economic, social, and environmental impacts. | ERC Consolid... | € 1.522.748 | 2024 | Details |
An Ecological History of Eurasian Art: Natural Resources, Aesthetic Practices, and Early Modern GlobalizationECOART aims to reframe art history through the lens of ecological interconnections by analyzing early modern artworks as repositories of environmental knowledge across Eurasia's Global South. | ERC Consolid... | € 1.999.336 | 2024 | Details |
Recovering Global Exchanges from Sub-Saharan Africa's Cultural and Political Magazines in the Age of Black Internationalism, 1918-68AFROPRESS aims to recover and analyze the global impact of Sub-Saharan Africa's cultural and political magazines (1918-68) to enhance understanding of their role in decolonization and international networks. | ERC Starting... | € 1.497.659 | 2025 | Details |
Resource spirits: An interactionist approach to animism and extractivism in Southeast Asia
This project employs long-term ethnographic research across Southeast Asia to explore the interactions between animism and extractivism, revealing how both influence human-environment relations.
Foraging, Fishing and Hunting as Agency in Colonial Central Africa (c. 1885 - c. 1960)
FORAGENCY investigates indigenous strategies in colonial Central Africa, focusing on foraging and trade practices to resist colonial encroachment and develop a new conceptual framework on indigenous ecologies.
Artisanal Mines, Economic Development and Social Impact
The ArtiMinDev project aims to map artisanal and small-scale mining in sub-Saharan Africa using machine learning and satellite data to assess its economic, social, and environmental impacts.
An Ecological History of Eurasian Art: Natural Resources, Aesthetic Practices, and Early Modern Globalization
ECOART aims to reframe art history through the lens of ecological interconnections by analyzing early modern artworks as repositories of environmental knowledge across Eurasia's Global South.
Recovering Global Exchanges from Sub-Saharan Africa's Cultural and Political Magazines in the Age of Black Internationalism, 1918-68
AFROPRESS aims to recover and analyze the global impact of Sub-Saharan Africa's cultural and political magazines (1918-68) to enhance understanding of their role in decolonization and international networks.