Nuclear (Geo)political ecologies: A hybrid geography of Chinese investment in Namibia’s uranium sector

Abstract

Namibia’s Husab uranium mine is the Chinese government’s largest investment in Africa to date. This article develops a theoretical framework of hybridity to analyse the (geo)political and ecological implications of China’s rising global influence in uranium mining. Drawing on multiple-methods fieldwork, the article explains how Husab has resuscitated Namibia’s uranium industry and facilitated the political goals of both Chinese and Namibian leaders. Husab’s materialisation of “South–South solidarity,” however, also appears to be deepening the marginalisation of minority communities near uranium mines. Far from paradoxical, this uneven distribution of benefits and costs is as intertwined with nuclear geopolitics as it is with the materiality of uranium mining.