Decoding the persistence of galamsey in Ghana: The meta-contradictions of neutered law.

Abstract

Against the conventional grain of the persistence of Galamsey in Ghana being attributed to factors such as corruption and “the lack of political will”, this paper with the aid of an eclectic theoretical construct made up of contact zone liminality, Gramcisn crisis and anarchy and the methodology of morphogenetic critical realism, argues that illegal gold mining is rooted in the bifurcated structure of the Ghanaian state as defined by the co-existence of two political orders with contradictory logics of governance: i. traditional institutions based on customary principles of holism and ii. the State which thrives on the principle of sovereignty. While the former privileges customary norms of power-with and power-to attain a sacred-secular balance in the cosmos by moderating the interactions between the homo-sapiens and nature, the former functions by exerting domineering power-over laws to enhance the acquisition of material and political power. The contradictions set up by the clash of the two orders have neutered the disciplinary power of both cultural holism and state laws and hence the tenacity of Galamsey.