Mining in Colonial Ghana

Mining in Colonial Ghana: Extractive Capitalism and Its Social Benefits in Akyem Abuakwa under Nana Ofori Atta I Author(s): Emmanuel Ababio Ofosu-Mensah Source: Africa Today, Vol. 63, No. 1 (Fall 2016), pp. 23-55 Published by: Indiana University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/africatoday.63.1.0023 Accessed: 22-10-2016 14:33 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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Despite the above social and environmental ills associated with mining activities in Akyem Abuakwa, it is on record that these economic historical events have contributed significantly to the development of the area.


Mining in Colonial Ghana: Extractive Capitalism and Its Social Benefits in Akyem Abuakwa under Nana Ofori Atta I Emmanuel Ababio Ofosu-Mensah

Historians and economists studying the third world regard mining as one of the major sectors in which the exploitation of resources by European enterprise took place, both with regard to labor use and the alienation of large areas of valuable land for what are now regarded as extremely small sums of money. Not only were these resources misused, but also— so the argument goes—gold rushes in Africa have become conduits through which surpluses generated in the continent are accumulated and transferred to Europe and other areas. In this regard, a gold rush in developing countries should hardly yield any sustainable development dividend, so long as foreign capital remains the dominant player. This article, however, tells a different story. It argues that gold mining in Akyem Abuakwa opened up and brought prosperity in the area. It challenges scholars who doubt the transformative, developmental, and poverty-alleviation roles of the mining industry in Ghana. By providing the basis for an understanding of the impact of mining on the traditional state, it contributes to the economic history of West Africa.

Introduction Current trends point to the fact that the gold rush in much of Africa today holds little promise for any significant and sustainable economic growth, most especially as more of the wealth generated therefrom is repatriated by the giant multinational companies in control of the continent’s mineral resources. A case in point is James Ferguson’s Expectations of Modernity: Myths and Meaning of Urban Life on the Zambian Copperbelt, a study of economic decay and its social impact in Zambia, which challenges the Africa Today Vol. 63, No. 1 • Copyright © The Trustees of Indiana University • DOI: 10.2979/africatoday.63.1.02


africa TODAY 63(1) 24 EX TR AC TIVE CAPITALISM AND ITS SOCIAL BENEFITS IN AK YEM ABUAK WA UNDER NANA OFORI AT TA I

lingering assumptions of modernization theory to show how mine workers are adapting to ever-shrinking incomes, diminished self-respect, and growing dependence on rural kinship networks for support in their old age. Ferguson, in his conclusion, unleashes a broadside against the brutalities of a global capitalism that can so cruelly dash the aspirations of a country like Zambia and calls for a new politicized humanitarianism to push the issue of global inequality higher on the world’s agenda. The present study, however, tells a different story: it argues that gold mining brought a range of benefits associated with benign development in Akyem Abuakwa in the Eastern Region of modern Ghana during the reign of Nana Ofori Atta I. Even though some broad generalizations may be adduced within the context of Ghana, this study is essentially a district-level study. It aims to provide insights into the problems of the gold rush and how these affect the rural mining communities in the district, with emphasis on the rural economy, land ownership systems, and the environment. The traditional area has been selected for the simple reason that it is one of the most heavily mined areas in Ghana; it represents a critical case, as it exhibits all the relevant facets, and bears all the hallmarks, of the gold rush. This paper seeks to add to our knowledge of mining by exploring in some depth the history of the impact of mining in the Akyem Abuakwa state and argues that expatriate mining opened up the state’s economy, creating new socioeconomic opportunities that transformed Abuakwa society under Nana Ofori Atta I. This paper’s primary concern is to interrogate related issues and explore the prevailing debates.

Sources This study relies on a historiographical approach that combines the use of primary and secondary sources of data in a complementary manner, supplemented by oral data collected through fieldwork. Pertinent documents are preserved in the Public Records and Archives Administration Department (PRAAD) in Accra and Koforidua, as well as in the Akyem Abuakwa State Archives (AASA) at the Kyebi Royal Palace. The author also has relied on the Gold Coast Colony Departmental Reports, preserved in the University of Ghana’s Balme Library, the Chamber of Mines Archival Reports, and the Minerals Commission Archival Reports. Additionally, the author has reviewed and made use of secondary sources to corroborate, evaluate, or supplement the archival and oral material. These were in the form of journal articles, books, unpublished theses, and periodicals, which served as secondary sources of information.


Context Location of Akyem Abuakwa State


Emmanuel Ababio Ofosu-Mensah

It is unknown when gold mining commenced in the Gold Coast generally and Akyem Abuakwa in particular, but it is certain that the local inhabitants were accustomed to winning gold before the arrival of the Portuguese in 1471 (Arhin 1967; Hilson 2002c). According to oral tradition and written sources of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, gold mining in Akyem Abuakwa dates back to time immemorial (Koranteng 2010), and Abuakwa possessed the technological know-how of mining gold, for which Adanse was well-known long before the seventeenth century (Afrifa 2000; Daaku 1970; Fage 1955). Historically, the Birem Valley in Akyem Abuakwa was well-known for its richness in gold. Some of the classic European sources refer to Akyem Abuakwa as a principal source of gold (Fynn 1971; Jenkins 1972; Storsveen 2010). Akyem “furnishes as large quantities of gold as any land I know” (Bosman 1967; E. F. C. Note Book). A Dutch report of 1701 described Asante, Denkyira, and Akyem as the “three mightiest and richest countries from which practically all the gold has come” to the coast (E. F. C. Note Book). Inguira (Denkyira) and Akyem were described in 1703–1704 as “the two gold-bearing countries . . . the only two districts which possess gold at its source” (E. F. C. Note Book). Akyem Abuakwa was not the sole supplier of gold, but its gold, easily distinguished by its deep color, was considered the most valuable and purest of all the gold exported from the Gold Coast (Macdonald 1902). Bossman and Barbot stated in 1698 and 1732 respectively that the purest of all the gold came from Akyem (Barbot 1732; Bossman 1967). Although some gold was won by panning in rivers, the bulk of Abuakwa’s ore was produced by the centuries-old technique of pit mining. A deep pit or shaft mine was known as nkomena, and people engaged in the work

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Pre-European Contact: Techniques and Relations of Gold Production

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Modern Akyem territory comprises more than 3,120 square miles of land in southern Ghana (Addo-Fening 1988; Republic of Ghana Statistical Service 1960). It shares borders with Kwahu to the north and northwest and with Krobo, New Dwaben, and Akwapem to the east and southeast. In the south, it borders on Agona and in the west by Akyem Kotoku. Stretching from Gyegyeti and Kankang in the north to Adeiso in the southwest, it spans the Nsawam-Nkawkaw railway, with the greater part of the state lying west of it. Akyem consists of three subdivisions: Abuakwa, Kotoku, and Bosome. The largest subdivision, Abuakwa, occupies about two-thirds of Akyem territory and measures approximately 1,870 square miles (Addo-Fening 1997; Debrunner 1967; Gold Coast Review 1925). Kotoku and Bosome share the remaining one-third to the west. Akyem Abuakwa’s population in the year 2000 was estimated at 1,160,000 (Republic of Ghana Statistical Service 2010).

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Figure 1: A map of the Akyem Abuakwa state, adapted from Kwasi Amfo Kwakye’s The Royal Akyem Kingdom (2007).

were generally called sikadifo . Circular pits, some three feet in diameter were dug to an average depth of twenty feet, and sometimes as much as 150 feet. The bases of the pits were widened out, forming a sort of chamber where the miner could wield his digging tools. These tools, short-handled for service in the crammed confines at the base of the pit, consisted of hammers, chisels, and digging hoes made from bar-iron by local blacksmiths, and the work progressed by the light of palm-oil lamps held in clay receptacles,




British soldiers returning home from the Yaa Asantewaa War in 1901 carried reports about the country’s wealth in gold. Estimates of huge returns on investments within ten years brought many concession seekers into Ghana. Akyem Abuakwa was one of the destinations of hundreds of Europeans seeking gold-mining concessions. Its reputation for high-quality gold had preceded it. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it was one of the greatest exporters of so-called pure gold to Europe via the Atlantic trade. Concession seekers began negotiating for concessions in that state a decade before the war. The first concession in Akyem Abuakwa was owned by Akim Limited (about five square miles) and was granted to the Castle Gold Exploration Syndicate Limited at Asiakwa and Samang on April 2, 1897 (ADM 29/6/42 PRAAD Koforidua). Muoso concession was granted to the goldfields of Eastern Akim in December 1899 (ADM 11/1/1105 PRAAD Accra; ADM 29/6/42 PRAAD Koforidua). Between 1897 and 1900, eight concessions were released in Akyem Abuakwa, mainly to the goldfields of Eastern Akim Limited. Among them were Asiakwa and Samang concessions and Pano, Ahwenease, Adadientem, Nsutam, Agyapomaa, and Sadwumase concessions (ADM

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Beginnings of Modern Mining in Akyem Abuakwa

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with a piece of rag used for a wick. The miner sent the ore to the surface in a calabash hauled up by rope, and on the surface the ore was pounded with hammers until it was in the form of powder, which was then ground between two large flat stones similar to those used for grinding kenkey. The basic unit of production in these mines were teams of small-scale independent family producers, which operated according to a division of labor. A master and his male slaves and sons mined the gold, while his wives, daughters, and female slaves washed it. Once the grinding was completed, the powder was washed by the women to separate the gold particles. The women used calabashes of varying sizes, swirling the powdered ore in such a way as to separate the gold particles, which were picked out with a feather and often placed in a snail shell or wrapped in leaves (Silver 1981). This was subject to the payment of tributes to both local and paramount chiefs. The tributary relationship between the producers and the chiefs often took the specific form of the abusa system, which had evolved for agriculture and then adapted to gold mining (Silver 1981). Nuggets over $9.00 in value (osuaa or a quarter predwan) had to be divided into three equal parts: onethird went to the okyenhene (king) and his elders; the remaining two-thirds was divided equally between the occupant of the stool directly owning the land on which the gold was mined or discovered and the miner (Addo-Fening 1997; Jenkins 1972). The tripartite division of gold nuggets discovered on Akyem soil underscored the equal rights and stake the paramount chief, chiefs, and subjects had in the land. It was this tributary mode of gold production that predominated in the Akyem Abuakwa kingdom at the time of the intervention of European mining interests.


11/1/1105 PRAAD Accra; ADM 29/6/42 PRAAD Koforidua; ADM26/6/49 PRAAD Koforidua, Addo-Fening, 1997). Besides gold, diamond concessions were taken up in Akyem Abuakwa, where the origins of the diamond industry date back to February 1919, when A. E. Kitson, director of the Gold Coast Geological Survey, together with E. Teale, discovered several diamond deposits near Abomosu in Akyem Abuakwa (ADM11/1/1420 PRAAD Accra; Kitson 1919). Discoveries of alluvial deposits of diamonds were made in Kade and Oda and the Birem Valley (Ghana Chamber of Mines Annual Report 1961–1962). The first diamond leases were obtained in December 1919 by Goldfields of Eastern Akim Company, which had been holding concessions in Eastern Akyem during the last decade of the nineteenth century. The first discoveries in the Bonsa diamond fields, located about a hundred miles to the southwest of Birem, were reported in 1921. Following these discoveries and proof of their commercial viability, a new company, the African Selection Trust Limited was formed to mine the deposits. In 1922, it commenced business after signing an agreement with Odikro Kwame Kuma, chief of Akwatia, in September (CAST Annual Report 1972). An area of five square miles was leased for ninety-nine years, and £50 was paid as consideration money; an annual rate of £12 was paid as occupation rent until mining with machinery was installed; a mining rent of £100 to £250 a year was also paid (ADM 5/1/9 PRAAD Accra). From a modest beginning in 1900, the total number of mining concessions in Akyem Abuakwa increased to fifty-seven by 1923, comprising twenty-nine gold concessions, twenty-four diamond, and four joint gold and diamond concessions (Addo-Fening 1997; ADM 29/6/42 PRAAD Koforidua). On August 7, 1923, the West African Diamond Syndicate Limited was formed. In 1924, the Anglo-African Exploration Limited was formed, in addition to the African Selection Trust Limited, to acquire diamondiferous areas within Akyem Abuakwa. On October 11, 1924, a merger of these companies led to the formation of the Consolidated African Selection Trust Limited (CAST) (AASA 6/14). In 1920, Akim Diamondfields Limited had started to exploit the deposits of Abomosu, but had abandoned it in 1923. From 1925 onward, CAST operated with other expatriate companies on the Birrimian diamondiferous area. The companies were the West African Diamonds Syndicate, which operated a concession at Kokotintin, south of Akwatia; the Akim Concessions Limited, Atiankama; Holland Syndicate Limited, Takorase; and Cayco (London) Limited, Topremang, and the RussoAsiatic Company, Kwaben (AASA 6/5). In April 1934, a new company, called Ayena Limited, became part of the diamond-producing companies in Akyem Abuakwa (Gold Coast Report of Mines Department 1934–35).

Consequences of Modern Mining in Akyem Abuakwa Modern or scientific mining has been ongoing in Akyem Abuakwa since 1897, mainly in the form of underground operations; however, surface


29 Emmanuel Ababio Ofosu-Mensah


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(open-pit) mining was introduced in the 1930s and carried on up to the 1940s. Critics and other findings emanating from the literature, as well as oral evidence, indicate that modern mining had untold negative effects on the people of Akyem Abuakwa, including prostitution, which created a serious social problem in the traditional state. Many migrant mine laborers were generally not accompanied to Abuakwa by their wives. The presence of such a large body of single male workers contributed to the high incidence of prostitution, sexually transmitted diseases, and alcoholism in the state during the 1930s and 1940s (ADM 26/6/49 PRAAD Koforidua). Such migrant male workers entered into relationships with prostitutes or local Abuakwa women. Prostitution created a serious social problem in Abuakwa, especially in the spread of venereal diseases, which in turn led to much marital misery and frustration, because most men infected their wives, leading to incessant quarrels between many couples. Venereal diseases were “responsible for most of the sterility, still [sic] births and sickly short-lived infants” in Akyem Abuakwa (ADM 26/6/49 PRAAD Koforidua). Out of frustration, one A. E. Annafi, a linguist of the Tarkwahene of Akyease, committed suicide by shooting himself because of the excruciating pains he was going through after contracting a venereal disease (AASA 4/69:70). Modern mining brought to Abuakwa strange diseases, such as relapsing fever, which a report of the Medical and Sanitary Department of 1926 states was common among the Zabrama and Gawo laborers who came from French Senegal and Niger: “These wandering labourers [sic] invariably come from the Northern Territories and the disease usually starts among the Zaberrima and Gawos which are tribes from French territory.” According to the same department in 1927, migrants from the Northern Territories were infected with this disease, and the patients “were not likely to be free from body lice,” which were found in the clothes of all the migrants from the Northern Territories. This led to a suggestion by the mine authorities that a new village should be built at Esubone and the old ones burned with the lousy clothing. This yielded good results, but only temporarily. In October 1930, information was received that another outbreak of relapsing fever had occurred in Esubone, a camp village at No. 2 Mine at Akwatia. Many laborers recruited from the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast were unfit (Gold Coast Colony and Ashanti Medical Report 1937): on arrival at Akwatia, they were heavily infected with hookworm, tropical ulcers, and pulmonary diseases (Gold Coast Report of the Medical Department 1935). The back-breaking jobs they performed at the mines worsened their plight. Fatigue and the smoke that they inhaled at the treatment plants resulted in tuberculosis. For lack of education, laborers who contracted the disease were not isolated and given separate cups and bowls to use. The disease became common among laborers from the north because at Akwatia, initially, they lived in unsanitary and congested rooms, which facilitated the spread of infections (Ormsby Gore Report 1926). Furthermore, the laborers indulged in the habit of spitting as a result of chewing kola and betel nuts (Gold Coast Report of the Medical Officer 1922). In Akwatia, some able-bodied men and


women were incapacitated by tuberculosis (Government of the Gold Coast Report 1925). Cases of marital unfaithfulness increased in Akyem Abuakwa because of financial inducements from the mine workers, who in the 1930s and 1940s were better paid than their counterparts in the government sector and farm laborers. They were likelier to be “in funds” more of the time than any other group of workers: “the labourers at Akwatia on the diamond mines are paid weekly and there is no difficulty” (Gold Coast Government Report 1939). Modern mining in Akyem Abuakwa was accompanied by a high incidence of criminal activity. Stealing and robbery became prevalent. The District Commissioner’s Report for September 1930 showed “burglary, robbery and theft to be on the increase” (ADM 29/6/3). The crime rate increased, especially at the time workers collected their wages, with gangs of armed thieves terrorizing the people (ADM 29/6/49; ADM 29/6/32:13). The growth in the crime rate was attributed partly to the lightness of the penalties imposed by the courts and partly to the presence of unemployed aliens in the state (ADM 11/1776:12). The European Mining Companies tried to deny the Africans freedom of movement. In an obvious breach of the provision in the Concessions Ordinance that guaranteed the Africans’ customary rights within the limits of a concession “in respect of shifting cultivation, collection of firewood, hunting and snaring of game,” the people of Akyem Abuakwa were denied free access to concessions for those purposes (ADM 11/1/1706; Simensen 1975a, 1975b).The Birrim (No.1) Diamond Area Regulation, also known as Regulation No. 15, made under the 1900 Concessions Ordinance, partitioned Western Akyem Abuakwa into two zones, outer and inner. The former, also known as the zone of restriction, was enclosed by a barricade of police posts at Osenase, Suponso, Manso, Asene, Wankyi, Takorasi, Kusi, Kade, Pramkese, Apiramang, and Akenten. The latter, also called the zone of exploitation, was also monitored by a barricade of police posts, OsenaseBoadua road junction, Suponpum station, Adankrono, Boadua, and Topremang (Ordinances of the Gold Coast 1926). Within these zones, the movement of persons and the conveyance of articles were controlled, probably as a safety measure (Gold Coast Annual Report 1926). The control posts were to check the movement of people into the mining areas to protect them from falling into uncovered pits and to guide against the pilfering of diamonds. Regulation No. 15 infringed on landowners’ rights and seized peoples’ land, in addition to inflicting intense hardship and inhumane restrictions. AddoFening (1997) comments on the destructiveness of Regulation 15 under the Ordinance (1900): With effect from 30 June 1926 no person was to “enter or be in the Area of Exploitation” except with the knowledge and approval of the managers of CAST. Alternatively such a person was to be in possession of an appropriate Residence Permit issued by a DC, or an appropriate Travelling Permit issued




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Regulation 15 of 1926 clearly shows the extent to which the colonial government aided and abetted European capitalists to marginalize the people of Akyem Abuakwa. It was one of the most malicious pieces of legislation ever passed in the Gold Coast. The mining industry created food insecurity in the state. The increased influx of immigrants into the state due to scientific mining and the widespread alienation of land to concession hunters affected agricultural activities in Abuakwa immensely. Their attention was directed to wage employment in the mines and cash crop farming, thereby neglecting the production of food crops. The result was food insecurity. Also, the purchase of concessions which translated into control over extensive expanse of Abuakwa land conferred on the expatriate mining companies enormous rights and powers and restricted access to the indigenes for farming purposes. Therefore, throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the state experienced food crises, as is evident in the speech of Governor Guggisberg at Kyebi in 1920, when he urged the people to take advantage of the extension of the railway through their state to produce food on a commercial scale (ADM 11/1778). His admonition fell on deaf ears, despite the high prices of food, and Abuakwa relied to a great extent on importation of food from Kwahu to supplement local supply during the 1920s. The food crisis was exacerbated in 1924 when Kwaku-Akuamoah V, paramount chief of Kwahu, imposed a ban on the exportation of “certain articles of food into Akyem.” Akyem Abuakwa continued to depend on food imports during the early 1930s. In 1931, the import bill for food was £700,000. Among the imported items were rice (£100,000), flour (£100,000), fish (£250,000), beans from Nigeria, cooking oil, and meat (Addo-Fening 1997). Concentration and prolonged mining activities in the area gave rise to various environmental problems. Considerable areas of land and vegetation

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by the DC or a superior Police Officer, for a valid period of 14 days. The penalty for breach of the Regulation was six months’ imprisonment with hard labour or a fine of £50. Residence Permits might be cancelled at the discretion of the Provincial Commissioner after one month’s notice if, in his view, the residence of the holder was “prejudicial to the effective working of any mine or mining works within the Area of Exploitation.” The DC or Superior Police Officer might, “at any time and without notice,” cancel a Travelling Permit issued by him or his predecessor. Hawking of wares or trading in the Area of Exploitation without the consent of a Manager or of the DC was made a punishable offence. Except for Government Officers and their parties no one was to be allowed to move about within the Area of Exploitation between 6.30 p.m. and 5.30 a.m. “unless he carried an efficient light.” In the case of the “outer zone,” no one, except government officers on duty and their followers, was to enter or leave the area “except by one of the control posts.”


were cleared for mining, promoting deforestation, soil erosion, and sedimentation. The open pit mines sunk by the mining companies degraded Abuakwa lands and destroyed the vegetation. The effect was erosion caused by the removal of the topsoil and vegetation. Another detrimental effect was that the open pits became death traps to unsuspecting wayfarers, especially the children of Asiakwa, whose chief complained to the governor, who promised to speak to the miners’ engineer on this subject (SNA Papers 1901). The dense forests of Akyem Abuakwa were also destroyed because of the heavy machinery the mining companies used in their operations. Afia Boatemaa, the Nifahemaa of Akyem Abuakwa, lodged a complaint to Nana Ofori Atta about the destruction of cocoa farms as a result of felling timber at Asiakwa by Atta Gold Company Limited (AASA 6/7; AASA 6/12). Similarly, 8,274 cocoa trees, 364 palm trees, and 152 kola trees were cut down by the West African Diamond Syndicate Limited at Gyadam-Biremso in the course of their operations on the banks of the Bampobi stream (AASA 6/24). In another instance, 800 cocoa trees belonging to the people of Asuom were destroyed (AASA 6/24). Modern mining also affected agricultural activities adversely. The surface-mining method employed by the diamond-mining companies greatly contributed to effect changes in the agricultural land use. As the mining operations spread out in Akwatia and its surrounding areas, European capitalists destroyed farms to enable their companies to carry out mining operations. The existing cocoa farms were therefore destroyed to make way for mining. Indeed, Abuakwa lost much of its tropical forest suitable for cocoa production (Gold Coast Report 1929–30). The company moved from one place to another, depending on information from the prospecting department confirming the presence of commercially viable diamond deposits. In the process, large farms were destroyed. Pathetically, government policy allowed expatriate mining companies a free hand in determining what to pay as compensation to the farmers. The usual rate for cocoa trees of about thirty-four years old was from 1/- to 1/6d, according to their condition (AASA 6/24). Therefore, the West African Diamond Syndicate Limited paid only £100 as compensation for a large number of cocoa, palm, and kola trees that were destroyed in the course of their operations at Gyadam-Biremso. Only £2 was paid to the Odikro of Asuom for the eighty cocoa trees destroyed in his town (AASA 6/24). The mining concession that carried the right of felling timber led to deforestation of the forests and farmlands of Abuakwa. Another serious consequence of modern mining in Akyem Abuakwa was the commercialization of stool lands, which resulted in intervillage boundary disputes that threatened the stability of the state. Captain Soden, the newly appointed district commissioner for Akyem Abuakwa in 1904 gave an alarming picture of the prevailing state of chronic instability created by the intervillage boundary disputes: In half the towns in the district, natives are selling spirits without licenses. But by far, the most serious state of affairs is


Despite the above social and environmental ills associated with mining activities in Akyem Abuakwa, it is on record that these economic historical events have contributed significantly to the development of the area. A clear case in point is the fact that the mining industry contributed to the development of modern housing in Abuakwa. Houses in Akyem Abuakwa in the nineteenth century were built of mud in a rectangular shape. A compound house often consisted of as many as six rooms, with all doors opening into a central courtyard. The houses lacked modern conveniences and facilities. Mine laborers rented rooms, and more often than not, migrants from French West African territories and those from the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast lived with their Abuakwa landlords. Cultural differences often caused friction. For instance, Muslim tenants were scandalized by the cooking of pork in the houses they lived in. It was these cultural differences that eventually encouraged the growth of zongos, predominantly Muslim settlements, which became adjuncts to the indigenous townships.



Our activities seem to be the source of all kinds of litigation between stools: as you are no doubt aware, the boundaries are in many cases undefined so that anything which tend [sic] to make land of possible commercial value at once raises the question. (Greenhalgh 1973)

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In 1904, a scuffle ensued between the people of Osino and Fankyeneko out of their respective claims of ownership over a piece of land. Such was the fury and emotions generated by the conflict that when the colonial government tried to intervene to restore peace and order, it was defied and snubbed in what later came to be known as the Fankyeneko Riots (Addo-Fening 1997; ADM 11/1/1096). Other boundary disputes ensued between Akyem Abuakwa and the neighboring states of Kwahu and Akyem Kotoku (ADM 26/6/49). The grant of concessions to European firms increased the incidence of litigation between communities. Fankyeneko and Osino resorted to the courts of law for redress in the land dispute that ensued between them (ADM 11/1/1440; ADM 11/1/1096). One mine manager confessed:

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the very bad feeling which exists between many of the towns owing to the grabbing of each other’s stool lands to sell as concession to Europeans. This has now led to several of the towns being ready to take up arms against each other and there is very little doubt that they would fight if it were not for my immediate presence in the vicinity of their towns and the fear of the severity of the punishments I have promised to inflict on the first that causes a breach of the peace. (ADM 11/1/1096)

Social Benefits from Mining Profits


The mining companies did not build permanent houses for their migrant laborers until 1925, when CAST constructed permanent houses for its employees, consisting of a number of quarters (Gold Coast Mine Department Report 1925–26). Each quarter comprised two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bath for headmen. The quarters gave the appearance of an army barracks. The rooms were tiny. The quality of the buildings was an improvement on the mud huts: they had more windows and doors, allowing for more ventilation. Second, the materials used in building the modern houses were of higher quality than the ordinary sand, mud thatch, and wood used to construct the traditional huts. Notwithstanding the advantages of the modern houses, they were too small to accommodate many people and were unsuitable for polygamous households. Workers with many dependants found them unsuitable; they and their families were congested in their quarters and were exposed to epidemics and other infectious and contagious diseases (Mensah 2011). During the same period, the company built bungalows for its expatriate workers separated from the African workers’ quarters. Surrounded by beautiful and well-attended gardens, the houses had all the essential amenities that middle-class Europeans required for comfort. The company also built clubhouses as recreational facilities for the workers and expatriate staff. Junior African workers were barred from entering the clubhouse for the expatriate management staff; only senior African workers were allowed (Mensah 2011). CAST clubhouses were among the best in the Gold Coast, well equipped with libraries, wireless facilities, refrigerators, comfortable seats, and facilities for indoor games: as centers for social intercourse, they were judged to be excellent (Report of Mines Committee 1953). The works of Greenhalgh, the district commissioners’ reports, and reports of the Labour Department of the Gold Coast and the Government of the Gold Coast Mines Department Reports provide details of the features of the workers’ quarters. The Mines Department Report (1925/26) states: The buildings are substantial and constructed of concrete blocks comprising six Bungalows for Staff, Offices, Stores, Workshops, Ward and Dispensary, Police barracks and African quarters. The various camps were connected by telephone. At present the camps are being furnished with a reticulated water supply, electric lighting and a cold storage and refrigerating plant.

In 1926, Governor Guggisberg commended the Akwatia Camp as being “quite a topic of conversation here in Accra” (Greenhalgh 1974). In 1932, the senior health officer stated: The main village is a model of cleanliness and order. . . . Internally the dwellings represent the cleanest and tidiest


appearance I have ever seen in any inhabited African quarters. (CAST AGM 1932)

The first thing which impresses the visitor at Akwatia is the general tidiness of the place. The roads are all good, the European bungalows are bright and cheerful and the mine villages are models. More attention than usual is paid to the housing of the clerks who have extremely comfortable quarters. . . . The mine is adequately equipped with a hospital and a dispensary. Akwatia was properly planned from the very beginning and the result is what we see today—the Bournville [good town] of the Gold Coast. (Labour Department 1939, emphasis added)



According to Greenhalgh, the mining villages built by CAST around Akwatia became centers of attraction, to which the government often brought visitors to the colony. There are many such approving remarks. Through the operations of CAST, Akwatia became a beautiful town. This was manifested by the construction of access roads between Akwatia and the surrounding areas to facilitate the mining operations. There was a general tidiness of the town. In 1936, CAST built a hospital and a dispensary, providing facilities for free medical care to the mine workers, as well as the Abuakwa people in the neighborhood of Akwatia (COS 21/22/109). The most impressive thing of all, however, was the way the ground was leveled again after it had been worked. Akwatia was properly planned from the beginning of mining operations in the area. The company’s style of architecture greatly affected housing construction in Akwatia and its environs. In 1938, J. R. Dickinson, the first head of the newly established Labour Department, carried out a preliminary survey of labor conditions in the Gold Coast. Assessing the effects of CAST’s operations at Akwatia, he stated:

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In every respect this is a mine such as I have not seen before, European quarters, roads, machinery, mine villages, mine hospital and even the sanitation of the ground after exploitation are a whole civilisation ahead of anything I have so far seen in West Africa. . . . It is noteworthy that here where conditions appeared the best, I met the least complaint regarding the efficiency, discipline and regularity of the labour force. (Greenhalgh 1974)

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The district commissioner’s report of 1934 confirmed Guggisberg’s comment about the Akwatia Camp: “the Camp occupied by the Europeans, three in number is well laid out and there was a general air of prosperity about the place” (ADM 26/6/49). An International Labour Organization (ILO) officer undertaking a duty tour of West Africa in February 1936 remarked:


Bournville, or Good Town, was at the time a famous model community for workers built by the Cadbury Company for workers in its chocolate factory in Birmingham. Presumably, CAST’s creation of a Bournville in Ghana was part of a policy of shifting from employing migrant labor (males unaccompanied by their families) to hiring workers who would stay long-term and therefore be accompanied by their wives and children. In the comparative history of mining in colonial Africa, this change, known as labor stabilization, was pioneered by Belgian mining firms in the Congo in the 1920s. The basic logic was that permanent workers, though requiring higher wages, could be trained. Labor stabilization was probably aimed at raising profits, though it required high investment to implement (Austen 1987). According to Nana Antwi Darkwa, Akwatia Aberade Abusuapanin, some of the mud houses in Akwatia, Boaduwa, Topremang, and Atiankama by 1940 were gradually being replaced by sandcrete block rectangular compound houses in imitation of European models. Gradually, Akwatia developed into a beautiful township. The houses were airy and congenial, roofed with corrugated iron sheets, and of permanent superstructure (Darkwah 2012).

Educational and Other Benefits from Mining Profits in Akyem Abuakwa The mining industry enabled the chiefs of Abuakwa to mobilize funds to build schools and sponsor their subjects’ education. A major concern of Nana Ofori Atta I after his installation as Okyenhene was to make Abuakwa a modern state. To achieve this aim, he sponsored many pupils from his kingdom in institutions of higher learning so that they would return with their expertise to help develop the state. He did this first by instituting stool-funded scholarships and later through the institution of the Okyeman Fund, not only in secondary schools, but also in universities abroad. That was a time when not a single university existed in the Gold Coast and the colonial administration was tight-fisted on expenditures for university education. Nana Ofori Atta, in a letter to J. L. Williams, manager of Goldfields of Eastern Akim in London in 1921, stated: My chiefs and I have decided that two or three young men should at the earliest opportunity be sent to England to have a thorough and sound education and to subsequently take up such profession for which they could qualify. (AASA 6/74)

Through this scheme, Okyeman gave university education to its citizens at Oxford, Cambridge, London, Durham, Glasgow, Birmingham, and Edinburgh universities and at Trinity College, Dublin (AASA 11/52, Afari, 2011). According to Rathbone, Wright, and Addo-Fening, much of the funding came from Ofori Atta’s own share of stool revenue. He inherited a traditional state whose land abounded in gold, diamonds, and to some extent, silver (AASA 6/24). By the turn of the twentieth century, Akyem Abuakwa was


When you get the accounts[,] I shall be glad if you will write a letter to Cayco (London) Ltd instructing them to pay your share of the profits [royalty] to your account at the Bank of British West Africa in London[,] and then you can instruct them to pay the account to me. This amount I will place to the credit of William’s account. If you can see your way, I should like you to send me a remittance in respect of monies disbursed by me on account of William. (AASA 6/24)

With the collaboration of the Abuakwa Scholars Union, made up of a coalition of educated sons of the Abuakwa state and formed in 1916 under



Another letter written by Austin, to Nana Ofori Atta I in 1939, states:

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I used to pay all the university fees of William Ofori Atta[,] and from time to time, the late Omanhene would instruct Cayco (London) Limited [a mining consortium] with mines in Akyem Abuakwa to pay me such part of his share of the profits which would discharge the obligation. When Susan Ofori Atta came over to this country[,] I used to pay her fees and advanced money for her maintenance, then later I would be refunded by your uncle instructing Cayco . . . to pay me. (AASA 3/14)

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one of the richest Gold Coast states in terms of natural resources (AADM 11/1/1440). The Okyenhene adopted prudent measures to maximize the collection of these revenues. To begin with, he formulated a comprehensive policy for managing stool lands, by which he sought to check the reckless alienation of stool lands and use of the state’s resources by his subchiefs. On January 27, 1915, with the support of the Okyeman Council, a bylaw was passed to forbid unauthorized alienation of stool lands by his subchiefs. Second, the Okyenhene threatened to reenter several mining concessions for the nonpayment of rents by its European owners, who had abdicated their responsibility to pay or were in arrears of rents due. As custom demanded, he as the Okyenhene was personally entitled to a one-third share of all revenue accruing to the state in the form of rents and royalties in his capacity (CSO 21/6/39, Afari 2011). Calculations from the balance sheets that were sent to Nana Ofori Atta II after the demise of John Saxton showed that from December 1921 to September 1927, Joseph Boakye Danquah had received through the former’s hands a grand total of £3,460 sterling (AASA 11/52), and Susan Ofori Atta’s fees as a medical student at the Royal Free Hospital in London had cost £300 per annum (AASA 11/42). Nana Ofori Atta I kept sums of money raised by director’s fees and dividends managed by John Saxton and later by Walter Austin, a business partner based in Britain. In 1943, Austin explained his role after Nana Ofori Atta I’s demise:


Danquah’s leadership, Okyenhene Ofori Atta I succeeded in establishing the Okyeman Scholarship Scheme to fund the education of bright pupils from the state. The union sought to promote development in the state, with special emphasis on education (Addo-Fening 1997). The scheme was financed by the contribution of 5 percent of revenue from all land sales (Addo-Fening 1997). The union again advocated for legislation to compel chiefs to educate stool heirs by way of accepting responsibility for sponsoring their education. Ofori Atta believed that the lack of formal education impeded a chief’s ability to perform his duties and made him vulnerable to manipulation or outright condemnation by the Colonial Office. He was intent upon rectifying the shortcoming. In 1918, he proposed the compulsory education of stool heirs (Firmin-Sellers 1996). The people of Apinamang, for instance, applied this bylaw to compel their chief, Kofi Boateng, to abdicate for his negligence in educating heirs to the stools (ADM 11/1/457). In a memo presented to the Presbyterian synod meeting at Kyebi on July 11, 1941, Nana Ofori Atta declared: I do, and shall always emphasise [sic] that education should be regarded as one of the foremost duties towards the community; and any chief who fails or neglects his duty can hardly be deemed worthy of his trust. (Dampare 1944)

He also used his share of the rents and royalties to fund or construct school buildings. In 1917, he built the Kyebi primary and middle schools, later taken over by the central government and renamed the Government School. To show the government that he was earnest about the school, he expressly volunteered to construct the school building (Addo-Fening 1997). In 1929, he further extended the Kyebi school premises at his own expense: As the government fully realise [sic] now, Akim Abuakwa is not well provided with educational facilities[,] and since this school is the only Government school in Akim Abuakwa, I thought no further representation in this matter was needed. I am quite willing to grant the land for the extension[,] and if you would indicate to me the dimension of the land wanted, I should have it marked out at once. (AASA 11/32)

His belief in the importance of higher education led to the establishment of the Abuakwa State College in 1935, with a grant of £10,000 as seed money, made from his share of stool revenue (Addo-Fening 2007), the rents and royalties he collected from mining companies (AASA 11/29). Okyeman therefore became the first traditional state in the Gold Coast to establish a secondary school (AASA 11/29). The school was started at Akyem Asafo in 1935 and was moved to Kyebi in the same year. The decision to build a state college at Kyebi was first mooted by the State Council of Akyem Abuakwa in 1935 (R.G. 3/5/607). At that time, only ten secondary schools existed in the




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colony, with a total enrollment of 3,089 students. Of these, only Achimota (1929) was government owned; of the rest, Christian missions owned the majority. Two of the privately owned schools—Accra Academy and Accra High School—were located in Accra (Afari 2011). Besides, Ofori Atta gave generous financial assistance to schools in his kingdom. An instance of this was his contribution of £12 to the Kukurantumi Presbyterian School, toward the purchase of a set of jazz band instruments (AASA 11/32). Again, he donated £5 to the Kyebi Junior Trade School on Empire Day (AASA 11/32). He presented gifts of money, portraits, and silver cups to schools in Akyem Abuakwa to encourage educational activities, and he organized interschool sports competitions, bearing all expenses in connection with them (AASA 11/32). During his thirty-one year rule, the state of Akyem Abuakwa made remarkable strides in education. Some of the sons and daughters of Abuakwa returned with the expertise to serve the state. Danquah, Ofori Atta’s half-brother, became the state secretary and contributed significantly to the political development of the Gold Coast. He founded the United Gold Coast Convention, the first political party in the Gold Coast. Long before the promotion of women’s empowerment at the national level, Ofori Atta’s progressive policies on education had given to the Gold Coast in 1949 its first female medical doctor. In the political struggle for independence, two of the architects—the so-called Big Six—were sons of Akyem Abuakwa who had benefited from Ofori Atta’s educational policies. Critics of Ofori Atta, especially Catherine Firmin-Sellers (1996), question how he was financing his projects. She says that under colonial rule, chiefs like Ofori Atta fought to reinvent tradition and struggled to articulate a distributionally favorable version of customary land tenure and enforce it within his state. The efforts of the chiefs in conjunction with and in response to British pronouncements determined whether and which property rights were enforced. According to her, in Akyem Abuakwa, Ofori Atta drew upon the coercive authority of the colonial state, using it to end a conflict between him and the chiefs of Asamankese and Akwatia over rents and royalties from diamond concessions in Akyem Abuakwa. He then reinvented the traditional institutions of the state to channel that coercive authority; forging a credible commitment to abide by a single property-rights system. Coercion and cooperation thus coexisted, fostering investment and economic growth in the state. Property rights and custom became fixed and stable. The extraordinary judgment of the Okyeman Council in November 1921—that “we know that the Omanhene of Akim Abuakwa is the owner of all Akim stool lands”—was, of course, the proximate cause of the attempted secession of Asamankese and Akwatia in 1921. Rathbone (1993) questions the idea of primordial tradition and argues that Ofori Atta was concerned with centralizing his personal power and used tradition as a tool for his personal project. He questions whether “timeless tradition” exists. Ofori Atta’s version of tradition mirrors a great deal the ideas of Danquah, a Western-educated lawyer, who produced a book on


Akyem Abuakwa that served the political purpose of legitimatizing the paramount, supposedly primordial, control over the kingdom. The royal family directly controlled scarcely any land in Akyem Abuakwa, and it could therefore not act as a direct vendor. The Okyenhene could get a share of the profits on land commoditization and commercialization only via rent taxation and, in effect, taxing the land sales of others. Faced with these developments, the ruling dynasty took steps to centralize the kingdom to reestablish social control over the chiefs and commoners. In the process, the relative autonomy of wing chiefs was eroded. This proved to be a manipulative device, aimed at preserving social capital (Grischow 2008; Grischow and Knight 2008). The preservation of bonding social capital in Akyem Abuakwa relied on the threat of force backed by the coercive power of the state, made possible by the Native Administrative Ordinance (NAO) of 1927 (Berry 2001). Kobina Sakyi accused Ofori Atta of manipulating traditional law and custom, which marginalized his divisional chiefs, proving himself an autocrat. He goes on to say that Ofori Atta applied the NAO for the settlement of a long-standing political dispute: in other words, he was an unscrupulous chief, who exploited a pernicious ordinance to his people’s detriment (Edsman 1979). One of the greatest effects of scientific mining was the introduction of pipe-borne water to some communities of Abuakwa. Before the advent of scientific mining in the area, the people suffered from water pollution. Lack of toilet facilities led people to defecate at random, adding to riverine pollution, and then people washed their clothes in the streams and rivers, which, as a result of mining activities, became further polluted from discharge of chemicals. These waterways were the Pumpuni, Anikyekye, Amow, Birem, and other rivers. A clear manifestation of this pollution was recorded in a letter written by the district commissioner to Ofori Atta inquiring about the extent of water pollution at the Pusupusu mines (AASA 6/24; AASA 6/4). Mercury used during the amalgamation process in gold mining disastrously affected the health of miners and communities situated in close proximity to the sites (Akabzaa, Seyiree, and Afriyie 2007). To help safeguard the health of the local community, CAST supplied pipe-borne water to the Akwatia township. This plan was begun in 1936, and by 1939, CAST had completed construction of pipe-borne water supply to the entire township (COS 21/22/109). The mining industry affected interethnic relations in Abuakwa. Before the advent of modern mining, most people of Abuakwa practiced traditional religion. They believed in a creator-god, ancestral spirits, and supernatural entities or lesser deities, who derived their powers essentially from the supreme being (Darkwah 2012). Christianity was introduced to Akyem Abuakwa by the Basel Mission in 1853 (Jenkins 1972), but only in 1881 did it gain a footing in Asamankese and Akwatia (Brew 1981). In 1919, Wesleyan missionaries started work in Asamankese and Akwatia and its environs (Brew 1981). The cosmopolitan character of Akwatia and the other mining centers in Abuakwa promoted religious pluralism: membership in these churches grew to comprise indigenous Abuakwa peoples and miners.




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Migrant laborers from the Northern Territories and the French West African colonies largely espoused the Muslim faith and helped create a vibrant Muslim culture at Akwatia and the other mining centers. In 1930, CAST built a mosque and a church at Akwatia for its Muslim and Christian employees, respectively (Gold Coast Government Report 1939). The general atmosphere of religious harmony and tolerance made it possible for Muslim men to marry Abuakwa women and vice versa. The resultant influx of migrant laborers transformed Abuakwa’s ethnically homogeneous population in Akwatia into a plural society, comprising Akan, Ga, Grusi, Wangara, Kotokoli, Zamrama, Yoruba, and others. Initial cultural disharmony in the town was caused by the diversity of language, faiths, settlement patterns, and taboos, but a housing shortage in Akwatia compelled migrant workers to share accommodation in private homes. This led to growth of tolerance, as people began learning each other’s language and culture. The spirit of tolerance increased further by residential accommodation for workers of all ethnicities. As Muslim migrant workers did not have their wives with them, they formed relationships with Abuakwa women. Non-Muslim spouses ultimately became converts to Islam faith (Darkwah 2012). Such intermarriages presumably diminished tribal particularism and fostered a sense of harmony among the ethnic groups. The mining industry created job opportunities, directly and indirectly. The effect of the boom in scientific mining in Akyem Abuakwa attracted immigrants with a variety of skills: carpenters, metal workers, machine operators, tailors, and so forth. From them, Abuakwa indigenes learned various trades. Bricklayers, carpenters, and other builders migrated from the neighboring states of Kwahu and Akuapem, and from Accra and the Volta Region, to work at the mines in Akyem Abuakwa. Most of these skilled laborers hailed from Akuapem because of their special training in skilled crafts at the school of the Swiss Basel Mission; Fante from Cape Coast, Saltpond, and Elmina also migrated to work as skilled laborers (Ohemeng 2011). Because of dislike for tedious and hazardous work, the Akan people acquired skills and gradually moved to take positions as metalworkers, machine operators, office clerks, carpenters, blastmen, and chemical treatment men (Mensah 2011). Between 1921 and 1922, about 141 Abuakwa natives were employed in the goldfields of Eastern Akim (Gold Coast Government Report 1923). By April 1926, 114 Africans were being employed by the Atta Gold Company, which opened a quartz reef at Kyebi (Gold Coast Government Report 1927). In January 1934, about 400 Africans were being employed by the Holland Syndicate Diamond Company at its two plants at Takorase (ADM 26/6/29). Similarly, in 1927, CAST employed a large labor force, of about 693 Africans, while the West African Diamond Syndicate employed 618 (Gold Coast Government Report 1928). As new mines in Akyem Abuakwa opened up, raising prospects of more avenues of employment, A. E. B. Danquah (later Nana Ofori Atta) left his job as a clerk in Hutton Mills’ Chambers to work as a clerk with Goldfields of Eastern Akim in 1902 (Rathbone 1993). After

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graduating from Albert Academy in Sierra Leone, Daniel Augustus Opoku returned to Akyem Abuakwa to work with a mining company before succeeding his uncle as Ofori Atta II in 1943 (Rathbone 1993). Apart from these notable royals, the mining companies in Akyem Abuakwa offered job opportunities to Abuakwa citizens who had acquired vocational and technical education from the Kyebi Trade School as carpenters, masons, and metalworkers (AASA 11/21). Apart from offering job opportunities to Abuakwa people who cared to work in mines, the mining companies contributed to the state revenue of Abuakwa. Traditional rulers whose stools owned lands under concession were enriched. Indeed, the mining industry became the largest source of revenue for the paramount stool, as well as some of the Abuakwa substools, during the 1930s. In a letter from the Secretary of CAST to Nana Ofori Atta, the secretary estimated the cumulative revenue accruing to the state in 1933 at £750,000:

EX TR AC TIVE CAPITALISM AND ITS SOCIAL BENEFITS IN AK YEM ABUAK WA UNDER NANA OFORI AT TA I

As you are aware[,] the concessions were taken up on very generous terms[,] both with regard to consideration money, rents[,] and royalties[,] and since the inception of work by our organisations [sic], we claim that not only have we immeasurably benefitted the sub-Stools [sic] within Akim Abuakwa; [sic] where we are working, but have also greatly benefitted surrounding sub-stools and also the Paramount Stool by the very large payments made in consideration money, rents, [and] royalties[,] amounting to £750,000[,] the majority of which has been spent within Akyem Abuakwa. (AASA 6/4)

A “Return of Concessions Rents payable at the Eastern Province” showed that thirty-one out of thirty-two listed concessions paid an annual rent of £5,240 to various stools in the state during 1932. Of the amounts, £812.25 went directly to the paramount stool besides the one-third customary share, by which it received another £1,371. The paramount stool’s share of the rents and royalties paid by CAST to the secessionist chiefs of Asamankese and Akwatia between 1929 and 1931 was estimated at £57,960.92 (ADM 11/11/630). Rents and royalties paid to the Asamankese and Akwatia stools in 1930 amounted to £750 per quarter, while royalties constituting 5 percent of the company’s profits amounted to between £10,000 and £12,000 per annum (ADM 26/4/49). The mining companies constructed roads into the Abuakwa hinterlands. Before the year 1900, no motorable road existed anywhere in Akyem Abuakwa. A road from Accra inland had been constructed by the government as far as a place called Sansami (ADM 11/1/3). Goldfields of Eastern Akim Limited stationed officials at Apedwa in 1900 to supervise improvements to the Sansami-Apedwa road. Lack of regular maintenance caused the road to deteriorate fast, and by the beginning of 1907, it was not being “very much used” (ADM 29/6/1). Exports from Akyem Abuakwa had to




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be conveyed to the coast by headloads. Cocoa and coffee were put in casks and rolled along narrow and winding paths. At the time of Ofori Atta’s ascension, motor transport was only just coming into popular use in the colony. A few lorries had been imported into the country in 1907. By 1910, possibly twelve motor vehicles could be found in the whole country (ADM 14/2/3). The outbreak of World War I put an end to locally “skilled road construction.” Until 1919, expenditure on new roads was “cut down to [the] vanishing point,” and responsibility for road construction was shifted onto the chiefs (ADM 14/2/3). With the coming of scientific mining, some chiefs who lived in the auriferous areas were financially empowered. This enabled the more progressive ones to construct roads and bridges on their own accord from the rents and royalties they collected from the mining companies that were operating in their jurisdiction. For example, the chief of Abompe built a bridge over the Birem River to facilitate vehicular movement in 1929, when he engaged a Mr. Newton for £1,500 in fees to construct a road to link his village to the railway station at Osino; the contract included the construction of a bridge over the river (ADM 26/6/49). In the same year, Ofori Atta constructed the road from Apedwa to Kyebi out of his share of mining rents and royalties (Addo-Fening 2011). In the last quarter of 1916, he had “placed a contract for the reconstruction and bridging” of that road at a cost of £1,500 (ADM 29/6/10). From 1917 to March 1918, he kept the road in a good state of repair without any subsidy from the government. Thanks to his initiative and commitment, the Apedwa-Kyebi road had become “a very fine road” by the beginning of 1922 (ADM 11/1778). Additionally, the mining companies supplemented governmental efforts in road construction in Akyem Abuakwa. The needs of the mining industry led to the construction of the twenty-mile Asamankese-Akwatia road in 1923. This enabled CAST to transport the boiler of a portable steam engine to Akwatia in a Vulcan lorry weighing more than 5 tons in February 1924. In 1929, the road was extended northward to Kade for the purpose of transporting machinery to CAST’s new field of operation, north of the Amow River (ADM 26/6/49). In the same year, Cayco Limited built a bridge over the Amow River (ADM 26/6/49). In 1931, CAST Limited and Akim Concessions Limited built several minor roads linking the mining centers of Akwatia with the neighboring communities of Takrowase, Topremang, Kusi, Soabe, Wenchi, and Nkwanta. Similarly, the road from Wenchi was extended to join the Oda-Nkawkaw road to Oda. The road network increased tremendously, and Atiankama was linked to Asubone and Akwatia (Mensah 2011). In 1934, the West African Diamonds Syndicate Limited constructed the NkwantaGyadam road, soon described as “one of the straightest if not the straightest road in the Gold Coast. It is a marvel of road construction and bespeaks well of the genius of the contractors” (AASA 6/24). The road from Nkwanta to Akwatia was jointly constructed by CAST and Akim Concessions Limited in 1933 (Mensah 2011). Infrastructural development greatly eased movement of people and goods, as the district commission of Birrim testified: “This is a


great convenience[,] as one can now do the journey in less than half an hour” (ADM 26/6/49; COS 21/2/109). From the status of a village and little-known rest stop before 1922, Akwatia through the operations of the mining companies attained the status of an urban center. Good roads, especially those linking the senior and expatriate staff’s residential area to the mining headquarters, clearly indicated its character. The transformation of Akwatia from a village to an urban community was helped by the construction of access roads between Akwatia and the surrounding areas to facilitate the mining operations. The changes in Akwatia form part of the major changes that took place in the surrounding communities of Kade, Boaduwa, Asubone, Adankrono, Topremang, and Atiankama (Amagyei 1990; Mensah 2011). The mining industry led to the provision of electricity in Akwatia, with ripple effects on the Abuakwa economy. CAST provided electricity for its workers; this facility soon became available to the wider Akwatia public (Mensah 2011). The availability of electric power encouraged the people of Akwatia to own corn-milling machines and electric sewing machines. Electricity encouraged local entrepreneurs to set up small businesses, like sawmills and welding operations. Before the introduction of corn-milling machines, women in Akwatia used pestles and a conical-shaped mortar to pound grains of corn for family meals. This method of grinding corn was tedious, unhygienic, and time consuming. The switch to electricity-driven corn mills enabled women to spend less time grinding their corn. Unlike the traditional method, it was hygienic and efficient, and it became an attractive proposition for women to cook large quantities of maize meals and sell them to the general public. The money earned by food sellers supplemented household budgets provided by the husbands. Tailors in Akwatia took advantage of the extension of electricity to Akwatia town to acquire electric sewing machines, which worked at a faster rate. Tailors could now sew four to six shirts or dresses daily; before then, they could sew only one or two daily (Ohemeng 2011). Artisans like bricklayers, carpenters, and masons and distillers migrated from the neighboring states of Akuapem, Kwahu, and Accra and the Volta Region to Akwatia because of the attraction of the mines. These immigrants introduced diverse trade skills in bricklaying, carpentry, masonry, and distillation, which were taught to the local people (Darkwah 2012). All these activities contributed to the rapid growth of the population at Akwatia and the surrounding villages, Adankrono, Boadua, Atiankama, and Kade. To stop the Abuakwa chiefs from squandering the money they were receiving as rents, and to stop the Asamankese rebels from having access to mining revenues to pursue their lawsuits against Ofori Atta, the colonial government issued a proclamation that brought into being the Asamankese Divison Regulatory Ordinance (ADRO) on March 30, 1935. (ADM 11/1/1105; ADM 26/4/49). It provided for collecting and disbursing stool revenue “directly under the control of government” through the establishment of stool treasuries at Asamankese and Akwatia. Regulations issued on




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2 May under the ADRO provided for government control of all rents, dues, royalties, and revenues from stool lands, as well as “all levies, dues, fees[,] and rates payable by virtue of, or in accordance with, the provisions of any ordinance or bye-laws” that were to be paid into the stool treasuries. The ordinance empowered the governor-in-council to prescribe the purpose for which such revenues were allocated. All individuals who received stool revenue, aside from the prescribed officer (the district commissioner), were to be punished with a fine of £50 or two years’ imprisonment, with or without hard labor (Addo-Fening 1997; ADM 11/1/1105). The ADRO helped end the rebellion by denying the rebel chiefs access to the funds that had sustained their rebellion and lawsuits against the Okyenhene. In an address at the reconciliation meeting held on 27 May 1938, Hon. A. C. Duncan-Johnstone, Commissioner of the Eastern Province, stated that the ADRO was to check “unwarrantable squandering of stool revenue on matters of no constructive value” (ADM 29/6/63). Ofori Atta had no difficulty in drawing his one-third share from the treasuries, but the rebel chiefs required the district commissioner’s approval before they could draw their shares. Thus, the implementation of the ADRO divided the Asamankese front. Lack of funds compelled the rebels to accept proposals for reconciliation and reintegration into the Abuakwa kingdom. The state treasury system positively affected Asamankese and Akwatia in particular, and Akyem Abuakwa in general, in the following ways: it sought to bring order, sanity, and accountability into the matter of collection and expenditure of revenue accruing to the stool; it encouraged accountability, which helped restore lost dignity to the office of the chief; and it allowed long-term planning of development in Akyem Abuakwa, as is evident in the case of Asamankese and Akwatia, which, by reason of their peculiar circumstances, were started on the treasury system earlier (ADM 11/1/1105; ADM 26/6/49). Instances of planned and responsible development that made the state treasury system a worthwhile and beneficial option could be seen in the following. In the 1937–38 fiscal year, Duncan-Johnstone in the said address indicated that £3,572.10.10 had come to the Asamankese Stool by way of revenue from various sources (ADM 11/1/1105; ADM 26/6/49). With this amount, the town raised market sheds and constructed streets, with a drainage system to boot. The same amount enabled the town to maintain a sizeable team of conservancy laborers. Asamankese also had a lorry park, and a comprehensive plan of town drainage was drawn up. (ADM 26/6/49). Again, in the 1939–40 financial year, the minutes of the thirty-first session of the provincial council, held at Dodowa on March 5, 1940, revealed that the native administration of Asamankese had undertaken a number of beneficial public works and had still managed to have an increased bank balance of £400 (ADM 11/1799). Duncan-Johnstone’s address revealed that, in the 1937–38 fiscal year, Akwatia constructed a three-classroom native administration school with a playground, an office, and school equipment, and the school had a strong


teaching staff. Again, drains and market sheds were constructed (ADM 29/6/63). In the 1939–40 financial year, a model village was raised at the cost of £1,000 (ADM 11/1799). Revenue collection showed remarkable improvement. For example, the total revenue paid to the Akwatia stool by CAST in June 1935 was £2,895, and it increased to approximately £4,000 by June 1936. Mining royalties for Akwatia in 1937 were estimated at £3,500, of which the share of Asamankese, representing a fourth of the total royalties paid to the stool of Akwatia by CAST, was pegged at £875. Similarly, the annual estimate of rents from the Asamankese stool lands amounted to £6,000. Tolls from a conservancy, slaughterhouses, and market sheds were pegged at £200, £180, and £500 respectively (COS 21/22/116; Dumehasie, 1997). The array of projects undertaken under the state treasury system— market sheds, streets, networks of drainage systems, schools, playgrounds, school equipment, conservancy services, lorry parks, and other such amenities and utility services—shows conscientious planning, motivated by a desire to enhance the welfare of the people of Akyem Abuakwa. This scenario emphasized a clean break with the past, when huge sums of money meant for the state had been left in the spendthrift hands of chiefs and the traditional ruling elite. It is clear from the above account that the state treasury system was as timely as it was reasonable, and it was unquestionably the result of one of the few ordinances that sought the general good of the Akyem Abuakwa people. According to Addo-Fening (1997): The bulk of the income of £18,094 generated in 1942 was paid out as salaries to chiefs and state functionaries. The salaries ranged from £3,000 per annum for the Okyenhene to £100–£200 for clerical staff and £50–£100 for stool heads and functionaries. The 1939–40 estimates for Asamankese made provision for £2,000 as salaries for chiefs, elders[,] and functionaries[,] with the chief earning £780 per annum.

The stool treasuries laid a firm foundation for an equitable and rational disbursement of public funds for social improvement. They enabled the Abuakwa state to raise sufficient revenue for significant social improvements from the 1940s onward. The commissioner of the Eastern Province acknowledged this fact: I visited Asamankese and Akwatia on the 25 and 26 July and was much impressed by the work which was being undertaken there. In both places there were now large main drains[,] into which all other parts of the towns can be drained. New roads are being constructed in accordance with the layout. Market sheds and lorry park layouts [sic]. Chiefs of both towns are most helpful and have given the D.C. “carte blanche” to knock


down any house which happens to be in line of the layout. (COS 21/22/116)



Ghana’s first gold-mining companies appeared in the 1870s through the 1890s, and mass increases in gold production followed two successive gold rushes in the early 1900s. Gold-mine production remained stable in Ghana until the country’s independence in 1957, after which excessive state control of the industry precipitated an extended period of stagnating production (Hilson 2002).

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Post-1940s Developments

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The state treasury system caught on well in Akyem Abuakwa, especially after Ofori Atta’s visit to the Northern Territories to see the effect of the native treasuries established by W. J. A. Jones. Between March and September 1942, the state treasury, which was well in operation in Akyem Abuakwa, recorded a total of £18,094 from concession rents, royalties, and court fees. Of this amount, £712 was spent on educating staff, £248 for sanitation and latrines, and £700 on a new classroom block at Kyebi (Simensen 1975). The mining industry led to the rapid growth of Abuakwa’s population. Kea (1982) estimates the population of the entire Akyem, comprising Kotoku, Bosome, and Abuakwa, at 120,000 by the first four decades of the eighteenth century; however, available records do not tell us exactly what the population of Abuakwa was before scientific mining commenced in the area. Before the commencement of scientific mining, commercial farming had led to an influx of people from Krobo, Akuapem, and some of the coastal states in search of virgin lands for cultivating cash crops, like palm trees and cocoa. The state experienced an influx of political exiles fleeing the fury of Asante retribution from the 1820s; these were Kotoku and Dwaben nationals (Addo-Fening 1997). But the mining industry brought in all kinds of people from other areas of the Gold Coast, the neighboring French West African countries, and Nigeria, in search of wage employment in the mines. The district commissioner’s annual report for 1916 confirms that “the population is increasing through the influx of strangers” (ADM 29/6/10). Akyem Abuakwa was the sixth most populous region in the Gold Coast in 1921 (Danquah 1928; Firmin-Sellers 1996). From an estimated 90,306 in that year, its population rose to 140,677 in 1931, representing an increase of 55.5 percent, the highest in the Eastern Province of the Gold Coast Colony. A government press release stated, “there was a massive influx of strangers into the diamond areas” (ADM 5/2/4; ADM 29/6/32; Gold Coast Government 1922). People from other areas of the Gold Coast and the neighboring French West African countries immigrated in search of wage employment in the mines. Others immigrated in search of land for cultivating cocoa and to establish private enterprises like shops and goldsmithing business (ADM 29/6/2; AASA 16/5).


Gold production has been declining steadily in Ghana since the late 1960s. This has been due partly to low investments in the industry, occasioned largely by a state ownership policy and state control of the mines. A sharp economic decline since the early 1970s, caused by a combination of factors, both internal and external, brought the country almost to its knees in 1983. Out of economic desperation, Ghana opted for a World Bank–IMF packaged structural adjustment program (SAP), with its prescriptions for neoliberal free-market reforms. Parts of the reform policies were aimed at boosting direct foreign investment into the national economy. Within this context, the mining sector, perceived as imbued with large potential for foreign exchange revenue generation for the country, became a key target (Agbesinyale 2003). Steep economic decline in Ghana since the early 1970s had premised the need for economic reforms by the early 1980s to reverse the decline. The Economic Recovery Programme (ERP), which formed part of the SAP, was launched in 1983. Its primary objective was to remove the barriers hindering the growth of export earnings. Therefore, state-owned mines were privatized, and foreign investment was promoted through a series of newly implemented tax breaks and incentives (Hilson 2002a, 2002b). The SAP for Ghana has meant a liberated economic system, where greater private sector participation in the national economy is seen by economic architects as not only critical, but also paramount for the country’s economic turnaround. Accompanying the SAP were equally radical changes in the country’s mineral and mining laws and policies, providing an impetus for several foreign mining companies to invest in Ghana in search of gold (Agbesinyale 2003). Gold production, however, increased significantly since the launching of the ERP. It rose from its lowest (276,659 ounces) in 1983 to 2.6 million ounces by 1999 (Agbesinyale 2003; Hilson 2002a, 2002b). Gold became the largest foreign exchange earner for the country, demoting cocoa to second place. The gold rush created several thousand mining-related jobs and a revival of local economies of a number of mining towns, areas, and districts. But several problems followed and have remained. Between 1985 and 2000, the national government only sold out all the state-owned gold mines, with their usually extensive mineral concessions, but registered and granted licenses to more than 230 private mining companies of various sizes to prospect for or mine gold. Several of these companies (a number of them foreign owned), won huge mining concessions, which translate into control over extensive expanses of countryside. These are mostly lands out of which rural peasants eke out their livelihood. By 1998, the number of companies prospecting for gold had risen to 237 (154 Ghanaian and 83 foreign), with an additional twenty-three having acquired mining licenses (Aryee 2001). The European mining companies were awarded concessions for thirty to forty years, causing major hardship in rural communities (Banchiriga 2008).


Formalization of the Indigenous or Small-Scale Gold-Mining Industry in Ghana



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From the precolonial era up to the 1980s, indigenous, artisanal, small-scale mining in Ghana remained largely unregulated and received little or no support from governmental bodies. Following decades of unregulated activity, small-scale gold mining was legalized in Ghana in 1989, after the passing of the Small-Scale Gold Mining Law (PNDCL 218), which permits Ghanaians to apply for a license to mine for gold on a plot of land not greater than twenty-five acres, without the use of explosives for a period of three to five years (Hilson 2001; Ykovlena 2007). As Simpson (1999) explains, all parties have benefited from these initiatives: recognizing small-scale mining as a sector nationally enables miners to operate without fear of being prosecuted and to obtain “real-world prices” for products, and it helps the government by preventing products from being smuggled abroad, helping boost national revenues and productions. The initiative has given rise to two groups of operators: those who are registered and thus legalized, and those who operate illegally and are commonly called galamsey: without the requisite mining license, they usually operate on concessions held by other companies (Amankwa and Anim-Sackey 2003). Shortfalls in licensing have fueled the expansion of illegal activities (Hilson and Potter 2003). Their rapid growth is attributed to the acute shortage of jobs and accompanying poverty nationwide, particularly in the rural areas, and which are largely linked to the country’s successive SAPs. As many as 85 percent of the country’s artisanal and small-scale gold-mining operators are in fact galamsey. The government has long legalized artisanal small-scale mining, requiring prospective applicants to follow a series of streamlined regulations to obtain concessions, but ineffective policies and bureaucratic inefficiency have impeded formalization, making the illegal activity more appealing (Banchiriga 2008). In 2005, roughly 250,000 small-scale miners (60 percent of the total labor force) operated without an official license in Ghana (Goba 2015). In practical terms, there are hardly any differences, either organizationally or technologically, between unregistered illegal miners (galamseyers) and registered small-scale miners. The only exception is that registered small-scale miners have security of land tenure. The galamsey operations shed light on Abuakwa’s gold-mining operations some six hundred years ago. Galamsey has strong cultural ties to land, with many using techniques almost identical to those of their ancestors. The commonest equipment utilized at both galamsey and registered sites are basic hand tools, such as pickaxes, sluice boxes, and shovels, though occasionally, Honder water pumps, explosives, and washing plants are used. The most organized of setups have separate stations or locations for performing the necessary activities of gold production. Examples include crushing, grinding, washing, and ore roasting (Hilson 2002a, 2002b). Significant revenues have been generated by the sector since 1989. Ghanaian artisanal and small-scale miners have produced more than USD


300 million worth of gold. Between 1989 and 1994 alone, 30,000 small-scale miners reportedly produced and sold to governmental officers USD 68.36 million worth of gold (United Nations 1996). As Davidson (1993) explains, between 1989 and 1993, the four hundred properties that had registered under the newly introduced legalization scheme produced more than 45,000 ounces of gold (Hilson and Potter 2003). The unprecedented growth in production experienced in Ghana’s artisanal and small-scale gold-mining sector can be attributed to the acute unavailability of jobs and accompanying poverty nationwide. According to the World Bank, some 90 percent of the country’s people are straddling the poverty line (Hilson and Potter 2003). “In diverse areas of the world, artisanal mining has become the livelihood for millions of miners and their families and [the] mainstay of local rural economies” (Davidson 1993), as in Akyem Abuakwa, where the industry appears in recent years to have become a safe haven for poverty-stricken nomadic people and seasonal farmers. To escape this poverty, increasing numbers of Ghanaians have begun migrating to Akyem Abuakwa, where many are turning into artisanal and small-scale gold miners. These migrants come principally from Wa and Bolgatanga. Some come from Accra, Kumasi, Prestea, and Tarkwa. Individuals from the Western Region generally have substantial experience working underground, skills they acquired while working at large-scale mines (Banchiriga 2006). The opening of galamsey sites has propelled significant migration to the area, and some miners have brought their families. Many galamsey miners are locals or natives. About 40 percent of people involved in illegal artisanal small-scale mining at Noyem and Ntronang galamsey sites are women (Ykovlena 2007). There is an alternative viewpoint on why people choose to engage in artisanal mining. Drawing upon experiences from Akwatia, Ghana’s center of diamond production since the mid-1920s, Hilson’s (2010) analysis challenges the community-held view that the region’s people are drawn to artisanal mining solely because of a desire to get rich quick. The closure of the Ghana Consolidated Diamonds (GCD) mine, a state-owned, mechanized operation and the lifeblood of the town for decades, left hundreds of people jobless. With few alternative employment prospects, most former GCD employees have joined their colleagues in alluvial diamond fields. To alleviate their hardships, many of the town’s so-called lifetime diamond miners have secured employment in neighboring artisanal gold-mining camps. These people pursue work in surrounding artisanal gold-mining communities mainly because of poverty, but their decision has more to do with a desire to continue familiar activities, which offer stable employment and consistent salaries and provide immediate debt relief. Most find employment at the sprawling unlicensed artisanal gold-mining camps in neighboring localities, such as Kobriso, Kyebi, and Akenten (Hilson 2010). The introduction of industrial mining in Abuakwa in the late nineteenth century led European mining and prospecting firms to negotiate for concessions and pay rents and royalties to stool occupants. Though


Conclusion

Public Records and Archives Administration Department (PRAAD-Accra) ADM 5/1/9. Gold Coast Annual Reports. ADM 5/2/4. Gold Coast Census Report. ADM 11/1/3. Colonial secretary’s correspondence. ADM 11/1/457. Begoro Matters. ADM 11/1/1096. Proceedings of Enquiry. ADM 11/1/1105. Arbitration Award. ADM 11/1/1420. Native Affairs Annual Report. ADM 11/1/1440. Deeds and Correspondence. ADM 11/11/630. Statement of Deposits and Withdrawals in Respect of the Asamankese and Akwatia Concessions. ADM 11/1097. Road Report in Connection with the Mission Okwahu. ADM 11/ 1/1706. Report of the Committee on Tenure of Land. ADM 11/1776. Address of Welcome to Governor Clifford. ADM 11/1778. H. E.’s reply to a Petition Presented at Kibbi.



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51

Notwithstanding the social and environmental ills associated with scientific mining, the mining industry developed Akyem Abuakwa’s economy, creating new socioeconomic opportunities that transformed Abuakwa society. In the colonial period, the story of Akyem Abuakwa is essentially the story of a spectacular opening up into modernity of a well-endowed but undeveloped traditional state under the leadership of Nana Ofori Atta I. With the rents and royalties he and some Abuakwa chiefs collected from the mining companies, they became catalysts for improvements in the lives of the people they ruled. Ofori Atta laid impressive and progressive foundations in physical infrastructure and education, earning Akyem Abuakwa, even as early as the third decade of the twentieth century, the commendation of a British governor as “the most progressive of our native states in the Gold Coast” (Addo-Fening 1997; ADM 11/1097).

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small-scale mining provides innumerable benefits to the people of Akyem Abuakwa and the Government of Ghana, it has been responsible for a wide range of environmental and socioeconomic complications, such as harmful and destructive effects on the natural environment due to environmental pollution and land degradation. When the minerals of Ghana were vested in the presidency in 1960, Abuakwa chiefs who lived in auriferous areas became indigent and consequently participated in illegal artisanal smallscale mining, and in the process their people have had to grapple with the pollution of their drinking water ever since.

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EMMANUEL A. OFOSU-MENSAH is a senior lecturer in the Department of History, University of Ghana, Legon. He received his PhD in history from the University of Ghana in 2014. His research interests and professional activities focus on mining in Adansi and Akyem Abuakwa traditional areas and on migration. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed academic journals, such as Extractive Industries and Society and the Nordic Journal of African Studies. His interest and specialization in mining history have seen him presenting papers and chairing sessions at international conferences, such as the ninth international Mining History Congress, held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in April 2012, and the fifteenth Balkan Minerals Congress, held in Sozopol, Bulgaria, in June 2013.



———. 1975b. Crisis in Akim Abuakwa: The Native Administration Revenue Measure of 1932. Meittei-

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Ormsby Gore Report on Visit to West Africa. 1926. Africana Section, Balme Library, University of Ghana,