5. Artisanal and small-scale mining in West Africa: an overview of sustainable development and environmental issues

Gibb, Matthew

doi:10.3362/9781780445939.005

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 113 publications

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“…Previously, mining in the area had been dominated by local gangs of illegal miners, known as galamsey , who lack mining licences and who work small pits by hand. This has caused deforestation, land degradation and water pollution resulting from soil erosion and the use of mercury in the extraction process, but has also provided an important source of income for the impoverished local population (Gibb, ; Hilson and Potter, ). In contrast to this long‐established local practice, the foreign miners arriving in Bonsaaso have brought excavators and other heavy machinery, and their level of ecological destruction is of a different order of magnitude.…”

Section: Welcome To the Village Of The Realmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Village that Turned to Gold: A Parable of Philanthrocapitalism

Wilson¹

2015

Development and Change

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International development is increasingly financed and implemented by a nexus of billionaires and corporate foundations known as 'philanthrocapitalism'. This article develops a critique of this paradigm, focusing on the case of the Millennium Villages Project (MVP), and its implementation in Bonsaaso, Ghana. The author interprets the MVP as a staging of the neoliberal fantasy of origins -an imagined history of the spontaneous emergence of capitalism in the frugal activities of smallholder farmers. In Bonsaaso, this fantasy has been shattered by the violence of primitive accumulation -the separation of the peasantry from the land through which capitalist social relations are actually established. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Bonsaaso, the author describes how an influx of foreign gold miners has plunged the region into a profound socio-ecological crisis. Despite producing several internal reports on this crisis, the MVP has failed to respond to it, and has instead sought to restage its fantasy in a new Village in the north of the country. Yet an analysis of its background documents and financial networks demonstrates the complicity of the MVP in the political economy of primitive accumulation underway in Bonsaaso. The case provides a cautionary tale against the promise of a good and pure capitalism.

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Section: Welcome To the Village Of The Realmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Village that Turned to Gold: A Parable of Philanthrocapitalism

Wilson¹

2015

Development and Change

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“…This boom triggered a global gold rush, and since 2010 Bonsaaso has been inundated with gold miners from around the world . Previously, mining in the region had been dominated by local gangs of illegal miners, known as galamsey , who lack mining licences, and who work small pits by hand as part of their survival strategies (Gibb ). In contrast to this long‐established local practice, the foreign miners arriving in Bonsaaso have brought excavators and other heavy machinery.…”

Section: The Mvp In Practice Ii: Accumulation By Dispossession In Bonmentioning

confidence: 99%