African Studies Association (ASA) 2024 Annual Meeting; Chicago, IL

Conference: African Studies Association (ASA) 2024 Annual Meeting; Chicago, Illinois
December 12 – 14, 2024

Presentation: Extraction in the Name of Development: Racialized Labor and Liberianization in an American-Managed Mining Concession, 1958-1978

REPORT:

Participation in the 2024 African Studies Association conference in Chicago, Illinois provided a valuable opportunity to connect with scholars and to develop my research on the mining sector and, more broadly, Liberians’ and Americans’ interactions during the 1960s. My paper title was “Extraction in the name of Development: Racialized Labor and Liberianization in Post-World War II American-Managed Mining Concessions.” Mr. Ballah Sando, a Liberia-based researcher, has been a critical colleague during the recent oral history interview activities in Bomi and Grand Cape Mount Counties in Liberia that provided the central analytical materials considered within this paper. I owe him, and the communities that welcomed us, my deep gratitude. This research was made possible due to generous support from the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, the West African Research Association (WARA), the Institute for the Study of the Liberal Arts, the History Department of Notre Dame, and the Hoover Institution. The views expressed in my presentation and any shortcomings thereof are, of course, mine alone.

My presentation was situated within the panel “Beyond Profit – Extracting and Assessing the Scope of Violence in West Africa’s Mining Industry Part III: Labor and Globalization in African Mines.” Thanks to the dynamic organizing of Uzoamaka Nwachukwu and Vitalis Nwashindu, there was a three-part series of panels engaging with West African mining. This presentation enabled me to think through surprising findings from recent oral history research, notably that many community members evinced a nostalgia for the former mining corporations.

The discussant and audience members alike provided wide ranging feedback on how to extend my research scope and analytical depth. The panel chair, Professor Nana Abena AmoahRamey, offered a trenchant critique. As I continue thinking through the ambivalent responses I heard from residents in former mining sites in Liberia, I will also keep in mind the feedback from another attendee that it is possible for landscapes of extraction to simultaneously act as sites of harm and care. I look forward to following up on the advice to consider how racialized labor practices in Liberia compare to those of South Africa and Ghana. I will delve into the question of how historical injustices shape contemporary labor relations. A fellow graduate student encouraged me to think about the intersectional identities of the former miners with which I spoke. Advice for expanding my oral history research included the suggestion that I share archival photograph with interviewees, that I refrain from joining some interviews so that my own positionality as an American does not impact the responses, and that I layer in observation-oriented ethnography. Event organizers also included me pay careful attention to place names, to corroborate interview materials with archival materials, to examine non-governmental organization (NGO) archives, and to critically read photographs for evidence of race. I learned about additional primary source resources that I can consult, notably Claude Barnett’s papers about mining, and Griffith Davis’ historic photographs of the Bomi Hills mines, which is one of the two mining sites that I study. In light of the feedback received, I also plan to revisit foundational scholarship by Mahmood Mamdani, Ranajit Guha, Frantz Fanon, and Kwame Nkrumah.

Attendance at other panels proved equally instructive. The panels “Ecologies of  Extraction: Thinking Across Landscapes of Health, Conservation, and Mining in the Guinean Forests of Liberia” and “No National Archive, No Problem!: Doing Postcolonial Historical Research Without State Archives” were particularly relevant. Outside of the full-day sessions, I participated in academic life at the conference by attending events hosted by Kellogg, WARA, and the Emerging Scholars Network. I look forward to continuing to refine my research on mining as I delve into the broader dissertation project.