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30.09.2013 Feature Article

The Chinese Gold Rush In Ghana: The True Story Told

The Chinese Gold Rush In Ghana: The True Story Told
30.09.2013 LISTEN

It did not take long for the police cum military junta the National Liberation Council (NLC) to begin combing the southern part of the country to flush out all illegal Chinese nationals most of whom were importees into Ghana by the ousted Ghana's first president Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah to help in he Osagyefo's quest to become lord of Africa.

The Chinese, like their fellow communist Soviets were allocated to Nkrumah's clandestine guerrilla training camps to help teach African freedom fighters to go back to their home lands to justifiably overthrow their governments whose policies and ideologies made them puppets of western imperialism.

So led by Colonel Yeboah, a member of the military cum Police junta, soldiers went to these secret camps including the Konongo Obenemase Gold Mines to flush the Chinese instructors out and hurriedly deported them to China.

The February 24th 1966 coup that ousted Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and his Convention People's Party (CPP) government ended the 'few romantic days between Socialist Ghana and Communist Mao tse tung China as part of the on -going cold war between the US - led West and Soviet Union -led East.

There had been a 'dead silence ' between Ghana and China for decades until the onset of the Fourth Republic when another military adventure led by an Airforce offices ,Flt.Lt.Jerry John Rawlings claiming to believe in socialist ideas began courting Ghana's oldtime friend, China.

The friendship rather budded during the time of the capitalist.New Patriotic Party (NPP) Government under President J.A.Kuffour. The quest for the NPP government to throw its economic policies wider did not leave out the emerging economic super power China.

The Chinese this time did not come in as secret guerrilla instructor but as full - fledged investors in everything from archeology to zoology in addition to offering Ghana soft -term loans and grants to revive her economic developments.Thus, Chinese citizens came in officially as workers of the various Chinese firms contracted under the Ghana - China bilateral agreements.

Then hell broke loose in Ghana with the advent of galamsey or illegal small - scale mining. Some Chinese managed to dangle yen or dollars before some Ghanaian small - scale miners to enter into some joint agreement to land on concessions.

And after these legal Chinese miners had got a foothold on the Ghanaian soil acted like the funny cockroach advert that used to run on Ghana's television.Two Chinese invite five Chinese, who in turn invited 10, who in turn invited 20, who invited 50,100 ,200 ,500 and the number of the illegal Chinese compatriots kept multiplying at a staggering speed to alarm Ghanaians.

The Chinese gold rush in Ghana in our contempory times is not new in the history of the world .Ask the Americans and they would tell you that they suffered similar gold rush by the Chinese with the discovery of gold in the ever expanding territories of the United States in 1859 in places likes Nevada,Dakota ,Arizona and Montana ,America was then compelled to welcome every immigrant who cared to make it to the new world.

According to the book' Histroy of our America Republic ' (second edition) between 1880 and 1890 the pattern of immigration had changed.

'Although the vast majority of immigrants at this time came from Europe, more came from Latin America and from China ,Japan ,the Philippines and other parts of Asia '. The book stated.

But let see what it wrote particularly about China which would give Ghanaian the clue as to what would happen in our country's gold rush .

'By 1880 China has become the main source of immigration from Asia. In 1882 for example over 99 percent of the Asian immigrants were from China' it stated.

This Chinese influx was so alarming that the US took action to stem the tide.

The book states .'But that year ,Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act which limited the number of Chinese who would enter the United Stated.This law was passed because of the protest in California against the immigration of Chinese labourers'.

Mother Ghana seems to be confronted with the same scenario as the US experienced.

The'Yello Peril' which the West labeled Communist China during the Cold War period may be borrowed by Ghana to tag on the illegal Chinese finding their way into Ghana to mine gold illegally.

Even though President John Mahama has mandated a task force to stop all illegal mining activies in Ghana and which has resulted in the flushing out of these Chinese most of whom entered Ghana with false papers,one could not be sure whether the Mahama Administration may not succumb to pressure by the Chinese government to alow its people to remain in return for more loans and qrants. .The Akan adage that 'one does not bash the head of the person in whose mouth ones finger are lodged ' comes to play in the Ghana - China economic power- play .

Yes, The Chinese who were here in at the invitation of Ghana's.first President, Dr. Nkrumah to engage in clandestines activies have metamorphosed over times into illegal immigrant or illegal galamseyers - WHAT NEXT?

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