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'Soon there will be no-one left to take the corpses to the morgue': Accumulation and abjection in Ghana's mining communities

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  • Bush, Ray

Abstract

This article argues that Ghana's galamsey or artisanal miners offer a strategy of resistance to state mining policy and foreign company operations. Galamsey provide significant injections of sustained income to local communities and clamping down on their activities is at best short sighted and at worst a strategy that promotes community abjection. The article reviews the experience of two communities in the Wassa West District of Ghana and especially the changing livelihoods of female headed households since the Government of Ghana has restricted the activities of the galamsey.

Suggested Citation

  • Bush, Ray, 2009. "'Soon there will be no-one left to take the corpses to the morgue': Accumulation and abjection in Ghana's mining communities," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1-2), pages 57-63.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:34:y:2009:i:1-2:p:57-63
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Banchirigah, Sadia Mohammed, 2008. "Challenges with eradicating illegal mining in Ghana: A perspective from the grassroots," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 29-38, March.
    2. Yakovleva, Natalia, 2007. "Perspectives on female participation in artisanal and small-scale mining: A case study of Birim North District of Ghana," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-2), pages 29-41.
    3. Gavin Hilson & Clive Potter, 2003. "Why Is Illegal Gold Mining Activity so Ubiquitous in Rural Ghana?," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 15(2‐3), pages 237-270.
    4. Gavin Hilson & Sadia Mohammed Banchirigah, 2009. "Are Alternative Livelihood Projects Alleviating Poverty in Mining Communities? Experiences from Ghana," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(2), pages 172-196.
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    Cited by:

    1. Slack, Keith, 2012. "Mission impossible?: Adopting a CSR-based business model for extractive industries in developing countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 179-184.
    2. Mtero, Farai, 2017. "Rural livelihoods, large-scale mining and agrarian change in Mapela, Limpopo, South Africa," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 190-200.
    3. Bester, Vidette, 2022. "A corporate social responsibility conceptual framework to address artisanal gold mining in South Africa," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    4. Gabriel Botchwey & Michael Nest & Riccardo D'Emidio, 2023. "Working with legal small‐scale miners: Implications for development," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(6), pages 1239-1253, August.
    5. Van Bockstael, Steven, 2019. "Land grabbing “from below”? Illicit artisanal gold mining and access to land in post-conflict Côte d’Ivoire," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 904-914.
    6. Frederick Armah & Isaac Luginaah & Justice Odoi, 2013. "Artisanal small-scale mining and mercury pollution in Ghana: a critical examination of a messy minerals and gold mining policy," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 3(4), pages 381-390, December.
    7. Radley, Ben, 2020. "A distributional analysis of artisanal and industrial wage levels and expenditure in the Congolese mining sector," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 106512, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Kilosho Buraye, Janvier & Stoop, Nik & Verpoorten, Marijke, 2017. "Defusing the social minefield of gold sites in Kamituga, South Kivu. From legal pluralism to the re-making of institutions?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 356-368.
    9. Abdul-Gafaru Abdulai, 2017. "Competitive clientelism and the political economy of mining in Ghana," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series esid-078-17, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    10. Amoako, Kwame Oduro & Lord, Beverley R. & Dixon, Keith, 2021. "Narrative accounting for mining in Ghana: An old defence against a new threat?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    11. Yakovleva, Natalia & Vazquez-Brust, Diego Alfonso, 2018. "Multinational mining enterprises and artisanal small-scale miners: From confrontation to cooperation," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 52-62.
    12. Eduful, Michael & Alsharif, Kamal & Eduful, Alexander & Acheampong, Michael & Eduful, Joyce & Mazumder, Lubana, 2020. "The Illegal Artisanal and Small-scale mining (Galamsey) ‘Menace’ in Ghana: Is Military-Style Approach the Answer?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    13. Geenen, Sara, 2014. "Dispossession, displacement and resistance: Artisanal miners in a gold concession in South-Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 90-99.
    14. Henry Adobor, 2023. "Contested concept, competing narratives, and coercive policy intervention: A study of government intervention in the illegal artisanal mining sector in Ghana," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(7), pages 1814-1832, October.

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