Paper details

Paper authors	Marie-Rose Bashwira
In panel on	Precarity and Debt: The Vicissitudes of Credit and “Upliftment” in Asia and Africa
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

Debt issues have been long discussed already in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but mostly in to micro-credit schemes, for example for poor women. In the mining sector, it has been stated that the sector is a poverty driven and has put people in a cycle of debt. This article takes a specific line of approach to debt, by linking it unfree working conditions, and lives, of many women working in the gold mining sector in South Kivu mining. The main concern of this study is the everyday lives and livelihoods strategies of women’s miners, those at the very low level of the extractive industry, while mining environment undergoes continuous changes as a result of reform initiatives. It is argued that actors in the sectors need to evolve in a climate which basic human rights are not guaranteed or protected so that production and trade of mineral may be fully conducted in a more sustainable manner. Taking Kamituga and Luhwindja as case studies, the research have made over six months of extensive qualitative methods among other observations, individuals’ interviews and focus groups. The research found out that debt has a social meaning in the mining communities and can be related to relation between different genders. Moreover, when considering the specific category of women at the bottom of the supply chain, the research discovered that they are going under multiple physical and economic exploitation which tend to push them into more debt without any exit option.

Back