Órla Ryan - Chocolate Nations: Living and Dying for Cocoa in West Africa

RLA RYAN works for the Financial Times in London. She lived in Africa for four years, first in Uganda and then in Ghana, where she worked for Reuters.

AFRICAN ARGUMENTS

Written by experts with an unrivalled knowledge of the continent, African Arguments is a series of concise, engaging books that address the key issues facing Africa today. Topical and thought-provoking, accessible but in depth, they provide essential reading for anyone interested in getting to the heart of both why contemporary Africa is the way it is and how it is changing.

African Arguments Online

African Arguments Online is a website managed by the Royal African Society, which hosts debates on the African Arguments series and other topical issues that affect Africa: http://africanarguments.org

Series editors

Alex de Waal, Executive Director, World Peace Foundation

Richard Dowden, Executive Director, Royal African Society

Editorial board

Emmanuel Akyeampong, Harvard University

Tim Allen, London School of Economics and Political Science

Akwe Amosu, Open Society Institute

Breyten Breytenbach, Gore Institute

Peter da Costa, journalist and development specialist

William Gumede, journalist and author

Alcinda Honwana, Open University

Abdul Mohammed, InterAfrica Group

Robert Molteno, editor and publisher

Published books

Tim Allen, Trial Justice: The International Criminal Court and the Lords Resistance Army

Alex de Waal, AIDS and Power: Why There is No Political Crisis Yet

Raymond W. Copson, The United States in Africa: Bush Policy and Beyond

Chris Alden, China in Africa

Tom Porteous, Britain in Africa

Julie Flint and Alex de Waal, Darfur: A New History of a Long War, revised and updated edition

Jonathan Glennie, The Trouble with Aid: Why Less Could Mean More for Africa

Peter Uvin, Life after Violence: A Peoples Story of Burundi

Bronwen Manby, Struggles for Citizenship in Africa

Camilla Toulmin, Climate Change in Africa

rla Ryan, Chocolate Nations: Living and Dying for Cocoa in West Africa

Theodore Trefon, Congo Masquerade: The Political Culture of Aid Inefficiency and Reform Failure

Lonce Ndikumana and James Boyce, Africas Odious Debts: How Foreign Loans and Capital Flight Bled a Continent

Mary Harper, Getting Somalia Wrong? Faith, War and Hope in a Shattered State

Forthcoming books

Marc Epprecht, Sexuality and Social Justice in Africa

Michael Deibert, The Democratic Republic of Congo: Between Hope and Despair

Gerard McCann, India and Africa Old Friends, New Game

Alcinda Honwana, Youth and Revolution in Tunisia

Lorenzo Cotula, Land Grabs in Africa

Peter da Costa, Remaking Africas Institutions: The African Union, Economic Commission for Africa and African Development Bank

Published by Zed Books with the support of the following organizations:

International African Institute promotes scholarly understanding of Africa, notably its changing societies, cultures and languages. Founded in 1926 and based in London, it supports a range of seminars and publications including the journal Africa.
www.internationalafricaninstitute.org

Royal African Society is Britains prime Africa organization. Now more than a hundred years old, its in-depth, long-term knowledge of the continent and its peoples makes the Society the first stop for anyone wishing to know more about the continent. RAS fosters a better understanding of Africa in the UK and throughout the world its history, politics, culture, problems and potential. RAS disseminates this knowledge and insight and celebrates the diversity and depth of African culture. www.royalafricansociety.org

World Peace Foundation, founded in 1910, is located at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. The Foundations mission is to promote innovative research and teaching, believing that these are critical to the challenges of making peace around the world, and should go hand in hand with advocacy and practical engagement with the toughest issues. Its central theme is reinventing peace for the twenty-first century.
www.worldpeacefoundation.org

LIVING AND DYING FOR COCOA IN WEST AFRICA

RLA RYAN

Zed Books

LONDON | NEW YORK

in association with

International African Institute
Royal African Society
World Peace Foundation

Chocolate Nations: Living and Dying for Cocoa in West Africa was first published in association with the International African Institute, the Royal African Society and the World Peace Foundation in 2011 by Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London N1 9JF, UK and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA

This ebook edition was first published in 2012

www.zedbooks.co.uk
www.internationalafricaninstitute.org
www.royalafricansociety.org
www.worldpeacefoundation.org

Copyright rla Ryan 2011

The right of rla Ryan to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

Typeset in Monotype Bulmer by illuminati, Grosmont

Index by John Barker

Cover designed by Rogue Four Design

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of Zed Books Ltd.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data available

ISBN 978 1 78032 079 3

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to thank the many people without whom it would have been very difficult, if not impossible, to complete this book. Thanks to Ali Basma for his help and insights into the Ghanaian cocoa market. I am truly sorry he is not here to read the finished manuscript. Also in Ghana, I wish to thank John Newman for making the time to talk about cocoa with me during and since my stay in West Africa. Others who helped in Ghana were Nana Amo Adade Boamah, Newman Ofosu, Kwasi Kpodo and Joseph Boateng in Kumasi. Thanks to Muhsin Barko for friendship and help in Accra and since. In Cte dIvoire, Yao Konans help was invaluable. I also wish to thank Peter Murphy, Ange Aboa, Loucoumane Coulibaly and Charles Bamba for their help and advice in Abidjan and Bouake. Steve Wallace showed great patience with my questions, as did Jonathan Parkman. Thanks to Pascal Fletcher and Alistair Thomson, formerly in the Dakar bureau of Reuters, for funding my trips and accepting my stories. Also at Reuters, Eleanor Wason was very generous with her contacts and expertise. Thanks to Russell Miles, Karen Palmer, Sophie Hares, Emily Bowers and Blake Lambert for advice on the manuscript. Richard Dowden and Stephanie Kitchen were encouraging and helpful throughout in spite of all my delays. I also wish to thank the Fund for Investigative Journalism for their financial support and advice. Thanks as ever to Mum, Dad, Oona, Fiona, Eoin and Sile. Most of all I want to thank those who took professional or personal risks to speak with me about the cocoa sector.