If you are abreast of recent happenings in Ghana, you’re no stranger to the galamsey canker gripping the hearts of citizens. Major water bodies, once the lifeblood of communities, have been soiled and poisoned with toxins from galamsey activities. These very waters serve as a lifeline for domestic use in affected areas, turning what was once a lifesaver into a health threat.

Citizens have risen in protest, demanding accountability and change, but were met with arrests and unjust imprisonment for simply standing up for their right to clean water and a future. I couldn’t join the protest, but to all those who did and everyone else in the fight, Ayekoo—Mother Ghana stands proud of you. This was it meant when the Ghana national anthem said, “Bold to defend forever, the cause of freedom and of right.”

We demand the end of galamsey and the release of our citizens, and we want it yesterday.

Where do we turn?
When the ones who swore
To act in our best interest
Do their very worst
Where do we go?
When the ones whom we put our trust in
Mock us with so much disdain
We turn to ourselves
For the nation demands our devotion

What are the crimes of the citizens?
They dared to ask for clean water
Unsullied by greed and poison
They demand justice and accountability
For this, they’re met with chains
Merely for being bold
And cherishing fearless honesty

For the greed and self-interest of the few
The motherland is poisoned
Her children are thirsty
Her future is rigged
Robbing both this generation
And the ones yet unborn
So we’ll stand with her
To resist the oppression of those who destroy her
We’ll unite to uphold her
And make the motherland great and strong
Not for the few, but for all

May it be known
That we will not be silenced
The motherland cries, so do we
Rest not, faint not
Till we see justice flow like water
Clean and pure once more

#stopgalamseynow
#freethecitizens

Key terms:

• Galamsey: illegal small-scale gold mining in Ghana. The term is derived from the phrase “gather them and sell”. 
  

• Ayekoo:  comes from the local dialect of the people of Ghana, meaning “Well done” “Good Job,” or “Congratulations”
• Nyigba: comes from the local dialect of the Ewe people of Ghana, meaning ‘land’