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The Journal of Modern African Studies The Journal of Modern African Studies

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Miners' magic: artisanal mining, the albino fetish and murder in Tanzania*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2010

Deborah Fahy Bryceson ,
Jesper Bosse Jønsson  and
Richard Sherrington
Deborah Fahy Bryceson*
Affiliation:
Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom
Jesper Bosse Jønsson*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Geology, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 10, 1350 København K, Denmark
Richard Sherrington*
Affiliation:
Centre for African Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3RF, United Kingdom
*
Email: dfbryceson@bryceson.net
Email: jbj@geo.ku.dkand
Email: ris23@cam.ac.uk
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Abstract

A series of murders of albinos in Tanzania's north-west mining frontier has been shrouded in a discourse of primitivism by the international and national press, sidestepping the significance of the contextual circumstances of an artisanal mining boom firmly embedded in a global commodity chain and local profit maximisation. The murders are connected to gold and diamond miners' efforts to secure lucky charms for finding minerals and protection against danger while mining. Through the concept of fetish creation, this article interrogates the agency of those involved in the murders: the miners who purchase the albino charms, the waganga healers renowned for their healing, divination and sorcery skills who prescribe and sell the charms, and the albino murder victims. The agrarian background, miners' ambitions and a clash of values comprise our starting point for understanding the victimisation of albinos.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , September 2010 , pp. 353 - 382
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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Footnotes

*

Deborah Fahy Bryceson, a sociologist/geographer and graduate of the University of Dar es Salaam, lived in Tanzania between 1971 and 1981 and has continued since then to work with University of Dar es Salaam colleagues on Tanzanian rural and urban subject matter. Jesper Bosse Jønsson, a geographer, has worked in Tanzania for ten years on rural livelihoods and unfolding developments in mining, both as an academic and NGO representative. Richard Sherrington, an anthropologist, has researched development and mining issues in Tanzania since 2000, specifically artisanal diamond mining in Mwanza and Shinyanga. We are grateful to Ray Abrahams, Simeon Mesaki and Koen Stroeken for elucidating comments during the article's preparation and to unnamed referees for their criticisms of our paper.

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