Ghana textiles
Today is election day in Ghana. This is the final runoff election for president. I spoke briefly to people back home. I heard a lot of anger about electoral cheating, stuffing ballot boxes, ballot boxes stolen, voter intimidation, and other dirty tricks. I can’t really tell how bad it is, as tempers are running high. It sounds very like what has been going on in US elections, particularly the presidential elections in the last 9 years. I am praying that the person who actually gets the most votes is declared the winner, and that all the votes are counted. I heard the security forces voted early so they will be available to work on election day, and that they were subjected to voter intimidation. Many government workers are unhappy because they have not been paid, in some cases for several months.
The current Ghana government has treated Ghana very much like the current US government has treated the US. It has been asset stripping the country, selling out Ghana and shipping jobs and resources overseas. It has undermined Ghanaian agricuture, encouraging agricultural dumping by the EU, and some from the US as well.
The latest incident that angered me was this blow to the textile workers:
Floodgates opened to foreign textiles
The speed with which the government has temporarily lifted the ban on imported textile has drawn the expected reaction from the category of Ghanaian workers who would be hardest hit.
… the decision was taken in total disregard to the survival of the local textile industry.
…
Even before the lifting of the ban, smugglers had outwitted the security agencies at the entry points and got their cheap imports into the country. The sight of Nigeriens and other non-Ghanaians selling foreign textiles on the streets of Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi etc is common. In their place are the numerous Ghanaian textiles workers who have lost their jobs due to the closure of textile factories or the reduction in production capacity by the few factories struggling to stay in business.A report in 2003 by the Revenue Agencies Governing Board titled “Practical Measures to Combat the Menace of Under Invoicing and Smuggling into Ghana” pointed out that the “local production of textile which peaked at 130 million metres per annum in the 1970s has dropped to under 39 million metres per annum currently; and the labour force in the industry consequently reduced from 25, 000 in the 1970s to under 3,000 as of now.”
The report identified under invoicing in import duties, laxity in the performance of valuation and monitoring functions of the destination inspection agencies etc as some of the acts hampering the growth of the local textile industries. The report further pointed out that as a result of under invoicing there are rampant contraband goods dumped on the market. “This kills competition and also does not give any protection to the infant manufacturing sector because the smuggled goods sell cheaper than the locally produced goods.”
TGLEU wonders if anything has changed regarding local production to warrant the lifting of the ban on cheap foreign imports. ‘Since the reasons for Government’s action was not stated, the NEC considers the timing of the lifting of the ban as politically motivated aimed at influencing the votes of the electorate.”
These jobs are going to China. Ghana needs these jobs.
I was most discouraged in 2007 when I heard that the textiles for the Ghana@50 celebrations were ordered from China. If there was ever a time to show national pride by displaying national talents and products, that was it. That was the time to showcase the country and the people and the work they produce.
As I’ve watched the governments of both the US and Ghana over the past 8 years, I have been struck by the similarities, particularly by the rapacious exploitation and contempt with which the governing elites treat the vast majority of the citizens they govern.
The US has given itself a new chance. I hope Ghana gets the same opportunity.
Crossed Crocodiles 
January 1, 2009 at 6:51 pm
xcroc –
can you suggest some resources or useful analyses for understanding what has been taking place? i don’t know much about at all about the parties in ghana, or the influence of outsiders, so any good backgrounders would be helpful. thx.
January 1, 2009 at 11:31 pm
I’m writing something up this evening with some links. Most of the information is incomplete. I’ve gotten some from conversations as well, but it is fragmented.
January 2, 2009 at 4:03 pm
b real, I’ve been thinking more about your question, particularly regarding background information. There has not been a lot available. The African Elections Project Ghana has some.
I was thinking about it and poking around. There is an ebook source, netlibrary, that you can get through some public libraries. We have it in my library, but it does not have much on Ghana. I think the holdings depend on what contract the library makes with the vendor. The other county library I use does have a number of titles that might be useful. I’ve just been looking at their catalog and they have a number of titles I plan to borrow. Some examples:
Critical perspectives in politics and socio-economic development in Ghana
Wisdom Tettey, Korbla P. Puplampu, Bruce Berman, Inc NetLibrary 2003
The press and political culture in Ghana
Jennifer Hasty, Inc NetLibrary 2005
IMF-World Bank and labor’s burdens in Africa
Ghana’s experience
Martin Kwamina Panford, Inc NetLibrary 2001
Sacred sites and the colonial encounter
a history of meaning and memory in Ghana
Sandra E. Greene, Inc NetLibrary 2002
The quills of the porcupine
Asante nationalism in an emergent Ghana
Jean Marie Allman, Inc NetLibrary 1993
It is nice to see some Ghanaian names among the authors here. There were a few more as well. I can’t yet comment on the contents, but will reserve these and see what they have to say. I’ll mention them as I get ahold of them. I don’t know if you have a nearby library system that can access them or not. If not and you want to see a title, I’ll see what I can do to transfer it once I can look at it.
I’m very happy you asked the question. The last time I looked I didn’t see any of these titles. It is like finding a new goldmine. I didn’t know about the elections project either until I started poking around some more.
January 3, 2009 at 12:07 am
As to outside interference, Jendayi Frazer was in Ghana on December 27, right before the runoff. I don’t know how long she was there. The Ghanaian Young Professionals Association in Canada wrote the following:
When I heard Frazer was there I was worried. The NPP has been their client regime, and I suspected she was there to try and keep it in power. I asked a friend was she meddling, and he said “You know it.” But I think that was based on speculation more than specific knowledge, same as me. I was particularly worried when I heard talk of a power sharing agreement, which sounded like her work and like certain disaster. Luckily the idea appears to be dropped. It would be undemocratic and unconstitutional.
There has been nothing I can find in the US press about her being in Ghana. My friend told me she was there and I said she is a disaster with a lot of blood on her hands. I found 2 more articles in the Ghanaian press about her visit.
Frazer meets the press
Presidential rivals trade rigging claims
Gowon is not exactly Mr. Democracy. I don’t know anything about Valerie Amos. But I’ll bet Frazer and Amos were hoping to see their NPP clients continue in power. All three may also have eventually put pressure on all parties to cool the threats and rhetoric down. I understand from my conversations that there was some international pressure for this. People had been telling me for months the level of frustration is high and there was enormous potential for violence in this election cycle. There is no excuse for the violence that did take place, though it could have been a lot worse. The NPP does not want to relinquish power. The top people want to stay on the gravy train, and may be worried about criminal prosecutions. Still, with all this, it looks like there may be a peaceful and democratic transition.
January 4, 2009 at 8:23 pm
xcroc –
much thanks for all your election links & other resources in both threads. they’re a welcome help.
can’t say i was surprised to hear that frazer showed up. we definitely know, from what’s transpired since the announcement of AFRICOM, that the u.s. views ghana as a key ally in the region, though i’ve never stumbled upon any info on how that is implemented, outside of the military-to-military relations
hopefully more info comes out about what her agenda entailed & what the private u.s. position was on the outcome throughout the run-up to the tip to NDC
more importantly, though, i am relieved to hear that the electoral dispute was finally settled w/o further escalation of violence & that some of the corrupt gatekeepers were sent packing
January 5, 2009 at 12:55 am
just came across this (older) resource – thought i’d link it up, though i haven’t but skimmed a few entries
library of congress research ctr: A Country Study: Ghana
January 5, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Those Country Studies are generally quite good. I didn’t realize they were online. I’ll have to look at this one some more. They used to be in book form. I think originally they were put together by American University under contract with the State Department. But I don’t think American University is involved anymore and I think the studies may only be online now, which is actually preferable for me.
Netlibrary, which I mentioned, is a product of OCLC. OCLC produces the WorldCat. OCLC links up most of the public and academic libraries in a huge network of shared cataloging and holdings, though what you can get depends on the local contract. Netlibrary has those books I listed and more in pdf. The library system in the jurisdiction where I work does not get all those pdfs. But the library in the jurisdiction where I live does. I had to wait to update my card, but I’ve been looking at them today.
Meanwhile, Wired’s Danger Room has been drinking government kool aid: Pentagon Intervenes in Somalia, Quietly.
January 5, 2009 at 9:55 pm
And I meant to add this. “Frank Castle” found my reference to him and commented. He said on
AFRICOM, US military bases, and Ghana
I suspected this was happening due to the contract recompete and the mercenary convention in October. But so far I have no sources other than what he says. Have you seen or heard anything about this. I’ll ask him. I’m way behind in keeping up with what is going on because the fall was so busy. So I could easily have missed lots. The next couple of months should be a bit calmer.
January 6, 2009 at 1:56 am
i saw where axe was tying the $5m to AFRICOM on his blog on monday (‘war is boring’) and was a little surprised, but not necessarily. he was in nairobi again in december & previously in mogadishu he embedded w/ the UPDF forces in AMISOM, so maybe he’s heard something that wasn’t in the DoS stmts or followup america.gov PR, which neither mentioned the pentagon nor AFRICOM. but the u.s. has already been funding & training the somali police, largely thru regional partners ethiopia & uganda. hard to imagine u.s. boots on the ground in somalia would be tolerated in any capacity. even mercs. but then axe’s reporting has also been extremely infuriating most of the time – i reckon he’s used by the military forces he embeds w/ as much as he thinks he’s using them. (he’s supposed to be heading out to the other side of the continent in the first part of this year to “observe U.S. Navy maritime security training”.)
on the redeploy, well, that’s been covered a bit in some of the items you’ve linked before – the dogs of war column, for one.
but i haven’t come upon anything new or w/ specifics, as of late. been too focused in on the HOA for the past few months to follow a broader reading of sources or even followup on much. lots of stuff i wanted to go deeper on (like some of the stuff brooks was babbling about), but there’s just not enough hours in the day to spend that much time online
hope the broilers went well
January 6, 2009 at 11:41 pm
I’ve been trying to watch for news on the mercenaries, so if there have been stories I don’t think there has been much. And a couple of other people tend to tip me off if there is something worth reading.
The broilers were a big success! We sold them all. The prices were a little lower than we wanted due to EU dumping of chicken parts. Though at Christmas time people want something a bit special. We had been worried because we started them a couple of weeks later than planned due to difficulty getting the chicks. Arranging to feed them was the big deal. Mostly we were buying corn and having it milled, and the feed mixed. We got some special broiler vitamins here and the chicks grew fast and big. And jokes about our chickens being spoiled by eating imported food didn’t hurt.
January 9, 2009 at 3:50 pm
xcroc –
haven’t read it yet, but you can grab a pdf of craig murray’s new book the catholic orangemen of togo and other conflicts i have known mirrored at cryptome
as the site puts it
lots of material on ghana & sierra leone
January 10, 2009 at 12:51 am
Fascinating! and thanks!
For a less remarkable link in return I found the ipoa journal online. This is their latest issue in pdf. There is a lot about the DRC here. I only took a brief look so far, not reassuring and not unexpected. You may know about this journal already, but I’d been looking for it, figuring there had to be one, and came across the link.
Click to access journal_2009_0102.pdf
January 10, 2009 at 1:37 am
no, i hadn’t come across it yet. thx.
wish i had something better at the moment, but all i’m holding is
Ghana’s new leader considers sending 2 battalions to Somalia
“urgently considering” or “immediate pledges of positive approval to the request for troops”? which is it? no quotes from mills himself.
January 16, 2009 at 6:42 pm
I saw this posted on GhanaWeb. I’m putting a lot of hope in the words “will urgently consider”. I’m hoping Mills is too smart to make this kind of commitment this early. But I have no idea. I checked Say It Loud for comments. Didn’t find much. I’m told even Rawlings watches SIL. There are interesting comments there, but one has to do a lot of deep wading to get to them. One said we should take care of home and the problems with armed robbery first. One said we should help those poor Somalis, and another rather uninformed one said we should persuade the Somali pirates to take up fishing instead. I don’t think there is a whole lot of interest or knowledge of the issue.