‘C’était bien à l’Époque’: Work and Leisure among Retrenched Mineworkers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Abstract

This article discusses the significance of work and leisure in (post)colonial Lubumbashi as it emerges from the narratives of ex-workers of the Union Minière du Haut-Katanga (UMHK) and its successor, Gécamines. In the ex-mineworkers’ narratives, kazi (work) refers to a period when employment stood for prosperity, reflected in material benefits such as housing, food, wages, healthcare provision, education, prestige and, not least, leisure activities. The ex-mineworkers in question are members of the Collectif des ex-agents de la Gécamines, who all lost their jobs in 2003 in a deal with the World Bank to save the run-down company. Following a severe and sustained economic decline in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which began before the workers lost their jobs and continued for a long time after, the ex-mineworkers speak of this work life and of the attendant leisure activities with an immense nostalgia for an ‘object of loss’. This article examines the narratives of loss of income and the subsequent radical redefinition of leisure–which is also seen as a loss–paying particular attention to the ways in which the ex-mineworkers link these matters to notions of masculinity.