Galamsey Mining at Nagodi: its Blessings and Disadvantages

When Maxwell Kparib entered Junior High school form three, he was full of hope and dreams for his future. Like most other boys his age, he saw education as the only opportunity to escape the poverty that was prevalent among people in his community- Nagodi- which is situated near Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region of Ghana. But after bracing the Basic School Certificate Examinations to gain admission into senior high school, Maxwell could see his dreams gradually grinding to a halt. It was clear that his parents, who were peasant farmers, had come to their wits end and could no longer pay his school fees. Their subsistence farming activities, which was based on rain fed agriculture due to the absence of irrigation facilities could barely provide enough food for the family of 13 children during the long dry season characteristic of the Savanna climate, not to talk of other expenses like school fees.
And then luck struck! Gold. Yes, there was gold in Nagodi. An old miner who had worked in the Prestea and Tarkwa mines had come back home to settle and chanced upon the old shafts of an abandoned mine in Nagodi. According to history, mining activities were carried out in the area by some white settlers who abandoned the mine during the Second World War. With his knowledge about mining, the old miner knew instinctively that there was still gold in the abandoned mine. His revelation was received with excitement and enthusiasm by the young men of the community and with his instruction and advice. galamsey mining took off in Nagodi. This was in the early 1980’s and the practice has persisted up to this day.
Maxwell was one of the ‘early birds’ who run to mine the gold at the old mine. “I was a day student at Kongo Senior High school so I decided to use my weekends to mine for gold in order to pay for my school fees”, he said. Maxwell’s diligence paid off and he managed to see himself through senior high school. However, he was not pleased with his grades. Undoubtedly, the time spent prospecting for gold during weekends and holidays which should have been invested in his studies had taken its toll on his academic performance. Undaunted, Maxwell re-wrote his examinations, once again with assistance from money earned through galamsey mining and this time he was successful. Now a Marketing student at the Tamale Polytechnic and a reformed ‘galamsey boy’, Maxwell says, “I could not have made it through my education without indulging in galamsey activities”.
While ‘galamsey’ or illegal mining activities have often made headlines for their destruction of the environment and the danger they pose to the lives of those engaged in it, very little investigation has been done to find out why people engage in it in spite of its dangers.
It is clear that galamsey activities thrive among the rural poor, the unemployed and communities with no alternative income generating activities. For some like Maxwell, it is the only way to pay for a decent education and for communities like Nagodi, it is the only way to raise the needed capital to invest in facilities and equipment that make life worth living and to raise enough money to buy food during the long lean season.
“People are now using mechanized water and paying monthly bills, thanks to galamsey”, says Maxwell. “Most people did not have access to electricity but now they have been able to connect electricity into their houses and they can afford to pay the bills. I can assure you that every house here now has a television set. Nagodi now has four grinding mills whereas in the past the women were forced to grind their maize on stones because there was no single grinding mill. In addition people now use roofing sheets instead of thatch to roof their houses”, he adds.
Abolga Kumda, a farmer who also indulges in galamsey activities to make ends meet collaborates Maxwell’s assertion that the impact of galamsey activities on the social life of Nagodi has been positive; “When we were children, we would say to our parents, father I am hungry. Then he would say, go away, I should pick stones for you and it would change into money. Not knowing that the money was inside the stones. Some had the money and built their houses and married wives. Others took care of their brothers in school”
Not content with the gold in the abandoned gold mine, the galamsey operators decided to prospect for gold on other lands they suspected contained some of the precious metal. “Galamsey has gone down”, says Maxwell. “gold is a non-renewable resource so the more you take it out the more it goes down”.
However, Abolga disagrees with this assertion, saying, “now, as we are not getting the gold, it is not that the gold is not there. It is there. But how to get it”
Some farmlands have fallen victim to theses exploits. According to Maxwell, at least 10 acres of farmland in the Nagodi area have been desecrated in an effort to look for new sources of gold. When asked about the reaction of the farmers whose farmlands were affected, he says, “They also joined in the search for gold. They are aware that the money they would make when they strike gold would be more than what they can ever earn from their farming activities.”
Aware that it would be difficult to put an immediate halt to galamsey activities at Nagodi, where there have been accidents leading to many deaths and several galamsey boys were repeatedly arrested during the Rawlings administration in a bid to halt their activities, the Ministry of Health has stepped in to provide the gold prospectors with information relevant to their safety.
“The Ministry of Health comes in to educate the galamsey boys on how to use mercury, which is a poisonous chemical that is essential in gold processing safely. They also educate them on how to prevent over exposure to dust from the mines which can cause respiratory diseases”.
Undoubtedly, galamsey mining at Nagodi has come to stay in view of the numerous economic, social and even academic benefits that it has bequeathed on that community. Consequently, it is being viewed as a God-sent opportunity to rescue the community from poverty. What then remains is for government to institute steps that would enable the galamsey boys to carry out their activities in a safe and orderly manner without sustaining unnecessary injuries and even deaths or causing further destruction to the environment. The steps taken by the Ministry of Health to educate the gold diggers to safeguard their health is laudable but more needs to be done.
The miners have indicated that what pushes them to prospect for gold on lands other than the abandoned gold mine is because they practice surface mining since they do not have the machinery and expertise to engage in deep mining. Even though they have invested in equipment to help them dig deeper into the bowels of the earth such as water pumping machines and air machines, they are insufficient. Thus, partnering them with organizations that would provide them with the necessary inputs and safety measures in return for a share of their proceeds may be one of the ways to resolve the issue.
As much as possible, partner organizations should try to address the social problems linked with the sudden influx of strangers and money into the once cash-strapped community. Teenage girls should be counseled and given some form of moral education. They should also be enlightened on issues on reproductive health, AIDS prevention as well as the prevention of other sexually transmitted diseases.
Above all, people should be counseled to invest their money wisely. Some have already done so by investing in their own education as well as that of their siblings, putting up houses and buying grinding mills but more can be done by venturing into other business opportunities. The crux of the matter is for people to manage money gained from prospecting for gold in such a way that, when the time finally comes that their soils and the bowels of the earth under their community can no longer spit out gold, they would have built a solid economic base that would prevent the community from slipping back into poverty.
Like Abolga said, “the galamsey, it is good. But if you are not careful, you will die”. So let’s help prevent our galamsey boys from dying and also safeguard the environment.

‘Under Tree’ Schools Still a Reality in Ghana?

Children holding school lessons under trees

With all this fuss about educational reforms to promote quality education and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) being made a core subject so that Ghana can produce graduates ready to take advantage of opportunities offered by the computer age to accelerate development, one would have taught that ‘under tree’ classrooms are a thing of the past.
This however is not the case. Scores and scores of ‘under tree’ classrooms still abound in the country. One school that still boasts of ‘under tree’ classrooms is the St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Junior High School at Kintampo in the Brong Ahafo Region. Mr J. B. Amobilla, Headmaster of the School, says sitting under trees for lessons has not always been the norm at the school but following government directives that all children of school going age should go to school, enrollment levels at the school has swelled up to the extent that, existing facilities can no longer meet the intake of students. Hence, the ‘under tree’ classrooms were created to cater for the additional intake of students.
He however agreed that sitting under trees to learn breeds a lot of problems, saying, “There are so many things that hamper academic work. When it drizzles, those under the mango trees have to take shelter on the verandah and those inside cannot learn because of the noise that is created. This means the whole school is disorganized as far as learning is concerned.”
“Even snakes sometimes fall from the mango trees and disrupt lessons and when the mangoes are ripe, they also fall on the teachers and the students”, Mr Amobilla lamented.
He said the hammattan season is the worst period for the ‘under tree’ classrooms because it brings cold and dust. “Their books and papers are always blown off when they are having lessons and teachers do not feel comfortable when handling lessons”, he explained.
All these disruptions combine to undermine the ability of students to concentrate during lessons; “Concentration is a big battle for students. We are only trying to manage but the concentration is not up to 50 percent”, Mr Amobillah said.
Some officials from the Ghana Education Service (GES) went to inspect the school last year and even took photographs of the children sitting under the mango trees: “They promised to put up a school structure but they have not yet come”, Mr Amobilla said.
The schools’ authorities drew the attention of the Catholic Mission to its plight and the local priest and manager of the Catholic Education Unit visited the school several times after which a committee was formed to address the problem.
Consequently, a church harvest was organized to raise funding for a five classroom block which is now at the lentil level but work has come to a standstill because they run out of funds. “We have approached the Municipal Assembly for assistance and the chief Executive promised to assist us so we are still waiting”, Mr. Amobilla announced.
He said the population at the school is great making supervision difficult. Hence some measures have been instituted such as the banning of vernacular at school to help the students use the English language while in school. Other measures include the organisation of quizzes and debates, the institution of awards for first, second and third positions at all levels, the organization of extra classes for school children after official school hours, and extra tuition for third year students on Saturdays.
The situation at the St Joseph’s J.H.S is an example of how the provision of school infrastructure lags behind enrolment levels, a condition which becomes more pronounced as one moves from the urban to the rural communities. According to a survey conducted by Rural Action 2000, a Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) at Kintampo, due to inadequate or poor infrastructure, most school children sit under mango trees to study in the Kintampo District. Is it because Kintampo abounds in mango trees that some are being converted into classrooms?
Education in Ghana in terms of availability and quality of school infrastructure and equipment as well as quality of tuition is becoming more and more polarized leading to the emergence of ‘Johannesburg’ schools and ‘Soweto’ schools. While a lot is being said about improving the quality of education, nothing is being done to bridge the yawning gap between schools in rural areas and deprived communities and those in affluent and urban communities.
There is no doubt that ICT is going to benefit ‘Johannesburg’ schools, further deepening the gap between the two while ‘Soweto’ schools would be content with one ‘hot meal’ a day. This is not to say that the School Feeding Programme is not laudable. But there is the need to go beyond school feeding to ensure that standard educational structures and equipment are provided for all schools to create a conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning. Even some schools such as the Abotoase District Assembly Primary School in the Jasikan District of the Volta Region which was earmarked for the School Feeding Programme, was taken off the programme because there were no structures where cooking could take place. The provision of adequate infrastructure is therefore a key issue around which other educational interventions revolve. Students cannot learn ICT sitting under trees. Where would they access electricity for the computers-from the tree trunks? Politicians and stakeholders in education should well remind themselves that the three basic necessities in life are food, clothing and shelter. There can be no meaningful development if any of these needs is not addressed.

EMERGENCY MEASURES SAVE CHILDREN FROM MALNUTRITION AND MALARIA IN THE UPPER EAST REGION

When 13-month old Daniel Kuzam fell very ill and developed a gruesome appearance and an abnormal cry, his family and community members begun to take steps to eliminate him because they thought he was a dwarf.
It is customary among the Kassena Nankana’s to get rid of babies with unexplained abnormalities due to the age old belief that such babies are evil spirits who try to enter the human population by camouflaging as human beings.
However, Daniel’s life was saved when his plight was brought to the attention of the Navorongo Nutrition Centre, established by Unicef, to provide food therapy to malnourished and undernourished children through the use of plumpy nuts and other nutritious foods.
Unicef had also received funding from the European Commission Directorate for Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) to meet the urgent needs of victims of last year’s floods with a number of interventions including the provision of treated bed nets, anti malarial drugs, the provision of ceramic filters and the disinfection and rehabilitation of boreholes.
Describing Daniels condition at the time when he was admitted at the centre in November last year,, Mr. Rauf Abu Amin, District Nutrition Officer, said he exhibited all the typical signs of severe malnutrition which included a wrinkled skin with some of it peeling off, his ribs could be seen through the rib cage, his hair was falling off his scarp, he was emaciated and dehydrated and weighed only 5 kilograms.
Mr. Amin said “steeped in superstition and with no medical knowledge, the community failed to read Daniel’s tell-tale signs of severe malnutrition. Worse still, his wrinkled face had aged making him to look like a little old man, and this coupled with his unnatural cry which was more like that of a diseased fowl rather than that of a baby, whipped up the superstitious belief that Daniel was a dwarf”.
Daniel, who was born to 28 year old Kabuga Kuzam and her husband at Nawuri in the Kassena Nankana district of the Upper East region was the third child of his parents and appeared to be normal at birth. However, shortly after the floods that engulfed some parts of the Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions last year, Daniel’s health deteriorated while his physical appearance underwent such a terrible change that people begun to question whether he was a human being.
Madam Kuzam, who herself was severely malnourished, explained to medical staff that Daniel’s illness started in October last year, only a month before he was brought to the medical centre but medical tests indicated that Daniel had been malnourished for quite some time. Prodded on by medical staff, she disclosed that as a norm, her family ate only twice a day; a meal was prepared every evening and whatever was left over was eaten for breakfast. Despite the fact that Daniel as only a baby, no special meals were prepared for him and he was fed on adult food in addition to whatever breast milk that his mother could provide which was inadequate because she herself was malnourished.
Madam Kuzam said because her two older sons had survived under similar circumstances no one saw the link between Daniels condition and poor nutrition as a result of a shortfall in their harvest brought on by the floods that washed away their crops. This meant the family had to survive on less food than previous years.
Mr Amin said due to the seriousness of Daniels condition, most people, including some medical doctors who saw him, did not believe he would recover. But Amin who was accustomed with the wonders of nutrition therapy, especially plumpy nuts, which were imported into the country by Unicef to treat severe malnutrition would not give in. “After undergoing food therapy for just one week, most of Daniels symptoms disappeared and after five weeks, he was healthy and normal”, he said.
Though the establishment of Nutrition Centres has long been one of the strategies adopted by Unicef in deprived communities in Ghana to provide food to malnourished children to promote their survival and development, their presence became more crucial in the wake of the floods which left already deprived communities poorer and without adequate food. Lactating mothers and children were the worst hit.
Statistics indicate that, out of the 75,000 people who were most affected by the floods, 20,000 were made up of children under five years and lactating mothers.
Other children who have benefited from the centre in the wake of the floods include Helena Alina, aged two years and five months. She was diagnosed with Kwashiorkor, a disease that strikes children who lack protein and has been receiving food therapy for the last five months
“Helena had a distended stomach, could not walk well and was very dull. She also refused to eat, was very hostile and used to bite the nurses who first handled her” 23 year old Rebecca Azumah, mother of Helena disclosed. .
“But after five months of treatment, my daughter is now strong and active, her stomach has dwindled in size and she is neither hostile nor bites the nurses.”, Mrs. Azumah said happily.
Apart from stepping up activities at the Nutrition Centres to cater for undernourished children, another intervention Unicef adopted in the wake of the floods was the distribution of mosquito nets to curb the upsurge of malaria. Hypolite Yaleduor, District Disease Control officer, said 2,415 bednets were received for flood victims in the Kassena Nankana District. Consequently, the region did not experience a significant increase in reported cases of malaria.
Madam Bibiana Anati, Senior Nursing Officer in charge of Public Health supported his assertion. She said reported malaria cases for children aged one to six years dropped from 490 cases in 2006 to 87 cases in 2007 in spite of the floods.
The District Director of Health Services, Mrs Rufina Asuru, was certain that the interventions adopted by Unicef to curb malaria were yielding results but the results are not visible because of the nature of health care delivery.
“In our setting, children are always treated for malaria hence there is an over diagnoses of malaria. Anybody who comes with fever and headache we want to treat malaria first before anything. But if we could confirm every malaria case, it would go down.”, Mrs Asuru said.

The Afadjato-Agumatsa Conservation and Eco-Tourism Initiative

Mountain Afadjato

When I was taking lessons in Geography as a child at the Sakasaka Primary School in Tamale, I was told by my class five teacher that Mountain Afadjato is the highest mountain in Ghana. As a child, I memorized that information to pass my examinations. I was given the same information again at Tamale Secondary School where I studied geography for my Ordinary Level Examinations and once again it was only relevant as far as passing exams was concerned.
I finally came face to face with the great Mountain Afadjato a couple of days ago, decades after I had heard of that mountain. Mountain Afadjato is nestled among other mountains; the Agumatsa range and high hills which form part of the Akwapim-Togo ranges along Ghana’s border with Togo. It is a few kilometers drive from Hohoe in the Volta Region. The mountain stands at 2,905 ft above sea level and it is possible to climb it from Gbledi-Gbogame. At the top of the mountain, climbers are provided with a panoramic view of villages, towns, deep valleys and the Volta Lake as far as the eye can see.
However, what any visitor would find very commendable is the effort being made by people living in three communities in the area to preserve the natural flora and fauna around the mountain. Mr. David Logotse, a Community Forest Guard, said the Afadjato-Agumatsta Conservation and Eco-Tourism Initiative was established in reaction to fears that continuous bushfires being experienced in the area in the past could destroy its natural vegetation if nothing was done about it. “We the community members approached the Department of Game and Wildlife for technical support which eventually led to the establishment of the 13 km2 conservation park in 1998 with funding from the Nertherlands Embassy”, he said.
They demarcated a buffer zone, and also created a fire belt that is weeded periodically to ward off bushfires, which sometimes emanated from neigbouring Togo. People were stopped from hunting, logging, or cultivating crops within the park. This was reinforced by a bye-law passed by the district assembly prohibiting all forms of human activity in the park. During the closed season for hunting, people can be arrested for hunting duikers, antelopes, monkeys and other animals in the area.
“The assistance package provided by the Nertherlands Embassy also provided training in alternative livelihoods such as beekeeping, snail and grass cutter farming for community inhabitants so that they do not need to poach or cultivate crops within the conservation park”, Mr. Logotse said.
The reserve is home to 33 mammals. These include the bush buck, Maxwell duikers, the Mona and the White- Spotted Nose monkeys, the long tailed pangolin, and the mongoose, which eats a lot of snakes and has reduced their population in the area.
Over 150 birds nestle in its trees “This is an important bird area for the whole Ghana, it is birdlife international. We are in partnership with The Department for Game and Wildlife who normally come to do their research on birds here. So if you kill a bird here, you are under arrest”, Mr. Logotse disclosed. The area also boasts of about 355 species of butterflies.
Its flora includes over 430 plant species, some of which are useful to the community. These include Abrus precatorius, with black and red seeds used for making beads and dolls, and Ceiba pentadra, commonly known as the silk cotton tree, whose huge trunk is used in making dug-out canoes, its tufts used as stuffing for pillows and mattresses while its leaves are eaten. The Bambusa vulgaris provides the raw material for the beautiful bamboo furniture one sees being displayed along some routes in Accra. For local communities, bamboo is used as yam stakes and fuel wood. The huge globular fruits of the Crescentia cujete are used for making calabashes and gourds while the gum and resins from the bark of Daniellia oliveri is burnt as incense in the local churches with the wood used for building construction and furniture. A lot of medicinal plants also abound here.
The Afadjato-Agumatsa Conservation and Eco-Tourism Initiative is a combination of nature and the comforts of modern technology. “Guiness Ghana Limited provided the park with a mechanized pipe and we also have electricity”, says the forest guard. For a fee ranging from three to seven Ghana cedis, one can pitch a tent on the rich green grass on the grounds of the park and rest on nature’s carpet surrounded by mountain peaks after trekking through the mountains. No wonder then that people flock to the park to catch a glimpse of nature without sacrificing the comforts of civilisation. “We now have a lot of visitors. From Thursday, Friday Saturday and Sunday, they come in their numbers” says Mr. Logotse. So why not be part of this influx of visitors. Next time you think of a place of relaxation, simply board a vehicle to Hohoe from where you can make your way to the reserve. Don’t be like me who waited decades to see Ghana’s highest mountain.