History of Cocoa Labor in Ghana

Cocoa was first cultivated by the Olmecs around 1000BCE, and for millennia, the major producer of chocolate was Central America (Moss).  With the independence and abolishment of slavery in Latin American countries, many Europeans sought to expand the chocolate empire. Sources differ on exactly when cocoa was brought to West Africa.  Some place it in 1788, when the Spanish brought Forastero cuttings to Fernando Po, an island in the Gulf of Guinea (Leiter and Harding, 122). Others place it in 1824, when the Portuguese introduced the Forastero bean to modern-day Gabon (Moss).  Today, countries like Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana produce almost 70% of the world’s chocolate, a large contribution, especially considering that Africa consumes less chocolate than any other continent (Moss).

The trajectory of cocoa labor in Ghana stems from its colonial history.  In the early 1800s, the British came to Ghana and set off a series of wars with the local Asante, a large, powerful, agrarian tribe in the south.  Following multiple wars, the destabilization of ethnic tribes in the north and the Scramble for Africa, the British established a colony – the Gold Coast – with a capital, Accra, on the coast (O’Malley).  The remaining Asante chiefs and other “coastal elites” were able to maintain their land and continue farming (Austin). But this led to a large separation between central Asante elites, small-holding farmers in the south, and the newly poor, underrepresented people in the north.

Southern forest farmers had been cultivating cocoa – along with more economically desirable quantities like palm oil – as soon as it was introduced to the region.  Cocoa only became a cash crop in the late 1800s, and it was Ghanaian farmers who remained mostly in control of production (O’Malley). The centrally located Asante had a large reach throughout the colony and were an essential part of the economic system that enabled Ghana to be the major exporter of cocoa from 1911-1970s (Austin, 2).  On the southern coast, small-holders – who lived and worked on their farms with their families – used Asante funding to employ migrant workers from the North and neighboring Togo (Hill, Austin, 2). Over the years, methods of labor transformed from slavery to pawnship – a form of indentured servitude – to corvee – migrant, seasonal labor – to paid, independent labor (Austin). 

When Ghana gained its independence in 1957, the cocoa market was at the height of its success.  Ghanaians were eager to develop their own farms and contribute to the global cocoa market.  Farmers and merchants still spearheaded many of the local cocoa sales, and as will be mentioned in the newspaper article on the next page, they continued working with merchant Brokers to sell their cocoa to large companies abroad (Hill, Leiter and Harding).   But there was a strong lack of government support, and despite the upheaval of their old colonial system, cocoa laborers faced many of the same challenges, indicating that new institutions held similar views of colonial hierarchies (Leiter and Harding).  For example, agricultural companies often intervened in farming practices they didn’t fully understand because they weren’t experienced with the specific land they were trying to handle (Hill, 5). All these factors escalated until eventually, the prices for cocoa dropped too low and farmers were not able to maintain a living.  Ghana went into an economic depression in the 1970s, ultimately passing the title of the number 1 cocoa producer in the world to Côte d’Ivoire (Leiter and Harding, 122).

Today, Ghana remains the second largest producer of cocoa in the world (O’Malley).  In recent decades, as unethical labor practices and rights have become a global debate, many people have been concerned with the way cocoa laborers are being treated and compensated, particularly in developing countries like Ghana.  Since 1990, the Ghana-based Kuapa Kokoo [good cocoa farmer] cooperative has been integral in supplying Ghanaian farmers with technology, transportation, education and female economic empowerment, many of the ideas that will be addressed in the Cocoa Farmers Association newspaper article from 1922 (Hollender).  Companies like Omanhene Chocolate also make an effort to include Ghanaian farmers in every aspect of cocoa production, giving them fair working conditions and space for representation and economic mobility (Wallace).

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