Dr James Musonda

Just Energy Transition Senior Researcher

Dr James Musonda

Dr James Musonda is the Senior Researcher on the Just Energy Transition at the IEJ. He is also the Principal Investigator for the Just Energy Transition: Localisation, Decent Work, SMMEs, and Sustainable Livelihoods project, covering South Africa, Ghana, and Kenya.
James is a double award winner from reputable international journals. He was recently awarded the Ruth First Prize for the best article published by an African author in Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE) in 2023 for his article, “He Who Laughs Last Laughs the Loudest: The 2021 Donchi-Kubeba (Don’t Tell) Elections in Zambia” (Issue 175). He also won the 2021 Terence Ranger Prize from the Journal of Southern African Studies for the best article by a first-time author, for his piece “Modernity on Credit: The Experience of Underground Miners on the Zambian Copperbelt.”
In 2020, his article “Undermining Gender: Women Mine Workers at the Rock Face in a Zambian Underground Mine” (Anthropology Southern Africa, 43(1), 32-42) was featured in Anthropology Southern Africa’s centenary celebrations. He is also the author of the recent article “Double Precarisation of Labour and Social Reproduction: Zambian Mineworkers’ Experience of Electricity Pricing” (Global Labour Journal, 15.3, 2024).
James holds a PhD from the University of Liège. His doctoral research drew on ethnographic work among mineworkers in two mining communities, as well as his own experience working as a helper in two underground mines on the Zambian Copperbelt.

Email: james.musonda@iej.org.za