May The Blood Of The Martyrs Be… As We Count Our Losses

Today, I write what may be my last Galamsey epistle focused on the losses we have had and suffered in the wake of the fight against this existential threat that is only lining the pockets of a few at the detriment of the larger populace as our very existence is threatened by this phenomenon. From the loss of lives, loss of livelihood, loss of biodiversity, through to the loss our lands, we seem to play political chess game marinated in lip services with issues surrounding Galamsey, that even the LI 2462 is hanging between repealing and amendment as it awaits its fate.

The country has suffered some grave and deep wounding losses that no amount of benefit we get from Galamsey can equate. The amount of resources needed to reclaim our lands and river bodies makes Galamsey something we should not embrace as a country. The rise in deformed children churned out in Galasmey battered communities is very alarming and calls for a concerted effort to deal with it. Currently, we are all at risk of the excesses of Galamsey because there is presence of heavy metals in some of the foodstuffs available on our markets and slowly, we are poisoning ourselves through the intake of these foods. Research has shown presence heavy metals in the hair of pregnant women in some of these communities besieged by Galamsey, but the sad part is that we those bearing the brunt of Galamsey are the ones asking that people are allowed to indulge in Galamsey activities. I said in the Galamsey Manifesto that “Galamsey is a lazy approach by any government to solving the unemployment crisis we have in the country” and I reiterate it again, Galamsey should not be seen as a source of livelihood, better interventions (like the ones proffered in the Galamsey Manifesto) should be made to take people from the Galamsey pits. Why should we accept and embrace that which is the end of us?

In the Galamsey conversations, we can never end without talking about the missing excavators from police custody, recently, Dr. Hannah Bissiw the Administrator for Minerals Development Fund lamented the missing of 33 out of 40 excavators she seized and sent to police custody for safe keeping. Mind you, this is not the first-time issues of excavators conjuring magic to vanish out of thin air has popped his ugly head on the front page of our newspapers, flying himself into news items, it happened during the previous administration. This incident is not the only time Dr. Hannah Bissiw has been in the news with respect to Galamsey. In June this year, when during a field operation with the Ghana police Anti-Galamsey Task force arrested 14 Chinese nationals and 10 Ghanaians at Bui Sobinso, the team were ambushed by the villagers (wielding guns, machetes and other weapons) demanding the release of the 14 Chinese nationals (note that they were okay with their fellow Ghanaian being arrested), according Dr. Bissiw even the police in the village tried to push them into releasing the Chinese nationals. In counting our losses, we should not as a country forget to add the late Major maxwell Adam Mahama, the 7 year old boy who got drowned in an abandoned Galamsey pit in Akyem Akrofutu, the twins from my neighborhood who got shot in a crossfire between two waring Galamsey gangs as they went about in the search of their daily bread, the many children who are born with deformities through no fault of theirs, the rivers that have bleached themselves in their quest for survival and the ones that have been squeezed out of their bodies, the rejection of our agricultural products on the world market, the prevalence of non-communicable diseases as a result of the presence of heavy metals in our agricultural produce, the loss of our forest and biodiversity, the eight gallant men we lost in the helicopter crash, the dreams we have shattered because Galamsey is being done on school compounds, just to mention a few.

When I posted the cover picture of this article on my WhatsApp status, a friend commented on how her dad used to buy lobster from the fishermen who fished in the pictured river (River Offin), and it brought to mind my days on the banks of Senensua, and how we have contributed to the loss of these rivers. Sometimes, I ask myself if our leaders don’t see how desolate and polluted our rivers and environment are? How we are losing our forest cover? Whatever it is I hope in counting our losses in wake of the Galamsey pandemic, the blood of the martyrs will be the resolve to say No never again, will we watch ourselves eat away our land! Until then, let us watch as Galamseyers brazenly wield weapons and patronize our streets, destroy the very core of our existence, maybe just maybe when we grow, we will retell the story of how our land once grew trees, and clean had rivers coursing their way on it, but we watched Galamsey feast on the land like a pest without apologies.

Koffi Adu Flair Demigod @ 29/08/25.

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