This article examines how women's increased employment in the stereotypically masculine domain of large-scale underground mining affect gender stereotypes and cultural expectations in the Zambian Copperbelt. Based on three years of ethnographic research under and above the ground, it responds to three key questions: How are women working in mining coping with their male colleagues and the underground environment? How do women miners interact with their male partners at home? What does it tell us about broader gender dynamics in the Zambian mining sector? It also shows that women's increased access to resources and valorised positions in mining has contributed to changing gender inequalities not only in mining but also in miners' families. Men are no longer ashamed of having working wives as they were in the period from the 1950s to the 1970s. For these families, economic security is a more important determinant of a man's or a woman's position than gender difference. Este artigo examina como o aumento do emprego de mulheres no domínio estereotipicamente masculino da mineração subterrânea em larga escala afeta os estereótipos de gênero e as expectativas culturais no cinturão do cobre zambiano. Com base em três anos de pesquisa etnográfica abaixo e acima do solo, o artigo responde a três perguntas principais: Como as mulheres que trabalham na mineração estão lidando com seus colegas homens e o ambiente subterrâneo? Como as mulheres mineiras interagem com seus parceiros homens em casa? O que isso nos diz sobre a dinâmica de gênero mais ampla no setor de mineração da Zâmbia? Também mostra que o aumento do acesso das mulheres a recursos e posições valorizadas na mineração tem contribuído para alterar desigualdades de gênero, não apenas na mineração, mas também nas famílias dos mineiros. Os homens não sentem mais vergonha de ter esposas que trabalham fora como se sentiam entre as décadas de 1950 e 1970. Para essas famílias, a segurança econômica é um determinante da posição de homens/mulheres mais importante do que a diferença de gênero.

This article explores the borrowing practices of Copperbelt underground miners in the context of growing debt consumption since the privatisation of the country's mining sector. It explores why Zambian mine workers borrow and how they use loans. It shows that growing debt consumption among mine workers is related to the labour practices of the privatised mining companies. The payments in kind that typically accompanied mining employment in the 20th Century, such as housing, children's education, water and electricity, have been withdrawn and meeting these costs now accounts for a significant proportion of miners' income. Employers have effectively shifted responsibility for social welfare on to their workers, who receive increasingly low wages. At the same time, mass layoffs since privatisation have placed increased pressure on miners to look after retrenched and unemployed family members, while inflation has eroded their wages. The growth of credit markets has accompanied and facilitated these transformations. For contemporary mine workers, debt consumption is an attempt to reproduce the economic, social and cultural conditions of a 'modern life', which mine workers on the Copperbelt have associated with urban living since the colonial period. They invest borrowed money in housing, in family education and in businesses. Given the rising cost of living and the increasingly precarious nature of mine employment, this 'modern life' is primarily about 'getting by' and securing a post-employment future. Miners realise that they cannot live without debt. As such, they employ various coping strategies to manage their indebtedness.

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What can music used by politicians during campaigns tell us about their behaviour, character and their rule? The article responds to this question by analysing political songs used by Patriotic Front (PF) in Zambia, before winning the 2011 elections and the subsequent elections. This article argues that music can be an important unacknowledged tool for understanding the behaviour of political leaders, and in this case, their gatekeeping behaviour that aims at sustaining the ruling party in power by undermining the opposition.

Most Africanist scholars stress the importance of clientelism in determining electoral outcomes and patrimonialism and the use of force in enabling ruling parties to prolong their stay in power. This article, which draws upon various instances of participant observation and interviews regarding the 2021 elections in Zambia, contributes to the few studies that emphasise the limits of clientelism and patrimonialism in African politics and the agency of voters or subordinate groups to hold their leaders accountable. It does so by showing how Zambian voters sought to secure benefits from clientelist campaigns, patrimonial rule and trade union campaigns to win changes in state policies, publicly promising reciprocity and loyalty when under the gaze of the ruling party actors, only to vote them out of power.