Shootings and burning excavators: Some rapid reflections on the Government of Ghana's handling of the informal Galamsey mining ‘menace’

Abstract

This paper reflects critically on recent actions taken by the Government of Ghana to eliminate unlicensed artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) – popularly referred to as ‘galamsey’ – in the country. At a time when donors and other governments in sub-Saharan Africa are working diligently to identify ways to formalize ASM and to integrate the sector into broader economic and rural development frameworks, the Government of Ghana has turned to its military and police to combat illegal activity, at times describing its efforts as a ‘fight’ and the phenomenon itself as ‘a menace’. The decision of the government has come as a surprise, given that ASM accounts for more than 30 percent of the country's gold production, and employs close to one million people directly nationwide and generates millions of more jobs in the upstream and downstream industries it spawns.