VICTIMS OF CORPORATE ABUSE –THE NEWMONT GHANA STORIES FOR SIC CAMPAIGN

1. Mr. Bonabe Wale- 75 years old

“Poverty and hunger is killing us!” This was the desperate cry of Bonabe Wale, a 75 year old man living at the Ntotroso Resettlement Camp of Newmont Ghana in the Brong Ahafo Region.

Bonabe Wale had lived at Kwakyekrom for 40 years with his family of 11 before they were resettled.

“We had plenty to eat because I had a big farm which my children and I cultivated. All we needed to buy was salt because we could trap small animals for meat from the farm as well. All was going well till one day we saw a bulldozer moving over our farm and destroyed every crop that we have toiled and struggled to keep for more than 30 years. We had heard Newmont wanted to resettle us and they had given us a lot of promises and we had agreed but what we never expected was the destruction of our farmlands before our resettlement. As it happened, Newmont did not move us to our new home after the destruction of our farm till almost one year after the fact. Madam, what did they expect us to eat in the meantime? For almost one year we had to scramble, to go and pick food from other people’s farms after we had worked for them in order to eat. As a result my children are now scattered. I don’t even know where all of them are, all because we have nothing to eat.”

Newmont Ghana had promised to supplement their efforts at feeding with a bag of rice every month but this stopped after three months of moving to the new settlement.

“We had no land to farm in the new settlement and for the past two years since we have been living here, we have to walk a long distance to go and work on someone else’s’ farm on condition that we give him 1/3 of our produce every time we harvested our crops. This leaves us with not enough food to feed the rest of my family and nothing to sell to help educate the rest of the children. My youngest daughter has dropped out of school because I have no money to send her. Newmont has failed us.”

When I interviewed Akua Wale, the 13 year old youngest daughter of Mr. Wale, this is what she had to say:

“I like to go to school and I got to Form One but I had to stop because my father could not give me the ¢1000 (1000 cedis equivalent of 10 cents) daily to buy food when I go. In the morning my mother will tell me there is no food to eat and yet they wanted me to go to school with no food in my stomach and no money to buy food. I used to feel headache and weak from walking all that way. I was very hungry so I decided not to go again.”

2. Madam Mercy Sarato 44 years old

“I lived at Kwakyekrom also with my husband and six children before we were resettled. We had a big farm which had yams, plantains, corn, palm nuts and even cocoa. I would sell the cocoa when we harvest it and some of the food crops to take care of the family.

The compensation Newmont gave us for destroying our farms did not go far because the only thing we could have done was lease some land for farming but we could not get land to do this. We did not have to buy anything at Kwakyekrom except salt but now over here where we cannot farm because there is no land to farm, we have to buy everything and yet we have no money. Even to get ¢1000 for each of the children to go to school is a big problem. They complain of hunger so they are all staying at home.

The worst time for me is at night. I have to walk a long distance to go and be hired to work at any place they will hire me. My husband and I have to give the little food we get to the children and I have had to sleep hungry almost every day. Look at me, I was not as skinny like this but I am dying of hunger. At night I hear the stomachs of my children rumbling with hunger and many times I get up instinctively to want to go out to get them food from a neighbour but then I turn back knowing that my neighbour’s are suffering the same hunger.

What hurts is that we cannot do anything about it. We have been living here for the past two years and see how we are suffering. What will happen in a year’s time? Probably we will all be dead by then.

Initially Newmont was begging us to move and made many promises but now they do not care anymore.”

3. DAAVI AFI MUMULANU- 40Years old

Daavi Mumulamu has eight children and lived with her family at Dormaa before they were moved to the Kenyase Resettlement Camp by Newmont Ghana.

“We had cassava and plantain farm at Dormaa where I could cultivate more than an acre of the crop and process most of it for sale as ‘gari’. We were quite prosperous and my husband who is much older than I am felt secure that we will not worry about anything. Then Newmont came. They demarcated our land and warned us to stop farming. One day they came and uprooted all our crops whether they were ready for harvesting or not. They cut down our plantains telling us that if there was nothing to hold us at Dormaa, we will leave. We were afraid because we had heard that they had not fulfilled a lot of the promises they had made with other people but they begged us and promised that they will not go back on their promise. Apart from food what we needed most was water and they promised to give us everything. Then after we moved here, we discovered that there was no land to farm, my husband is old and where was I going to get food for the family? At first I used the money they gave to us for compensation to go and buy the cassava to process but we had no water. Newmont brought the water here alright but to our dismay they locked the pipes asking us to pay for the water. Go round and you will see that the pipes are locked. Others are not locked because people are complaining that the water from these taps is not good. It makes people sick so no one is going to collect water from there. So we have to pay for water and after taking the cassava to another town for processing, I don’t gain much because of the costs involved so now I have abandoned the cassava business and I am into palm oil processing for which I don’t have to travel far and do not need water for but this is not as lucrative so our income is low.

As for feeding, it’s not like before. We can no longer farm so our older children have left home to go and find something to do. The promise of Newmont that they will give our children jobs has not materialised. Even if you walk into someone’s farm for a simple ‘nkotomire’ leaves, you will be arrested. We have been here for only two years now but the future looks bleak. For now it’s a matter of “Wo didi kakra a, didi preko” (when you get food to eat, eat and enjoy because you don’t know when you will get your next meal). We use to raise chickens in our former place. Newmont promised to relocate our fowls but we are yet to see them after living here for two years. We don’t even have a single feather to call our own.

She said they had tried to mobilise themselves to petition Newmont concerning the hardships but “we have discovered that those who do not join us receive fowls and grasscutters for their support of Newmont. So we are being victimized for fighting for our rights. Our house is leaking now but they say we should repair it ourselves and yet we have no money to do it. We are tired of pursuing Newmont now.”

4. Osei-Agyemang -30 years Old

“For us the youth in this community, there is no hope for us”. The jobs Newmont promised us have not come. We have no work and if you do not work how can you eat?”

Osei was working on a cocoa farm at Soobegya till the farm was destroyed by Newmont machines. He has a Junior Secondary School certificate which cannot support him in any gainful employment.

“Here we have no jobs. I could eat from the farm but now it is impossible to have even one meal a day”. Newmont came one day, packed our things into a car and set fire to our homes burning them to the ground because we resisted and demanded guarantees for jobs. Now I do odd jobs here for people in order to eat. The day I don’t get anything to do, I sleep on an empty stomach. Even the water I can use to fill my stomach. I now have to buy it but if I don’t have money to eat where is the money for water? I thank God I have no wife or children else I don’t know how I would have been able to feed them. As for now, any hope of getting married is lost because no woman will marry a poor man like me who doesn’t have a pesewa to his name.”

Osei spoke about the health hazards they were encountering as well.

“During the dry season, there is so much dust around here that many of us started coughing. Five of us got together to fight against this and warned Newmont that we will not allow their cars into the camp. It was after this warning that they would come and water our streets but we are paying dearly for it even though they have stopped the watering. Those who did not support our action are being given rice where as we have been left out. This is a clear case of discrimination. As I sit here now, at 11 am, I have not lighted my fire in my house to cook because I have no food to cook. You have met me here because I am going round to see what odd job I can get in order to eat.

Another thing is that they built us the houses but they didn’t provide us with lights. You have to find money to connect light to your house. The houses are cracking due to the mining blasts. We have asked them to repair them and they replied that they gave us six months guarantee and since it was over we have to maintain the houses ourselves. Yet they have not stopped the blasting. It goes on day and night. How are we going to manage in this place?”

5. Madam Salamah Salaam- 60 years old

Madam Salaam lived with her husband and six children at Soobegya before they were relocated to the Kenyaase Resettlement Camp.

“We had a farm with corn and cassava which we could harvest and had extra for sale. We were doing well till we were relocated. They moved us here; we saw a house but no land to farm, not even a small land to cultivate food to eat because Newmont has warned us not to farm here. We have protested but no one is listening to us. My older children go about to look for odd jobs in order for all of us to eat. Now we are 10 in the house because one of my children has moved here to join us with his family because he cannot find a job. Eating is very, very difficult for us. The corn I harvested to bring here is now finished.”

Usman Salaam 20 years old

“What my mother has said is true. I went to school up to primary Five. Newmont promised to give us labourer’s job but up till now, we have not seen anything. We have been here for one year now. I stopped school in order to stay home with my mother because my older siblings have left to go and look for work to feed us. Our father has left us to go back to our home town Bawku, in the Upper East. He left us because he had no extra money to take us along. We left Bawku because of poverty so now even if we go back what are we going to do?”