Event Date
Sub-Saharan African countries rich in oil and minerals have tended to experience the “resource curse”, with the notable exception of Botswana. The resource curse, or “paradox of plenty” refers to the adverse political, economic, and social outcomes associated with the presence of natural resource wealth, such as political violence, economic instability, and social unrest. At its core, the ‘resource curse’ is, in fact the product of a complex interaction of factors, primarily the histories of colonial rule and extraction, domestic configurations of power, and unequal relationships between the resource rich countries’ governments and multinational corporations at the forefront of resource extraction. It was thus unprecedented and highly significant that Tanzania’s former President, John Magufuli successfully held global gold mining company, Barrick Gold accountable for tax evasion, under-invoicing and corruption in 2017, which resulted in the government slapping Barrick with historic fines of up to $190 billion, and dismissal of Tanzania’s public officials and company executives. In theory, this increased the value that Tanzanians would realize from the gold sector through stamping out corruption and increasing the revenue accruing to the government from the gold sector. Using the political settlements theoretical approach, this paper analyses this very important case study, and evaluates the extent to which this example of “resource nationalism” resolves the resource curse, and whether it provides lessons that other resource rich African countries seeking to maximize their earnings from natural resources and support initiatives that improve human livelihoods could adopt.
https://ucdavis.zoom.us/j/97804214025?pwd=VmtnNkNKSUJKYlRDTHhtazFsNTE0UT09
Meeting ID: 978 0421 4025
Passcode: 233692
For more information please contact: jjperdez@ucdavis.edu
Event sponsored by Extractive Pasts & Hollowed Futures Series, DHI