Environmental racism and holding polluters to account: lead contamination in Kabwe

Kabwe, Zambia, is one of the world’s most toxic towns. 140,000 women and children are taking mining giant Anglo American to court in South Africa for decades of toxic lead contamination that leave children especially with serious and irreversible health issues.

ACTSA – Action for Southern Africa – are supporting this campaign and were joined on 31 October by Barry Mulimba, community leader in Kabwe, to hear from him alongside Zainab Rahim, Hamza Hamouchene and Andy Whitmore. The panel covered the context of the lead pollution in Kabwe, Anglo American’s colonial history and human rights record, and the wider context of colonial extractivism and sacrifice zones.

Barry Mulimba is a resident and community leader in Kabwe. Barry is an expert on the situation in Kabwe and has been involved in the lead poisoning class action lawsuit against Anglo American South Africa (AASA) as a community facilitator since 2018.
Zainab Rahim joined RAID in 2020, a corporate watchdog which holds companies to account for human rights and environmental harms. She has an MA in Postcolonial Culture & Global Policy and her dissertation focused on the slow ecological violence and access to justice in the Kabwe lead poisoning case.
Dr Hamza Hamouchene is the North Africa Programme Coordinator at the Transnational Institute (TNI), and a founding member of Environmental Justice North Africa (EJNA). His most recent book is Dismantling Green Colonialism Energy and Climate Justice in the Arab Region.
Andy Whitmore is a researcher specialising in extractive industries and has worked on issues of mining and affected communities since the 1980s. He is co-chair, trustee and founding member of London Mining Network, and was founding editor and managing editor of Mines and Communities website.

For more on the campaign, check out our campaign page here or contact us at [email protected]