This article explores the borrowing practices of Copperbelt underground miners in the context of growing debt consumption since the privatisation of the country’s mining sector. It explores why Zambian mine workers borrow and how they use loans. It shows that growing debt consumption among mine workers is related to the labour practices of the privatised mining companies. The payments in kind that typically accompanied mining employment in the 20th Century, such as housing, children’s education, water and electricity, have been withdrawn and meeting these costs now accounts for a significant proportion of miners’ income. Employers have effectively shifted responsibility for social welfare on to their workers, who receive increasingly low wages. At the same time, mass layoffs since privatisation have placed increased pressure on miners to look after retrenched and unemployed family members, while inflation has eroded their wages. The growth of credit markets has accompanied and facilitated these transformations. For contemporary mine workers, debt consumption is an attempt to reproduce the economic, social and cultural conditions of a ‘modern life’, which mine workers on the Copperbelt have associated with urban living since the colonial period. They invest borrowed money in housing, in family education and in businesses. Given the rising cost of living and the increasingly precarious nature of mine employment, this ‘modern life’ is primarily about ‘getting by’ and securing a post-employment future. Miners realise that they cannot live without debt. As such, they employ various coping strategies to manage their indebtedness.

本文探讨了自该国采矿业私有化以来债务消费不断增长的背景下 Copperbelt 地下矿工的借贷行为。它探讨了赞比亚矿工借款的原因以及他们如何使用贷款。这表明矿工不断增长的债务消费与私有化矿业公司的劳动实践有关。20 世纪通常伴随矿业就业的实物支付，如住房、儿童教育、水电等，已被撤回，支付这些费用现在占矿工收入的很大一部分。雇主有效地将社会福利的责任转移到了工资越来越低的工人身上。同时，自私有化以来的大规模裁员给矿工带来了更大的压力，他们需要照顾被裁员和失业的家庭成员，而通货膨胀已经侵蚀了他们的工资。信贷市场的增长伴随并促进了这些转变。对于当代的矿工来说，债务消费是试图重现“现代生活”的经济、社会和文化条件，自殖民时期以来，铜带上的矿工就将这些条件与城市生活联系起来。他们将借来的钱投资于住房、家庭教育和企业。鉴于生活成本不断上升以及矿山就业越来越不稳定，这种“现代生活”主要是关于“过日子”并确保就业后的未来。矿工们意识到他们不能没有债务。因此，