CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
by Mawutodzi K.Abissath, Ghana, September 1998
THEME = SOCIAL CONDIT.
Ghana is a land of gold! In fact when the first Europeans set foot on Ghana, they were astonished to see ordinary people using gold ornaments to decorate most parts of their body - necks, ears, waists, knees, ankles, wrists, fingers, toes, etc. Gold was really nothing to the people of this small West African country. This explains why the Europeans who first settled in this part of Africa, called it the "Gold Coast". When the country finally gained its independent from Britain, it was renamed "Ghana" by its first president, Kwame Nkrumah.
Today, even though Ghana is still a major gold producer (coming after South Africa), the sight of ordinary people decorating themselves with gold ornaments is a thing of the past. Now it's a story of a people who, although blessed with precious natural mineral resources, are having to battle with foreign exploiters to earn a living. There are several gold mining towns and villages in Ghana but I've chosen one to epitomize a situation prevailing not only in Ghana, but in other African countries as well.
Tarkwa is a small hilly-gold mining town about 165 km west of Accra, the capital of Ghana. Gold has been mined in Tarkwa since time immemorial. Today, there are eight foreign gold mining companies in Tarkwa using sophisticated mining techniques, plus a number of small-scale traditional mining operations popularly known as "Galamsey", which means in pidgin English, "get it and sell". In other words, "getting gold and selling it at once".
Normally the good citizens of such a town, blessed with an abundance of natural mineral resources, should have been fabulously rich. But such is not the case. The local people of Tarkwa have come to realise, perhaps too late, that the richer their foreign mining counterparts get, the poorer they become. This state of affairs is gradually but steadily causing bad blood between the foreign mining companies and the local people.
In June 1998, the traditional rulers of Tarkwa and its surrounding areas, staged a peaceful demonstration, by marching through the principal streets of the town. They intended to symbolically lodge a protest against the operations of mining companies in their area. The local people are concerned by the environmental havoc caused by the mining companies' activities. According to the community leaders, all rivers, streams and wells which are the only source of drinking water, have been polluted by the mining. The chiefs politely called on the authorities responsible for environmental protection, to take immediate steps to address their concerns or they would do it themselves.
Four months later, on 26 September 1998, a national weekly, the Weekly Spectator carried a feature story entitled: "Communities at war with mining companies". According to the report, Adu-Amankwas, a paramount chief, (or, to give him his full local title - Omanhene Nana Kwandon Brempong II of Wassa Fiase Traditional Area), organised a public forum not only for the people of Tarkwa, but also for other communities in his jurisdiction. The aim was to give them the opportunity of airing their views, and if necessary, to express their disgust at the destructive activities of the mining companies.
The paramount chief himself complained bitterly that for many years, the mining companies had taken over their land. Their area used to be one of the leading food producers in the region, now they could not produce enough to feed themselves. He said the price of basic food items was so exorbitant, that ordinary citizens could not afford to buy. Chief Brempong lamented: "Our gold has made them rich, but look at us! Look at our town, see how bad our roads are; see how miserable our hospital looks like, and worst of all, go to our market place and see how expensive food is. These foreign mining companies have rendered us paupers in our own land. Why?"
Others representatives at the public forum also spoke their minds. Speaker after speaker painted grim pictures of the miserable and horrible conditions in which the poor of this rich land were forced to live.
Paa Kwesi, a forty year old representative from Akontasi, one of the affected communities, narrated the sad story of a pregnant woman who lost her life (her unborn child also died), because she could not walk the 15 kms from her native village to Tarkwa town, to deliver in a hospital there. This was because one of the gold mining companies, Tarkwa Goldfields, was alleged to have blocked a highway, claiming that part of land was the company's concession. So, no vehicle was allowed to ply that road.
Another villager from Budu Wangana spoke harshly about the unbearable economic situation the mining companies had plunged them into. He said: "We pay ten thousand cedis (about five US dollars), to travel to Tarkwa to buy just a gallon of petrol because of a road diversion made by the Tarkwa Goldfields. We don't have a school, or a cemetery, and worst of all, they have taken away our land, so we can't farm. Not a single person from our village has been employed to work in the mines".
Two weeks later, the Ghana Chambers of Mines, an organisation responsible for the coordination of the mining companies in Ghana, also organised a forum to react against the concerns expressed by the local Tarkwa people. This forum was patronized by high government officials - the same people who failed to honour an invitation to attend the "people's forum".
The foreign mining companies refuted most of the accusations levelled against them as "baseless and unfounded". Mr.Glyn Lewis, General Manager of Goldfields Ghana Limited, was reported to have stated that they had fulfilled all requirements expected of them by the law of the land, adding that they had done nothing wrong against the local people. He said: "We have spent about about two million US dollars to compensate and relocate people, plus a further 12 million dollars for a new settlement site at Atoaho for people displaced because of mining activities.
Residents in the mining communities remained unimpressed by the General Manager's figures. They insisted that the mode of determining compensation was fraught with injustices. They complained that the relocation and the resettlement had disorganised their cultural and social life. For instance, Madam Akosua, a 47 year-old concerned woman, lamented that the compensation scheme was organised in such a way, that those who opted for relocation, were given money to leave their communities; and those who opted for resettlement were provided accommodation in other communities. She said: "The consequences are, that once the young people have collected their money for relocation, they leave and never return. The sad result is that only the sick and aged are left in the village with nobody to care for them.".
The fact is - their leaders' policies have condemned ordinary Africans to live virtually as paupers in the midst of abundant mineral and other natural resources. When will they receive their true rights?
END
CONTENTS | ANB-BIA HOMEPAGE | WEEKLY NEWS
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