Narrative accounting disclosure: Its role in the gold mining industry on the Gold Coast 1900–1949

Gold mining played a major role in the extraction of surplus value by colonial powers in Africa. The paper examines the role of narrative accounting disclosure in the gold mining industry in colonial Ghana (the Gold Coast) during the period 1900–1949. Narrative accounting disclosure was deployed in the extraction of value by English gold mining companies, in raising capital via a series of “gold booms” and subsequently in defending the companies’ labour policies in the face of trade union resistance. The paper concludes that an accounting disclosure was an important part of the strategy of the gold mining companies in promoting and legitimising themselves.