Mining as a Factor of Social Conflict in Ghana

Abstract

Post-colonial Africa has witnessed a phenomenal increase in conflicts mostly arising out of disagreements over a variety of issues including land, chieftaincy, resource allocation, environmental degradation etc. The West African sub-region has had its fair share of these upheavals notably in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and La Côte d’Ivoire. Ghana is among the few countries in West Africa perceived to be an oasis of peace in a region otherwise characterised by civil wars, rebel activities and general instability. But this image about Ghana only masks a festering wound of communal violence, inter-ethnic conflicts and armed confrontations in the Northern part of the country. The root causes of these conflicts which have almost become persistent are largely traceable to the introduction of secular political authority (Chieftaincy) in areas which before colonisation were said to be stateless or acephalous. This article argues that northern Ghana is not the only place in the country where conflicts erupted or occurred and that the quest for resource control in the Gold and diamond impregnated areas in the south was also a factor of social conflicts in Ghana during the precolonial, colonial and post-colonial periods. This paper’s primary concern is to interrogate related issues and explore the prevailing debates