Papers presented by Kondwani Happy Ngoma since 2019
2024 Providence, Rhode Island
"Black Power and White Capital: The Price of Symbolic Compliance and the Crisis of Legitimacy During Decolonisation in Northern Rhodesia, 1961-1964"
Kondwani Ngoma, University of Gothenburg
Abstract:
This paper studies the contestations and bargaining that led to the largest property rights from a firm to a state. It uses the case of the British South Africa Company (BSAC) to show the role and importance of legitimacy in state and business relations. It examines how and why the company lost the mineral rights it had held throughout the colonial era in Northern Rhodesia (present day Zambia). The case focuses on the interaction between three actors – the BSAC, the British Government, and Northern Rhodesia Government - during decolonisation in the copper rich state. The three actors facilitate a multilevel examination of legitimacy. It shows how African political power and ascendency – through the Northern Rhodesia Government - challenged the legitimacy of the mineral rights of the BSAC. The mineral rights had for decades been de facto and then de jure recognised by the British Government. This was despite the Company´s original claims lacking sufficient basis in treaties of concession. Decolonisation brought to the fore the symbolic compliance with the rule of law that had led to legitimisation. The paper shows how this impinged on the standing of the British Government and company. Thus, this paper shows the long-term effects of corporate legitimacy that is premised on tenets that are inconsistent with the rule of law and have low acceptance in the host society.
Keywords:
colonialism
diplomacy
multinationals
risk