Oil wealth and the well-being of the subaltern classes in Sub-Saharan Africa: A critical analysis of the resource curse in Ghana

Abstract

In 2007, Ghana joined the club of Gulf of Guinea oil-rich countries when transnational corporations discovered proven reserves in the Jubilee Field, off of the Cape Three Points along its Western coast. This has generated debate on whether Ghana would escape the resource curse. The orthodox resource curse approach (ORCA), dominant in most discussions on the issue to date, offers some valuable theoretical and policy insights but is also highly problematic: it is uncritical, ahistorical and reductionist. Fixated on internal political and economic factors, the ORCA ignores the longue durée of capitalist exploitation and its negative structural effects on the economy. This article formulates a critical political economy approach (PEA) which brings a fresh perspective on the oil-curse debate, focusing specifically on the case of Ghana. Using theoretical argumentation and empirical evidence, the paper explains why, in the context of ORCA, many would argue that a liberal democratic context, relatively good governance and long history of gold mining will help Ghana minimise the probability of a resource curse. But when analysed using a more dynamic PEA, it becomes clear that the danger of a resource curse ‘epidemic’ surfacing in Ghana is very real: the continuous exploitation by global capital, which has perpetuated the existence of enclave extractive industries and a dependence on the export of low-value commodities. A PEA brings into sharper focus the global political economy underpinnings of the resource curse in Sub-Saharan Africa by highlighting the way in which the dynamics of ‘uneven and combined’ capitalist development have conditioned the region, both resource-rich and poor, to become dependent on the production and export of raw commodities.