Duncan Money
@mininghistory.bsky.social
Historian and consultant. I work on mining, labour, migration and Southern Africa. More on https://duncan.money Contact: duncanmoneyhistory@proton.me
What Did Africans Know About The Outside World? In 1852, the explorer Heinrich Barth met Africans in Baghirmi (Chad) who had visited Basra (Iraq), read the works of Aristotle and Plato, and were as inquisitive about Europe as he was about Africa. www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/what-did-a...
'Never a theoretician, Iliffe was a man of the field, analysing all that he saw and experienced. His work was regarded internationally as the model of what engaged research should be, in a way that would be difficult to sustain today.' #Skystorians
John Iliffe obituary
Pioneering historian who transformed the study of Africa by seeking out the testimonies of Africans
theguardian.com
I read unrelated fiction as a break from the day job but there's no getting away from it. The book is about a journalist and jazz musician in 1950s West Africa and then we get to chapter 8.
The IMF database of historical Kwacha-US dollar exchange rates is randomly rebased in July 1972 so it looks like the Kwacha fell by 1000% against the dollar overnight. Why would they do this??
🪙 Today my FWF project "Another Side of the Coin" begins at the University of Vienna. Over three years I'll trace how the Maria Theresa thaler, a silver coin still struck long after the empress died, circulated across the Western Indian Ocean (1753–1970), and why it lasted so long.
Google Earth's historical satellite view is an amazing research tool. Here's the much-contested and dangerous Rubaya Mine in eastern Congo in 2010 and 2025:
Why was a Māori sweet potato introduced to Nigeria - and what can it tell us about the nature of colonial rule? In the first of our posts for Black History Month, James Akpu explores the global history of the kūmara.
Botanical Imperialism and the Making of Cragg's Kūmara
Why was a Māori sweet potato introduced to Nigeria - and what can it tell us about the nature of colonial rule? James Akpu explores the global history of the kūmara.
historyworkshop.org.uk
Hey everyone, I currently have availability for freelance writing, researching, and/or teaching work between now and the end of the calendar year. Please see this document for further details, and share with anyone else who you think might be interested.
AVAILABILITY FOR WORK
Hello everyone, This is just a notice to say I'm available for freelance paid work in the following areas until the end of 2026: WRITING: Whether for academic or public-facing audiences, in the areas ...
linkedin.com
Routine reports sometimes show the sheer horror of what it was like working in South Africa's gold mines in the recent past. Here, miners were coming up a shaft after finishing a shift when a dead body hit their cage with enough force to bend the metal doors.
Tonight I’ll be recording the first interview about my new book, An Injury to All: The Unmaking of the British Working Class. Wish me luck!
Google earth has updated its satellite images of Gaza. The destruction is almost incomprehensible.
The Textile Industry of pre-colonial Southern Nigeria (c.1500-1900) From Yorubaland and Benin to Nupe and Igboland. www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/the-textil...
The Textile Industry of pre-colonial Southern Nigeria (c.1500-1900)
From Yorubaland and Benin to Nupe and Igboland.
africanhistoryextra.com
No mining history cluster. Why do I even use this site.
Jaz@jaz.sh · last wk.Okay so I've built a new Atlas, this time it lets you explore the conversations on Bluesky over the past 7 days graphically. It should update every ~6 hours and help you navigate the information environment that exists on here. I've learned a LOT about what people do here today... atlas.jazco.dev
📢 New Article! How did disease shape African experiences of WWI? Mazimba examines multi-morbidity among African porters in Northern Rhodesia, focusing on dysentery, bubonic plague and jiggers, and the healthcare responses developed by affected communities. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Historic England outsourced their digital image provision to a third-party company. Then the company went bust and now all their images are inaccessible. Tell me again how outsourcing to the private sector is sustainable?
Tim Daw@timdaw.bsky.social · last wk.Historic England vanishing archive - details of why it is broken : www.sarsen.org/2026/09/hist...
Five years ago, I set up a monthly writing group bringing together people writing about Southern Africa. I don't have as much time to attend these days but today is the 50th session. We wrote this when it had been running for a year: www.ascleiden.nl/content/ascl...
Getting Things ‘Write’: Constructive Criticism, Confidence and Community in the Southern Africa Writing Group | African Studies Centre Leiden
What is a writing group? Why should you bother finding out? Since March 2021, the Collaborative Research Group Patterns of Living in Southern Africa has convened a small writing group to give particip...
ascleiden.nl
This is such a sorry & infuriating tale. Via @davidpetts1.bsky.social from another place. www.sarsen.org/2026/09/hist...
Mining Magazine argues my report is "a compelling challenge to Anglo American's position that it is not responsible for the devastating lead pollution that blights the Zambian town of Kabwe." www.miningmagazine.com/safety/news-...
Anglo's Kabwe role challenged in new report
A new report written by mining historian Duncan Money for Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) presents a compelling challenge to Anglo American's position that it is not responsible for the devastating lead pollution that blights the Zambian town of Kabwe.Kabwe, home to more than 300,000 people, is one of the world's most polluted towns. It grew in close proximity to the Broken Hill lead and zinc mine and smelter, which began extraction in 1904 and closed in 1994.Anglo American denies responsibility for the pollution, claiming it was only ever involved as an indirect minority shareholder that provided certain technical services to the mine. It claims it at no stage owned or operated the mine.Money found internal company records in a Zambian archive that appear to show that the mine operated as a direct subsidiary of Anglo American, taking orders directly from the then Johannesburg-based miner.
miningmagazine.com
Duncan Money@mininghistory.bsky.social · last wk.The question of responsibility for historic mining pollution can be an extremely difficult and contested one. In a new report for @actsa-uk.bsky.social, I use archive research to examine Anglo American's role in mining in Kabwe, one of the world's most polluted towns: actsa.org/new-report-h...
The question of responsibility for historic mining pollution can be an extremely difficult and contested one. In a new report for @actsa-uk.bsky.social, I use archive research to examine Anglo American's role in mining in Kabwe, one of the world's most polluted towns: actsa.org/new-report-h...
actsa.org
The question of responsibility for historic mining pollution can be an extremely difficult and contested one. In a new report for @actsa-uk.bsky.social, I use archive research to examine Anglo American's role in mining in Kabwe, one of the world's most polluted towns: actsa.org/new-report-h...
actsa.org
Crucial caveat: 'I should clarify here that the major debates in historical scholarship have nothing really to do with “solving problems” or “disproving theorems” — again, history is just fundamentally different from math or physics in this way.'
Lynn Cherny@arnicas.bsky.social · last wk.Benjamin Breen on using Opus/Astra to work on alchemical and occult codes, as well as other unsolved historic cyphers resobscura.substack.com/p/ai-labs-ne...
I'm quoted in this African Business Magazine article about Zambia's copper boom: african.business/2026/09/reso...
Can Zambia make the most of the copper boom? - African Business
Mineral resources including copper are the defining economic question of Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema’s second term.
african.business
🚨🚨New article available online! 🚨🚨 "The advisers of independence: Transitional mineral rights and tax regimes in Zambia, 1963–1965" By Ingeborg Guldal Read the full article here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The advisers of independence: Transitional mineral rights and tax regimes in Zambia, 1963–1965
Zambia has throughout most of its colonial and post-colonial history been dependent on income from copper exports. In the colonial era, however, royalty charges on copper production went to the Bri...
tandfonline.com
The launch of ACTSA’s new report, UNDENIABLE: Anglo American’s role in the Kabwe sacrifice zone, is happening now. If you weren’t able to join us on Zoom, you can still watch the conversation live on Facebook. Watch now: 🔗https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Dk9uiiV1w/ #JusticeForKabwe
Sad news. MacKenzie was a masterful historian of many fields, including the history of Southern Africa. This was informed by personal experience. He grew up on the Zambian Copperbelt where his father was clerk of works in the colonial government.
Alan Lester@alanlester.bsky.social · 2w agoJohn M MacKenzie, the founding editor of the Manchester University Press Studies in Inperialism series that i have the honour of co-editing, has sadly passed away. Our tributes here: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2026/09...
Happening in an hour! I'll be joining community advocate Lydia Moyo and environmental lawyer Walker Syachalinga to talk about the evidence and the implications of the report. Still time to register: bit.ly/UNDENIABLE_K...
Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA)@actsa-uk.bsky.social · 2w agoKABWE | Read the report UNDENIABLE: Anglo American’s role in the Kabwe Sacrifice Zone. Read on ACTSA’s website: 🔗https://bit.ly/the-kabwe-sacrifice Join the launch conversation, 23 September at 11:00 (GMT+1) / 12:00 (SAST). Register: bit.ly/UNDENIABLE_K... #JusticeForKabwe
KABWE | Read the report UNDENIABLE: Anglo American’s role in the Kabwe Sacrifice Zone. Read on ACTSA’s website: 🔗https://bit.ly/the-kabwe-sacrifice Join the launch conversation, 23 September at 11:00 (GMT+1) / 12:00 (SAST). Register: bit.ly/UNDENIABLE_K... #JusticeForKabwe
