Fires of Gold draws on theories of sovereignty and modernity to tell the story of the metaphysical, moral, social and political reorganisation spurred by neoliberal extraction in the gold fields of Ghana. Lauren Coyle Rosen explores the mysticality of the yellow metal, its shaping of the religious tapestry of Obuasi – a mining town in the southern part of the Ashanti region – and the role that mining plays in framing sovereigns outside the legal framework. Through stories of violence and inequalities engendered by the capitalist endeavours of mining giant AngloGold Ashanti (AGA), the author paints a grim image of gold mining – considered the reason for the economic prosperity of the country – and the increasing role of these shadow sovereigns. As conflicts arise, shadow sovereigns pervade all sectors of the gold fields, from the galamseys (artisanal miners) to local politicians and AGA officials. These actors ‘draw upon transcendental sources of empowerment, with varying degrees of temporal duration, economic success, and moral consequence’ (6).
The first chapter begins with the death of a galamsey on land covered by competitive usage rights between the company and the miners. Obuasi hosts thousands of galamseys, lured to the city from destitute regions with hopes of wealth. The repercussions of the miner's death on shadow sovereigns’ activities highlight the structural injustices that neo-colonial extraction brought to Ghana. One of the most salient effects of these policies in Obuasi is the casualisation of workers that gave rise to a powerful shadow sovereign, the Small-Scale Miners Association. Organised workers, often from communities dispossessed by industrial mining, joined physical and spiritual forces, sometimes through violent means, against the rival shadow sovereign, AGA.
Chapter 2 opens with the loss of the Chairman of the Association in a road accident. The tragedy is perceived by the galamseys to be another spillage of blood, a common sacrificial practice in Obuasi. As a reflection of the supreme creator, the Nyame, and as an instrument for wealth accumulation, gold requires sacrificial obligations to make itself available. In the transcendental worlds surrounding Obuasi, the conglomeration of spirits is a consequence of labour migrations. The intersection between widespread poverty and life dreams prompts the consultation of mallams and akomfo (Akan priestesses and priests) for enlisting spirits. The use of blood in sacrifices is part of the spiritual reckoning of the hardships faced by galamseys, including dispossession, destruction and loss, testimonies of the trauma of neoliberal extraction.
The competition for transcendental jurisdiction led to the rise of Christian Pentecostalism against traditional spirits. Chapter 3 explores the social and spiritual precariousness that followed AGA's disavowal of libation and blood sacrifices. The substitution of traditional ceremonies by Christian rituals led to contentious cosmologies and spiritual resistance from the miners, increasing tensions in Obuasi. Underlining the role of shadow sovereigns in governing the social, economic, and spiritual realms, the chapter describes the very real consequences of their rulings. The pastors’ refusal to perform similar cleansing ceremonies for galamsey operations, justified by AGA's rhetoric against artisanal miners, sided the Church with the company. These concerns and the quasi-governing status reached by Pentecostal Churches over territories and matters of gold establish them as another layer of shadow sovereignty.
Chapter 4 examines the disruption of customary authorities by disturbances in the sacred realms. The reorganisation of the social, economic and spiritual worlds, under pressure from capitalist extraction and liberal policies, led to the fall of many customary authorities. Chiefs’ failures to negotiate with the company caused more dispossession of land and livelihoods and a power vacuum as they lost their legitimacy. This shift established the conditions for galamsey operators to perform customary functions. In turn, the ousting of ‘rentier chiefships’ (92) commodified the land as other kings, queens and chiefs claimed authority over the territories deprived of rulers. The concentration of spiritual interference in a context of capitalist claims to the land and its resources, and the commodification of customary sovereignty, shattered the social contract with the citizens of Obuasi. The growth of miners’ spiritual and pragmatic power is the topic of Chapter 5, which recounts the short-lived court victory of casual workers as a sign of hope in a highly exploitative capitalist democracy.
Coyle Rosen explores the existence of parallel legal systems, one formed by a ‘colonially constructed customary law and [the other by] a liberal state legal regime’ (7). One way to extend her analysis, would be to broaden the lens beyond communities and AGA by introducing market forces as shadow sovereigns of transnational nature (see T. Blom Hansen and F. Steputtat in Annual Review of Anthropology, 2006). Compelled by global gold prices, the company and galamseys are defined by structures of market inequalities and competition between the two, including in violent forms. Nevertheless, Coyle Rosen convincingly describes the flattening of sovereignty between a diversity of actors in Obuasi that parallels a conflictual verticalisation of spiritual authorities spurred by the growth in monotheist practice. Ghana's praised success as a liberal democracy should be read in the context of the spiritual and pragmatic violence that reshapes the state in what the author describes as ‘a re-spiritualization, or re-enchantment, of sovereignty and political life’ (120).
