Dirty Gold

Anna Boiko-Weyrauch has created another fabulous radio report on extractive industries and the environment of Africa. This one is about gold mining impacts along the Subri river in Ghana. She posted it on December 18th, and I think that I may have heard it on public radio here in the United States.

Ghana used to be called the Gold Coast and today it's the second largest producer of gold in Africa. Most of the gold comes out of a number of large surface mines. They are all owned by companies from abroad such as Newmont, which stores water and waste from its gold mine behind the Subri River dam. In her report for the Common Language Project, Ms. Boiiko-Weyrauch speaks with Adusah Yakubu from a local advocacy group about health consequences of local environmental deterioration. She also mentions the Responsible Jewellery Council, which certifies gold miners who do a better job than Newmont has done here in Ghana.

Blowback from Obama in Ghana

Judging by posts from African bloggers, many African intellectuals were disappointed with Barack Obama's speech to Parliament in Ghana. My own perception of the speech was that it was not that well crafted and showed a lack of deep scholarship and preparation uncharacteristic of Mr. Obama.

I thought that our president looked a bit nervous at points in the delivery, particularly when he defended AFRICOM. I was also surprised to hear outdated views on agricultural development in the section where he promised a "green revolution" for sub-Saharan Africa. Clearly, the Obama administration needs to bring on board some scientists and historians with a deeper knowledge of the developing world and of Africa in particular.

While many may have wanted to hear an apology from our president for mistakes which the United States has made in the post-colonial era, I believe that Obama is rather to be commended for his clear discussion of the role which African elites have played in the continued subjugation and impoverishment of Africa's people. As Barack Obama has himself observed to progressive forces here in the United States, it is our responsibility to push back and challenge him when he compromises with the forces of oppression.

Below are links to some of many posts on this topic by African bloggers:

"Obama Talks Shallow Simplistic Rubbish, Scolds & Lectured Africans As Expected!" by Paul I. Adujie

"Ghana - No antibodies for this virus" by Akin

"The glaring omission" by Solomonsydelle

"Obama shallow and condescending in Ghana?" by Imnakoya

"Obama in Ghana" by Beauty

"It wasn't me" by pyoo wata

The "change we need"? Obama in Ghana by Charles Abugre

Barack Obama visits Ghana

Africa is a Continent not a Country!

Barack Obama visited Ghana on the 10th and-11th of July. Here he demonstrates how much more he knows about Africa than Sarah Palin. According to Martin Eisenstadt, Sarah is still confused about this and resigned as Alaska governor fearing new revelations in Eisenstadt's upcoming book.

On Saturday, July 11th, the White House posted an interactive map with questions from people throughout Africa. The questions were delivered through SMS, Facebook, Twitter, and newspapers throughout Africa. The president will be answering some of these questions in a press conference later on Saturday. As of 11 AM GMT (10 AM in Accra), only one (1) question had been posted on this map -

Hi prez obama u are a source of inspiration to africa!

Valco, Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah

The closing of the Valco aluminum smelter in the Ghanaian port of Tema appeared as a minor item in yesterday's financial news. I must admit to knowing absolutely nothing about this smelter or its integral role in Ghana's economic history until this tidbit of current news awakened my interest. I did have some basic knowledge of Ghana's geography and political history, following with particular interest the recent 50th anniversary of Ghanaian independence.

The smelter at Tema was part of a bold plan for rapid economic development conceived by Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, during the 1960's. As his son, Gamal Nkrumah, relates:

Kwame Nkrumah laid the foundations for the industrialization of Ghana. He built the Akosombo Dam to generate electricity. He also built the Tema Harbour, which was a deepwater harbor, immediately after independence. So he was laying the foundation for the industrialization of Ghana.¹

The Akosombo Dam on the Volta River had been planned by British engineers prior to Ghanaian independence, but construction was not begun until Nkrumah secured financial backing from the United States in 1958. It became one of the first large projects undertaken by the World Bank, with most of the hydroelectric power that it was to produce promised to the newly created Volta Aluminum Company (VALCO) for its smelter to be constructed at the port city of Tema. As can be seen from the map below, the damming of the Volta River created an immense lake totaling over 8300 km² (3200 mi²). To administer the lake and dam, the Ghanaian Parliament established the Volta River Authority in April 1961 with Nkrumah as Chairman and six Board members.²






















As part of the deal made with the World Bank and United States corporations, Ghana gave a written promise that the Tema smelter would not be expropriated. Nkrumah and his economic advisors did envision, however, that local bauxite ore would be exploited for aluminum production in a "vertically" integrated national industry. The newly formed VALCO, on the other hand, was controlled by American investors. Particularly influential was Nkrumah's close personal friend, Edgar Kaiser, a California industrialist who built the Akosombo Dam and went on to found Kaiser Aluminum to use its power.³ Kaiser, Alcoa, and other aluminum companies making use of the smelter have found it more profitable to ship alumina from their existing mines in Jamaica and other locations than to open up new operations in Ghana. The "invisible hand" of international trade seems to have made an unsustainable mess in this case, possibly contributing to the rundown condition of the smelter which has suffered at least two disastrous fires in the past two years. In closing the smelter, Ghana apparently intends to devote the power from the Akosombo Dam to providing more stable electricity to its citizens.

¹Nkrumah, Gamel, 2007, Interview with Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, March 6th

²Moxon, James, 1984, Volta - Man's Greatest Lake. London: Andre Deutsch.

³Burnett, Nicholas, 1980, Kaiser Shortcircuits Ghanaian Development. Multinational Monitor, v. 1, no. 1.