Abstract:
This article examines the participation of some Chinese migrants in
illegal gold mining (known as galamsey) in Ghana, and how the
Government’s policy to address the issue created diplomatic
tension between China and Ghana. Drawing on primary data from
in-depth, face-to-face interviews with 250 respondents and
supplementary information from archival sources and personal
observation, the study found that small-scale gold mining is an
area legally reserved for Ghanaian indigenes, who faced stern
competition from some Chinese migrants’ miners. Their ability to
mobilize resources and machinery to execute galamsey virtually
displaced the indigenes from their source of livelihood and
caused environmental catastrophes. The Ghana Government’s
policy response to the Chinese migrants’ galamsey, which led to
arrests, sentencing and deportations of some Chinese miners,
angered Beijing and fractured Ghana–China diplomatic ties. But
the dispute could not collapse the entrenched bilateral relations
between the two nations because the calculated mutual benefit
derived from the relations was thought to be higher than the
Chinese galamsey issue. Policy reforms which legally integrate
Chinese migrants’ miners into the small-scale mining sector would
stop galamsey and strengthen Sino-Ghana relations.
