But, Whose Fault? The AK47 Found

By Amos Asemone and Fernanda Asemone

Do you keep an eye on world events through mainstream media? If so, chances are you have missed out on many essential news stories from countries around the world.

While many news outlets will cover European, U.K., and U.S. news in great detail, they often leave out essential news from other continents, especially Africa.<

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amos and Fernanda Asemone
• Release date: Jun 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9789988359546

Book preview

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Communities

The Geographical Region

The People

The Communities

Anwia

Teleku-Bokazo

Nkroful

The Natural Environment

Chapter 2: The Background

The Political Context

The National Prospect

Internal Overlapping of Power Institutions

Ghana and Human Rights’ Observance

Public Policies About Natural Resources

Mining Resources in Ghana: Investments and Conflicts

The Nzema Gold Mine

Chapter 3: The First Move

The Stillness

The Mining Project

The Voices of the People

Early Shootings

Chapter 4: Who Is Adamus Resources Limited?

The Company

The Nguvu Project in Adamus Resources

The Bond With the Communities

What Changed?

Chapter 5: The Clash

Police Advance

The Mob Reacts

Violence Grows

Chapter 6: The Missing Rifles

What Is an AK-47?

How Did the Rifles Disappear?

Two Sides: The Division of the Communities

Chapter 7: The Search Begins

A Regional Matter

The Research Begins

The People’s Reaction

The Police Arrival

Chapter 8: Tension Grows

The Police Go Back to the Communities

People Won’t Step Back

Detentions

The Runaways

Vandalism and Pillage

Chapter 9: The Youths Resist, The Police Persist

The Role of Youth

Hide and Seek

The Police Operations

Chapter 10: Where Were the Rifles?

The Deal

The Story Isn’t Over

Chronology of the Events

Previous Events

Sunday, September 30th

Monday, October 1st

Tuesday, October 2nd

Wednesday, October 3rd

Tuesday, October 9th

Wednesday, October 10th

Conclusion

Important Concepts

References

We would like to thank our families and friends in Ghana, Angola, the US, the UK, and Portugal, especially Gladys Clark and her family. Your love and support have encouraged us to carry out this project.

The events described and narrated in this book aren't fictional. Nonetheless, some names have been changed to preserve their identities in case any judicial process is in progress by the moment of the book’s publication.

Introduction

How often do you hear about what happens in Africa on the news? Have you ever read an African newspaper? Have you ever wondered why some parts of the world don’t ever become viral? Does nothing ever happen there?

In September 2007, a sequence of violent events escalated in the communities of Nkroful, Teleku-Bokazo, and Anwia, located in southwestern Ghana, a few miles away from the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. A clash between a crowd from the towns and the police ended in an unprecedented incident: two guns with their ammunition were missing. Two AK-47s that belonged to the public forces disappeared presumably on the evening of the first day of the conflict.

Who took them? Where were the rifles hidden? Was there a more general plan behind the missing guns? It is difficult to imagine that two large-sized rifles were just forgotten somewhere and nobody noticed at the time. Let’s try to picture the situation for a moment: There is a big crowd, angry and protesting against the police. There are two police officers to confront the people. They are there to defend a mining company’s offices but they are overpassed by the crowd. The police try to stop the demonstrators, but they won’t. What can the police do to control the situation? The mob advances. It is noisy, it is gassy, and everybody is confused about what is going on and how it might end. The policemen are cornered. They can use their weapons but there are too many people. If the police could use their guns, would the mob retreat? It is difficult to imagine what the policemen’s options were. Did they give their guns away? Is it possible that a citizen was able to take the guns from the policemen? It is also difficult to understand who and how they might have taken them.

Then, the two rifles mysteriously appear again, in perfect condition, but… without the ammunition. Who put them back? Was that planned or is it just that something went wrong? Why wasn’t the ammunition retrieved? Years after the incident, many of the questions remain unsolved, and so do the conflicts that led to the crisis.

The purpose of this book isn’t, however, to seed doubts and grow speculations about things that haven’t been proven. Instead, it is an attempt to tell the world about the conflicts that many African communities go through and are never displayed on the big screen. Africa has been a postponed continent for centuries. Rich as it is for its culture, people, biological diversity, and endless source of valuable natural resources, African countries remain at the bottom of the global economic rankings.

That situation is tightly connected to the indifference the rest of the world expresses toward what happens in Africa, the good and the bad. If you are reading this book, it is because you’re concerned about what happens in distant forgotten places on the planet. Moreover, you might want to learn more about what matters in Africa and raise your voice to tell others. Humankind is a unity: What hurts some people somehow impacts everyone. The events of a small region in Ghana weren’t casual. The region is one of the most wealthy in the Subsaharian part of the continent. It is a powerful center of attention to foreign investors that exploit the resources, take the profit, and leave while the local communities continue to live in precarious conditions. Indeed, external investment brings prosperity to the country, but the distance between what they take and what they leave is simply absurd.

History has denied Africa’s real role in humankind's development. Western civilization was built on the shoulders of the African people. Let’s just leave aside the centuries when the civilized world came to Africa searching for the enslaved workforce. That, in fact, allowed the exploitation of the colonies in America and the evolution of the European economy that resulted in the capitalist system. However, let’s not move so far as to picture the situation. From the 19th century on, the second wave of European imperialist conquests, and even after World War II, the political and economic powers have been draining the continent's wealth.

After 70 years of independence processes, the governments are still trying to cope with internal conflict to ensure peace and promote development. Things aren’t easy. There is a giant gap that separates the foreign companies that arrive in Africa to exploit the resources and the communities that live under pre-capitalist conditions. At the dawn of the 21st century, it might sound surprising but not every corner of the world has fully adopted capitalism as the main way of life. This book tells the story of what occurred in Nkroful, Teleku-Bokazo, and Anwia, but who can tell if similar things aren’t happening right now in other places?

The conflict surrounding the missing rifles is a point of convergence of everything we have said so far. The crisis was triggered by an unfulfilled commitment of a mining company—Adamus Resources Limited—to the local communities. The company started a business in the region for a long time and was able to build a bond of trust with the people. Somehow, that bond broke. This was one of the points of the conflict unleashed in 2007.

The other stakeholder in the matter is the state of Ghana acting through its authorities. They are accountable for the administration of the natural resources and setting the legal frame for companies like Adamus Resources Limited to display their activities, but also to mediate when there is a conflict of interest. As will be explained in detail throughout the book, there are deep and significant conflicts of interest between the local communities and mining companies. What is more, it is important to consider how different levels of the political organization interact: Is there coordinated action between national political authorities and the local powers, or do they overlap? The ways social conflicts can be effectively solved or not determine the possible reactions of the population when any part of the system reveals itself as ineffective.

In a more general scope, the whole conflict about the two missing rifles entails a global environmental issue covering the natural, social, and human levels. What are the direct and indirect consequences of the exploitation of mineral resources? This matter is usually associated only with the potential extinction of the resource but, in fact, it is much more complex than that. Mining contaminates the environment in too many ways, and the local communities are surely the most damaged. Those communities, however, are requested to pay the price to boost development. Is it worth it? Is it even true? There are economic, social, and cultural dimensions to include in the discussion about how resource exploitation should be administered. For the purpose of this book, not all of them will be analyzed in depth as the focus shall be put on the facts. Yet, all those factors become interrelated.

Finally, the events that occurred in Ghana have a lot to teach about how fast and how far conflicts can escalate. There are formal institutions that are supposed to deal with conflict, but so many times, social unrest searches—or are steered through—non-formal ways to express itself. We shall not discuss in this book whether it is right or wrong. Yet, we are compelled to assume that it happens, and states should be equipped with the material and leadership resources to handle them. What those resources are and how they should be implemented to be effective and respectful of all parties’ rights shall not be stated by the authors. Instead, the readers will have