By Magnus Naabe RexDanquah, the Ghanaian (first published June 2021)
How Do A People Or A Nation Avoid Consequences Of Fate:
Second Coming Of What Happened To Old Ghana Empire
THE human race never learns from past mistakes, as we keep living cyclical lives of repeating the
mistakes of Adam and Eve from generations to generations, millennium to millennium, civilizations to
civilizations, and it isn’t funny that we aren’t learning any lessons from ARCHEOLOGY and or
HISTORY.
We should never deceive ourselves that we are the first humanity who have travelled to space, or
attempting to explore the length and breadth of the universe in trying to conquer it.
Have you forgotten that Prophet Ezekiel once did space travel when he was shown the whole earth in a
‘spacecraft’ of a sort; and also remember, many of us like Jacob in the Bible on the beginning of his
sojourns, saw different heavens in a dream? Don’t attempt to define that as witchcraft or metaphysical
travels, especially as the world is weirder than we see and know it.
Ever wondered how others could prophesy about the ‘Twin Towers’ of the USA and its fall or
destruction and with it, the might of the USA; and or what about the exploits of the Babylonian nation
and people?
More importantly, what about the meanings, understanding and impact of names and what they proffer
for those named after others: do they impact or influence their lives or lifestyles?
What does the future hold for our great nation, Ghana – from the exploits, failures and conquest of the
former Ghana Empire, are there any real lessons to learn to avoid the mistakes of their era or
dispensation?
This is why the way we are handling the issues of GALAMSEY is most sad and worrying, to the
extent that those of us crying and worrying isn’t because we are not participants or beneficiaries in the
Galamsey industry but because we are fearful of the consequences of what lie ahead of us a nation and
as a people.
Can you, by any stretch of imagination, see what we will face if we find gold around the upper ends of
the Volta River with the attendant impact on the Akosombo and Bui Dams?
I am not a proper student of history but I know about the effects of GALAMSEY and the role it played
in the destruction of the old Ghana Empire, before its conquest; that the GOLD DEPOSITS, which
marked her greatness, was also the reason for her downfall, curse as well as heralded her extinction, or
dreadful end to the rise of such a great empire, whose King and his Palace used gold for everything.
I mean, everything the king used was gold, not silver nor bronze nor any other metal was used for the
production of everything, not even spoons or knives or tea cups.
The dire consequences that led to the empire’s destruction, started with their own version of Galamsey:
their water bodies turned milky yellow and started drying up to dried up totally to the point that they
then started importing water for everything. Their population developed various sicknesses, which they
defined as curses from the water gods, after they had abused all practices of sustainable mining,
especially as the kingpins were all friends and relatives of the King of the old Ghana Empire, who saw
themselves as above the law. These people were not liable for anything or responsible for the
desecration of the environment.
Finally, the population started traveling distances to get common water, they started migrating away
from the Ghana Empire towards water wells and cities with adequate provision of water, as cost of
water became unbearable within their cities and villages. This state of affairs weakened the Kingdom
and made it far easier for her ultimate conquest.
Is this where we want to go?
Unfortunately, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah isn’t around for us to ask whether he knew of this history of the
former Ghana Empire, for us to have interrogated the consequences for choosing the name ‘GHANA’
on the eve of the country’s independence?
Didn’t the historians at that time of all the arguments, as to who should be credited with evolving or
selecting the name: ‘GHANA’, have been aware of the impact of their own ‘galamsey’ activities on the
collapse of that empire? What a sad reflection…!
This period of GALAMSEY calls for sober heads with no romanticism as what lies ahead of us is more
serious than we are joking with now. We ought to be mindful that it is our whole future as a people and
as a nation, which is at risk now; premised on how we handle this without the extreme partisanship, as
our prejudices will cloud all sound rationalizations, to determine how we fare in the coming years.
This is the test we face, requiring sound character and discernment to resolve, especially with the
presence of aliens, who are now the kingpins, including the Chinese, the chiefs, family heads as well as
politicians, who are prepared and ever ready to pay any price to maintain the status quo, whilst we are
all now ready to act, refusing to play pawns to the political class in power, who are pretending as if
they are worried by the state of affairs.
What is also underpinning the failure of our collective efforts towards the fight against the galamsey
menace, is the pretense of the current top kingpins of the government, who desiring to be correct with
their presidential candidate’s campaign, have chosen to stay on the side of financial support for their
own personal parliamentary campaigns than to condemn the wave. No wonder an aspiring
parliamentary candidate was frank to admit that the government cannot afford to initiate any military
exercise against the spate of the galamsey conundrum.
Others, desiring to be closer to the war chest of their presidential candidate with the possibility of an
appointment into a seeming new cabinet, have opted for the higher ground of a deafening silence with
no comment on the matter of the galamsey riddle.
This is the time for everybody, Ghanaians and visitors alike to rise up, devoid of the extreme greed of
those, who operate under the power of the Jubilee House, to support the fight against the current state
of the Galamsey, reminiscent of the days leading to the collapse and fall of the old Ghana Empire.
We should remember that those, who can afford the excavators, for their wealth, will be the first to fly
out and leave the rest of us to suffer the consequences of the Galamsey, including many giving birth
with all sorts of deformities from the chemicals and poisons, we have inundated our water bodies and
environment with all sorts of chemicals, creating new variants of cancers for our people. The warning
signs are now on the wall and our socio-economic and political leaders should act now before the
inevitable happens.
What is of ultimate importance within the next quarter or half-year is to send a team of scientists,
environmentalists, ecologists, and chemists amongst others, to all the areas of active and non-active
galamsey activities to investigate and determine the impact, not of socio-economic study, but also
scientific to determine the real consequences, including new diseases or deformities from childbirth for
the immediate inhabitants, district, region and our nation.
This is urgent because the chemicals the ‘offenders’ have been using in the enterprise are of real
danger for all of us, not only for drinking waters but for the environment.
What will happen to us, the ‘new’ GHANA, will be far more and worse than what happened to the old
Ghana Empire and therefore, the results of this exercise should be published and recommendations
implemented so that we can reshape and work towards a GREEN CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS
(1957 – 2057) on a clean slate.
Need I write anything more…
By Magnus Naabe RexDanquah, The Ghanaian
