African countries have been made to believe that their minerals and other natural resources if well harnessed could play a key role in their development. Ghana for instance has long and rich history of mining and the industry has been central to the political economy of the country. Africa’s unique mineral resource endowment offers a window of opportunity for African countries to extract better terms from their exploitation and to catalyze growth, poverty eradication and economic transformation. While mining makes some contribution to government revenue, employment generation, foreign exchange earnings and community development, current realities have demonstrated that African countries including Ghana have not optimized the benefits of mining.
In the face of economic difficulties facing Ghana during the late 1970s to early 1980s, and as a consequence of the global scheme for economic restructuring for developing countries at the instance of the World Bank, the country’s attention was directed to the role of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the mining sector. In the early 1980s, Ghana embarked on a scale of mining sector reforms (which did not have any historical precedent) and formulated generous investment laws and regulations to enable FDI flows into the sector. The reforms translated into mining boom, particularly in the gold sub-sector. Gold mining which was originally concentrated in the Western and Ashanti Regions of Ghana have now extended to other parts of the country such as the Eastern, Brong-Ahafo, Central, Northern and the Upper East and West regions. This together with the type of methods used and the manner in which the lands/concessions are granted for mining in the country has often resulted in very negative impacts on affected communities.
Studies have found that indigenous people in Africa have lost, or are under imminent threat of losing their ancestral lands, territories and natural resources as a result of unfair exploitation for the sake of development. According to literature, natural resource extraction projects such as mining are land–intensive and water-intensive and often directly affect the collective rights of indigenous peoples to their lands and territories which often generate conflicts between corporations, indigenous people and the State over development projects which are initiated without consultation or consent of the very people who are dispossessed of their lands. With time these conflicts have intensified, often resulting in violent clashes between companies and communities. These conflicts have often revolved around the followings:
· access to land within areas granted to mining companies by local communities who are often in occupation of the land prior to the grant or who exercise user rights in respect of the land;
· the lack of or inadequate compensation for deprivation of land and or the destruction of economic crops;
· pollution of sources of drinking water of local communities without the provision of alternative drinking water sources;
· destruction of sources of employment and livelihood;
· destruction of cultural sites; and
· violation of fundamental human rights with impunity.
These human rights violations and environmental degradation as noted cut across many countries in West Africa sub-region where natural resource extraction is taking place. While the above issues are worrying, most of affected mining communities are unable to access justice for their violated rights. This situation is worsened by inadequate access to legal education, information and legal aid and the inability of poor communities to afford legal representation.
The issue of human rights violations in mining communities will never die unless and until somebody takes leadership responsibility to care for people. My name is Kofi Anokye, a development enthusiast, and by the time I leave this world, it must be better than I found it. Brains, not natural resources, develop a nation!
