Struggle over abandoned landscapes: Reflections on mining communities in Ghana

Abstract

Foreign investment in Ghana’s extractive sector, which had previously been subject to strict state protectionist rules, has increased due to neoliberal reforms introduced in the 1990s. The neoliberal reforms are intended to bring in foreign investment, exploration capital and trailblazing technologies essential for turning untapped mineral resources into economic opportunities. The Ghanaian government is implementing a new strategy that draws on mineral resource extraction to stabilise the fast-depreciating Ghanaian cedi and sustain the ailing economy. This has created a ‘mad rush’ for geologically prospective locations for mining activities by both ‘licensed’ and ‘unlicensed‘ miners. Massive mineral extraction has, however, caused extensive human displacement, abandoning once-productive regions and longstanding cultural practices. Drawing on an ethnographic study, this paper shows how new political interests in gold mining and environmental activism in Ghana have revived interest in previously abandoned (and less contested) landscapes as the ‘site’ of struggles for access to land values in mining communities and accountability demands. Furthermore, I discuss how and why environmental discourses, globalisation and technological change are (re)making the value of abandoned locations in mining communities.