Paper short abstract:

This presentation draws on ethnographic data to explore the formation of an artisanal gold mining site, how it is organised and governed, its labour practices and other circumstances surrounding life at the site. It challenges some popular accounts about life and work at artisanal gold mining sites

Paper long abstract:

The confluence of global capitalism with attempts by African governments to develop their extractives sectors has resulted in measures akin to Marx's primitive accumulation. Through compulsory purchase orders and extra-legal methods, indigenous communities across the continent have been dispossessed off their lands to make way for mining companies mostly owned by multi-national mining corporations. Local populations, often joined by migrants, have resorted to artisanal gold mining in response to the socio-economic hardship, derisory or unpaid compensations, unfulfilled employment promises, limited CSR benefits and other adverse impacts as an outcome of their loss of access to lands for farming, food, water and other livelihood opportunities. This presentation uses data from a 3-month ethnography at one of these sites at Kenyasi in Ghana to contribute to understanding of this widespread and growing phenomenon. The paper uses Marxist, feminist and postcolonial critiques as lenses to explore the socio-political context surrounding the site's formation, how it is organised and governed, recruitment practices, labour conditions and other circumstances surrounding life and gold production in this informal sector. The data presented by the paper troubles the dominant view of artisanal gold mining sites as disorganised lawless dens of criminals and criminality. It suggests that in this specific example, such accounts downplay or fail to understand the relations of power and mode of social organisation at stake.