The Colour of Class Revisited: Four Decades of Postcolonialism in Zambia*

Ethnographic revisits have become an increasing practice in the social sciences, designed to advance the understanding of history through the linking of micro processes and societal structures. In this article I revisit my study of Zambianisation on the Copperbelt, conducted between 1968 and 1972. The methodology of the extended case method is used first to re-present the original study and then to reassess it critically in terms of what has happened over the last 40 years. Four types of revisit are considered: revisit as refutation of the original study, revisit as an approach to historical change, revisit as comparative analysis, and revisit as reconstructing social theory. My reassessment relies on other studies of the Zambian mines, but also on ethnographic research I conducted in the US, Hungary and Russia during the same 40-year period.