THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF TRANSITION ON THE ZAMBIAN COPPERBELT - ANOTHER VIEW

Zambia has long been recognised as one of the most urbanised countries in Africa. The major theme in the social scientific study of the coun try since the development of the Copperbelt in the late 1920s has been the relationship between the towns and the rural areas. This has been the subject of academic and political debate for over 60 years and ha s stimulated a number of important works by economists, social anthrop ologists, political scientists and historians. James Ferguson, a socia l anthropologist, recently attempted in a lengthy two part article in this journal to survey the literature on this topic. The present artic le takes issue with his contention that the labour history of the Copp erbelt has been dominated by a 'modernist narrative' in which 'progres sive' scholars have sought to 'disengage the study of urban life an th e Copperbelt from its rural attachments', and have seen the transition to urban permanence and proletarianisation as both inevitable and des irable. It argues that since Austin Robinson's contribution to Merle D avis's Modern Industry and the African Published in 1933 at the low po int of the depression, the cyclical rather than the progressive view o f history has dominated interpretations of Copperbelt history. None of the major writers from Godfrey Wilson to Robert Bates subscribed to t he 'modernist narrative'. None of them seriously denied the maintenanc e of rural-urban links. It was only in the early 1970s, following the rapid growth of 'squatter' settlements, and in the context of alarm ab out a widening rural-urban income gap, and of hostility towards the to wns and townspeople, that 'progressive' scholars, such as Jaap van Vel sen and Jack Simons, made specific pleas for a more sympathetic approa ch to urbanisation. The real continuity in the historiography of trans ition on the Zambian Copperbelt lies not in the denial of rural-urban links, but in a continuing pre-occupation with the rural-urban terms o f trade, and with the danger of 'over-urbanisation'. This article also takes issue with Ferguson's plea for an 'Afrocentric' approach, and s tresses the advantages of universal comparisons.