The failure of the militarised fight against ‘Galamsey’ in Ghana: A critical overview of the class and political dynamics

Abstract

This paper argues that the militarised fight against illegal artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) in Ghana—popularly known in Ghanaian parlance as ‘galamsey’—is neither class-neutral nor apolitical. It is politically opportunistic and elitist, class-wise. Drawing on a plurality of secondary sources—scholarly and grey literature, media, and internet sources – we present a critical overview of developments in the Ghanaian ASM sector, and the militarised fight against illegal operators.  Further, we delineate and clarify the politics and class dynamics that characterise the sector and the overall state-led fight against the phenomenon of ‘galamsey’. We predict that because these dynamics pivot on financial wherewithal and power, the militarised fight against ‘galamsey’ may hardly succeed and is thus always and forever bound to fail. Yet, its implications for the powerless subaltern classes are always appalling and deleterious, as they often lose their livelihoods in the fight, culminating in retarded community development.