The State of Land Grabs

This chapter investigates the regulatory fictions underpinning foreign investment in “small-scale” gold mining in Ghana. It explores the shifting practices and subjectivities of big men, frontmen, and secretaries who, in relation with others, mediate foreign mining. In Ghana, big men, frontmen, and secretaries are key agents who help Chinese miners procure official paperwork and concession. The chapter contributes to understandings of the state vis-à-vis land grabs by directing attention to the actual conditions under which foreigners control concessions. Detailing the shifting performances and practices facilitating foreign gold mining, the chapter reveals how unremediated mining landscapes and associated environmental impacts are enabled by fictions of mining's developmental benefits and of rational environmental regulation. It also shows how key state and nonstate intermediaries maintain both the appearance of legality as well as the fictional neutrality of the state as public servant, reproducing the historic and problematic narrative that farmers and traditional authorities “giving away land” are ignorant of existing laws.