The Colonial Legacies of Copper Dependence: Inequality and Bifurcated Social Protection in Zambia

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter argues that colonial legacies influence social protection systems in Africa until the present. It focusses on Zambia where the dependence on copper exports has shaped not only social questions since independence but also the state’s ability to respond to them. It explains how the concentration of economic activity along the so-called Line of Rail has created a centre–periphery divide that spilled over into the unequal ability of citizens to exercise voice, as well as a bifurcated social protection system, where demand-driven social insurance exists in the centres, while supply-driven social assistance targets the peripheries. In the new millennium, the latter have been significantly expanded but this does not address the underlying economic structure that continues to limit the social policy capacity of the state.