The Price of Gold
Communities Uniting to Defend their Rights
"This is where one of the bullets hit," we are told by a local town leader. On the morning of June 15th, 2005, in an attempt to discourage community protests, 100 soldiers were ordered to run in a single file through Prestea, with their weapons, chanting,"When you want to die, you will die." The soldiers are part of Ghana's military, but their stay in Prestea, including allowances and accommodation, is paid by the mining company.
Rather than being intimidated, the town's residents were further outraged. Six thousand residents came out to protest, and seven were injured by security forces. We are told that despite numerous calls, no one from the government investigated the incident. Since then, the Concerned Citizens Association of Prestea has continued to monitor the tense situation. With TWN-Africa's assistance, they hope to be able to engage in a constructive dialogue with the mining company and local authorities in order to come to an agreement on fair compensation for Prestea's residents.
From Prestea, we travel to the town of Kenyasi to visit another citizens group, the "Guards of the Earth and the Vulnerable". In this town, there is concern about a new open pit gold mine. This new gold mine has displaced hundreds of farmers from their lands. In the early morning as the fog lifts, we visit one of the new resettlement sites, built by the mining company. We are struck by how orderly the houses are, giving the appearance of a quaint suburban neighborhood, with small colorful bungalows and manicured lawns. But after talking with some of the people who have been moved here, we get a very different picture. As one resident explains:
[The company] had promised us farm land. But there is no farm land in the resettlement area. The little money that we received for resettlement is gone. People in the resettlement area have asked [the company] to supply rice every month to the families. We have been asking for months and have not heard anything. Now there is stealing in the resettlement area. Cassava is being uprooted, plantains stolen. People are hungry and there is no food to eat.
The people who are being resettled here are farmers whose lands fall within the mining company's concession area. Farm families in rural Ghana are usually quite large; 8-10 people is not uncommon, and the average farm size in the area is 15-20 acres. These farmers were self-sufficient, producing the foods they needed to feed their families on their land, and building and maintaining their houses with materials that they could gather themselves from the same land. Now they have been resettled on tiny plots, often less than a quarter of an acre, only enough room for a small vegetable garden, with no other source of livelihood. The little money they did get for relocating is being rapidly spent on basic services such as electricity and water, and materials for repairing their homes.
Gathered in the office of the Guards of the Earth and the Vulnerable, we listen to the testimonies of 50 or so residents who have come to share their stories.
We founded the association because we knew there would be problems between farmers and the mining company. We needed to organize as a body to make sure the environment would not be destroyed. We also wanted to protect the vulnerable. People did not know a lot about mining, so we wanted to expose them to places like Obuasi and Tarkwa [other more developed mining areas in Ghana] for them to see and know the impacts of mining. We also wanted to ensure that we would not be cheated from our farms, and to help people know their rights.
Since mining is relatively new in the area, many did not understand the risk to their livelihoods when they conceded their land to the company. TWN-Africa organized an exploratory visit for Kenyasi residents to other areas that have been affected by mining. The group traveled to Tarkwa where they saw the devastation of open-pit mining, and spoke with residents to understand the implications of mining development. Workshops were organized with other community organizations that are resisting mining and demanding fair compensation. It was after this visit that residents of Kenyasi decided to organize.
Hearing about the struggles of these families, we could not help but admire their courage. Knowing that individual communities are relatively weak in the face of powerful companies, TWN-Africa is helping to link community groups and their struggles together into a broader, pan-African network, the Africa Initiative on Mining Environment and Society (AIMES). This initiative spans several countries across Africa and links hundreds of community groups, providing organizational and advocacy support and legal expertise to help defend and strengthen communities. Citing the example of Ken Saro-Wiwa, Dram explains how it was the community, and not a foreign NGO, that forced Shell to pull out from Ogoni territory in Nigeria: "The community is the building block."
Equally important are efforts to connect the struggle of mining-affected communities in the South with policy-making in the North. By working with organizations such as MiningWatch Canada, L'Entraide Missionnaire and GRAMA, Inter Pares is helping to bring the voices from these communities to Canada, raising concerns about the Canadian government's role in supporting questionable mining practices internationally, and providing concrete policy directions for the development of more responsible and accountable mining both in Canada and abroad.
Links to other Inter Pares work related to this theme:
- Control over resources
- Profile of Abdulai Darimani, TWN-Africa
- Ethical investing and the Canada Pension Plan
For further information and to take action:
The Canadian Network for Corporate Accountability- Government Website on the National Roundtables on Corporate Social Responsibility and the Canadian Extractive Sector in Developing Countries
- Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade 14th report
- TWN-Africa
- MiningWatch Canada
- Groupe de recherche sur les activités minières en Afrique (GRAMA)
- No Dirty Gold Campaign
- Support Inter Pares
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