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 British South Africa Company, controversially recognized as the owner of mineral rights until independence in 1964. Taxation policies to incentivise increased copper production also became a point of contention, as royalties added to relatively high production costs on the Zambian Copperbelt. This article studies the role of experts and visiting advisers in discussions and strategies relating to mineral rights and mining taxation for the colonial and post-colonial Zambian governments from 1963 to 1965. Drawing on findings from the personal papers of Michael Faber, a key adviser to settling the mineral rights question, this article finds that experts significantly impacted mineral rights strategies in the last colonial and the transitional governments. Reliance on visiting advisers became more fragmented after independence, however, as Zambian politicians sought to distance themselves from foreign interests, although the need to engage economic and copper industry experts remained. The Zambian mineral rights issue and the role of advisers during decolonization offers insights into the increasing emphasis on natural resource-fuelled development and national sovereignty in the 1960s.