Whenever I find myself in situations of Ghana’s extractive industries, I can’t help but ponder over questions like: what is the extent of our country’s endowment with natural resources? For instance, what are the quantities of gold, diamond, crude oil and the likes extracted from our land every year? How much more remain to be exploited? Will there be a point in time at which we will run out of resources like gold and diamond? When that happens, then what? Is Ghana’s back being watched effectively as legal and illegal folks mine what is hidden under the belly of our earth?
Whilst bleeding internally over such thoughts, news broke through the Public Accounts Committee hearings that the Parliament of We the People of Ghana had failed us by not scrutinizing the contracts of Newmont Ghana Gold Limited to conform to our laws and by that, allowing this foreign company to take all of its money out! By our laws, mining companies are to lodge a percentage of their earnings with the Bank of Ghana to add to our country’s foreign exchange reserves. But because our parliamentarians do not shine their eyes for Ghana, our country is the loser. Why do we continue to call them Honourable when they perpetrate such a dishonourable act? Meanwhile, cost of living a life in Ghana is getting tougher and tougher.
This past weekend, I visited another gold mining site: the Ahafo Mines of Newmont in the general neighbourhood of Kenyasi in the Brong Ahafo Region. The visit crossed over into a small community that lives near the mining waste rocks of Newmont. It was fascinating listening to two sides of a story and struggling to figure out whose version was the truth. Every coin has two sides. There is a head and there is a tail. The substance of the coin lies between the head and the tail. Similarly, I came out of that experience believing that the truth lies somewhere between Newmont and Kantinka village.
Of the two tales, one is glossy and the other is gross. One story comes packaged nicely in a PowerPoint presentation; the other is delivered under shady trees with about 150 men, women and children residents. One tale has the character of hard-rock finger-wagging wealth; the other stares at you in all its poverty glory. One tale is clothed in rock-crushing power; the other in powerlessness and voicelessness. The former is Newmont and the latter is Kantinka and an odd medley of a gathering of what looks like of a community.
Newmont versus Kantinka:
The Newmont story is a fine presentation, well-thought through. It is a multinational concern that knows what it is doing. It is focused and has well-trained personnel to push the glossy company agenda. No wonder it was successful in the face of our dull-eyed Parliament’s inability to do due diligence that will protect the interests of Ghana. Having visited Newmont’s facility before entering Kantinka brought into very sharp focus the contradictions in the two tales.
From Newmont’s vantage point, all is well. It is a beautiful story of organizational success. But down the dirt-road, the folks of Kantinka are in a daze.
But I digress: In 1511, King Ferdinand of Spain unleashed an invasion force on the Americas in his bid to establish Spain as a world power. In his marching orders to his army, he decreed: “Get gold, humanely if you can; but at all cost, get gold.” So ruthlessly, King Ferdinand’s soldiers conquered the Americas and in a matter of years, as history has it, the hitherto thriving Inca and Aztec civilizations were destroyed by the Spanish conquerors.
The word ‘Kantinka’ means masculine strength, a sort of male chauvinism. But the village of Dormaa Kantinka is far from machismo. It is down on its knees, caught between mining waste rocks and stinky poverty. Newmont maintains that Kantinka is not really a community but a collection of opportunists who seek to benefit from the sidewalks of a successful mining operation. 
Through interactions with the community residents, I concluded that the Kantinka folks are mostly not indigenous people. Listening to their accents, it was obvious that they are settlers who have relocated to the area from the Volta Region and different parts of the three regions of the north. As settlers, they may not necessarily be land owners and may just be share-croppers and hangers-on. But then, they are people too!
What do they want and desire from Newmont? To be re-settled! This implies that they wish for Newmont to provide them with resettlement houses and not to leave them to toast! The houses they dream of will naturally be made of mortar and bricks to replace the thatch houses that stand like diseased shaky teeth that wait for the next strong wind and rainfall to wash them away. Since when was it wrong to entertain higher ambitions? But then should a mining company compromise its profit and provide houses for schemers and cheaters? Well, the Kantinka folks are explorers and exploiters like Newmont itself—but on a different scale!
Kantinka and Newmont do not appear to like each other. They are suspicious of one another. No wonder the stories of Kantinka people sound too good to be true while Newmont’s stories sound so sanitized and well-glossed with officialdom-speak and sound untrue. Trying to pinpoint the truth from the Newmont-Kantinka maze is like searching for pathogens with the naked eyes. For instance, Kantinka people conjured a half-glass of dirty water with tape worms, which they claim was fetched from the bore hole that was provided by Newmont in the village. I personally turned on the tap to experience the water. It was so clean! So clearly, Kantinka people have also perfected the art and science of exaggerating to make their story sound and look good.
Failure of national and local governance:
But as they say, ‘Everyday for thief-man, but one day for Massa!’ Since Newmont somehow succeeded in a charm-offensive of Ghana’s Parliament to the extent that it benefits in a large measure from the slack and weaknesses of our national governance institutions, who can point fingers at Kantinka for also dreaming up schemes to benefit in some very small measure from a rock-crushing multinational giant operating in their neck of the woods? If your reality is that of decrepit poverty and just a walking distance from you is obvious wealth that gets shipped away while Parliament sleeps, wouldn’t you be tempted to dream up ideas?
What should have been the moderating force between Newmont and Kantinka is local governance. The District Assembly exhibits powerlessness in protecting hundreds of poor people with an alarmingly high number of children. Without a doubt, the many children who are caught in the midst of such confusion have a low-cost future already determined for them.
For such problems to persist is testament of the failure of the governance of our country. This is unconscionable. The inability or probably unwillingness to represent the voiceless and remove potential abuses of power is unacceptable. The very nature of mining is too ruthless. King Ferdinand’s orders ring true today—get gold, at all cost, get gold! All in all, our descendants will gather our fruits! Watch!
Written by Dr Doris Yaa Dartey
The WatchWoman Column/The Weekly Spectator
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