The Mining Ordinance of Northern Rhodesia: A Legislative History 1924–1958

Shirley Zabel's account of the genesis of the Gold Coast Marriage Ordinance of 1884, published elsewhere in this Journal, demonstrates how much a legislative history can teach us about the way in which colonial law-makers went about tackling the formidable problems which had to be faced in what were still the early stages of modern British administration in West Africa. It is proposed in this article to turn to colonial Zambia and to look at the very different field of mining legislation, concentrating on the middle and later period of colonial rule before and after the Second World War. Compared with the early days in West Africa, bureaucratic techniques had been refined and communications greatly improved. This did not always lead to speed in the legislative process. Zabel has shown that the Gold Coast Ordinance was six years in the making; the Northern Rhodesia Mining Ordinance had a gestation period, including several miscarriages, of no less than thirty years prior to its enactment in 1958, despite the admitted need in the 1920s to replace obsolete legislation dating from the days of British South Africa Company rule. The span of time involved, however, has advantages for the legal historian—an opportunity to examine in relation to a single ordinance the colonial legislative process and the forces which, over an extended period, affected the shaping of a vital piece of legislation. It is hoped also that the fruits of this examination will serve as a useful background to studies of modern Zambian mining law.