The women...told how life had changed since their chief sold a tract of land to a foreign firm for a new copper mine, displacing hundreds of families. "We had a vast land and we could do anything," Seke Mwansakombe, one of the displaced women, [said]... "Here we are confined to 40 by 40 metre plots and our movements have been restricted because certain areas are now no-go areas." 

Kalumbila Minerals, a subsidiary of Canada-based First Quantum Minerals, signed a deal with Senior Chief Musele in 2011 to buy 518 square kilometres of surface rights for its...Trident Project.  As a result almost 1,000 families, most of them subsistence farmers, were relocated to Shinengene, or Southern Settlement, and to Northern Township, some 18 kms from their original village. Other villages are due for relocation soon. 

A report by global charity ActionAid, published this week, said the villagers’ displacement had marginalised the women, preventing many of them from growing their own food and limiting their access to natural resources such as forests and rivers...

The villagers, who used to live in traditional compounds with separate huts for each generation of a family, were given simple brick houses, one for each extended family, in the new settlement. Beth Lombanya, a 42-year-old mother of 10, said she found it hard to fit her family into the four-room house they were given.  "It’s not fair that this community ... got little matchboxes like this,"...said [Pamela Chisanga, the head of ActionAid Zambia].  The women, traditionally responsible for fetching water and growing and cooking food, said they found it hard to feed their families in their new village...

The community had little room to negotiate the compensation package and received a "raw deal", according to ActionAid — an allegation the mining company’s representatives dispute. "The challenge has been that people didn’t get enough information and they were misled about the kind of benefits they would have," Ms Chisanga said...

Garth Lappeman, manager of the Trident Foundation which oversaw the resettlement, rejected the residents’ complaints, saying company officials had explained all points of the agreement carefully and taken trouble to ensure the villagers would not lose out materially as a result of their move... "We had a team of people who explained the agreements to the displaced households and farmers in the local language before they signed the agreements," he [said]... "I believe people understood and they’re just claiming that they did not understand because they think this could be an argument that they could use to get additional resettlement entitlements..."

[also refers to Mopani Copper Mine (joint venture Glencore, First Quantum, ZCCM Investment Holdings]