1.Finding gold in Senegal motivated more explorers to follow. Why do you think so?
Answers
Answer:
Look at it,” Samba says as he hands me a solid piece of gold. “It’s better than farming.” I take the gold nugget in my hand. It shines in the late morning sun, beautiful despite its ugly history. The past few months of digging for gold as an artisanal gold miner have paid off for...
July 19, 2017
Photo by Jacqueline Gerson.
“Look at it,” Samba says as he hands me a solid piece of gold. “It’s better than farming.”
I take the gold nugget in my hand. It shines in the late morning sun, beautiful despite its ugly history. The past few months of digging for gold as an artisanal gold miner have paid off for Samba — he now has enough money to feed his family for the rest of the year.
Artisanal gold mining (AGM) in Senegal has dotted the landscape since the 1990s, but has increased dramatically over the past decade. Men and boys from throughout southeastern Senegal, as well as nearby Mali, Guinea and Benin, flock to the region of Kedougou to engage in the backbreaking labor of AGM. All are motivated by the hope of finding a large nugget so that they can feed their families, pay school fees, buy new clothes and maybe even afford to move from their rural farm villages to a house in the city.