Energy-Induced Land Acquisition and Emerging Labor Configurations Around Ghana’s Bui Dam

The coupled effect of worsening climatic conditions and persistent energy crises is driving a steady evolution of green energy sources across the developing world. Preference for hydropower is higher for its affordability and efficient energy storage, conversion rate, and electricity production. However, dams, which facilitate hydropower production, always involve painful tradeoffs between satisfying a national demand and safeguarding rural agrarian livelihoods which characterize most host communities. Multiple studies exist on the livelihood implications of dams; yet little is known about the societal transformations often triggered by the usual large-scale land-takes, including the reconfigurations of laborscapes in rural agrarian host communities. With empirical evidence from Ghana’s Bui Hydropower Dam, this paper discusses how the massive land-take has redefined land governance and restructured preexisting agrarian labor regimes in three host communities. The study approach is qualitative and involves multiple data collection instruments including semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and observations. Data is analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis and abduction to describe and conceptualize identified patterns about the central phenomena. The paper highlights the complex web of changes in power and power relations regarding gender, class, and ethnicity toward elaborating the implications of hydropower dams for rural labor and agrarian relations.