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Overview of Galamsey and Environmental Destruction in Ghana
Multimodal and Networked Rhetoric as Drivers of Participation in Digital Environmental Activism
Analysis: Multimodal Strategies and Social Media Amplification
Example 1: The Polluted River Bodies–A Multimodal Call to Action
Cultural Authority and Moral Legitimacy: The Asantehene’s Intervention
Introduction
Illegal small-scale mining, locally known as galamsey, has become one of Ghana’s most urgent environmental and socio-economic crises. Although Ghana remains a leading gold producer in Africa, the rapid expansion of illegal mining has resulted in extensive deforestation, severe water pollution, biodiversity loss, and the destruction of farmlands that sustain rural livelihoods. Rivers such as the Pra, Ankobra, and Tano, once vital for drinking water, agriculture, and spiritual practice, have been rendered toxic, generating widespread public frustration with regulatory failure and environmental neglect. This environmental devastation extends beyond ecological harm to encompass cultural and ethical concerns, as land and water are deeply embedded within Ghanaian systems of communal identity and spiritual responsibility.
Within this context, the StopGalamseyNow campaign has emerged as a prominent form of civic resistance, mobilizing citizens across digital and physical spaces through multimodal and networked communication. Activists employ images, videos, text, and hashtags circulated through platforms such as X, Instagram, and TikTok to transform localized environmental harm into a nationally visible crisis. This paper examines how the StopGalamseyNow movement leverages multimodal strategies within networked rhetorical ecologies to mobilize civic participation and sustain online activism. It argues that the campaign’s effectiveness lies in its fusion of multimodal rhetoric and networked circulation, which converts environmental destruction into a shared ethical exigence that moves audiences from awareness toward collective action. Guided by this argument, the study asks how multimodal strategies within digital networks enable online activism in Ghana’s StopGalamseyNow campaign.