Cocoa
- LAST MODIFIED: 23 June 2021
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0221
- LAST MODIFIED: 23 June 2021
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846733-0221
Introduction
Cocoa production has, over the years since its discovery, assumed an important role in shaping the economic, social, and political structures of cocoa-producing countries, particularly in West Africa. Not only has it done so at a local level, but it has also defined the place of West African producing countries in the global economy. Over the years, cocoa evolved to become an integral part of many cultures. Generally, cocoa is produced in the tropical and subtropical regions. It is distinctly selective to climate and soil and is very susceptible to pests and diseases. This regional exactitude significantly shaped global cocoa marketing and consumption during the course of the evolution of the industry, in which cocoa was produced for markets in temperate countries. The dynamics that triggered and were triggered by cocoa production at all levels—locally, regionally, and globally—offer essential analytical pathways in approaching the development debate in Africa. Various scholarly works examine the origins and significance of cocoa production in West African societies, economies, and politics. They engage debates on the impact of cocoa production on capital accumulation, class formation, regional economic integration, gender relations, and the environment.
General Overviews
Ghana was the major cocoa-producing country in the world before the Second World War. Earlier works on cocoa during that period focus mainly on Ghana. Urquhart 1955 details the emergence and expansion of cocoa production in Ghana, farming systems, land and labor issues, and prospects for the development of the cocoa industry beyond the 1950s. Hill 1956 examines the peasant farming system into which cocoa production was introduced in Ghana. Gunnarsson 1978 discusses the Ghanaian cocoa industry from 1900 to 1939, focusing more on prices and structural change. Very few scholarly analyses exist for cocoa production in Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, and Togo among other cocoa-producing countries for this period. Muojama 2018 examines the Nigerian cocoa industry during the Great Depression from a world-system perspective. The period following the Second World War witnessed vast changes in the main centers for cocoa production, with Côte d’Ivoire becoming a major cocoa producer in the world by 1979, with a notable expansion of the industry in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Togo. Only then were scholarly works targeting these countries and their interaction with the global economy produced. Ryan 2013 deliberates the downsides of cocoa production in West Africa, focusing on a range of topics from corruption by political elites, slavery in cocoa farms, migration, and underdevelopment. On a more general scale, Wilson 1999 offers the general global trends in cocoa production and marketing, including the establishment of international institutions for the governance of the global cocoa trade.
Chauveau, Jean-Pierre. “Cocoa as Innovation: African Initiatives, Local Contexts and Agro-ecological Conditions in the History of Cocoa Cultivation in West African Forest Lands (c. 1850–1950).” Paideuma 43 (1997): 121–142.
An account of the impulses leading to the development of cocoa production underscoring the entrepreneurial intuition of peasant farmers. A reading of this brings a closer analysis of the many arguments presented in the vent-for-surplus theory and its applicability in explaining the development of cocoa production among peasant farmers.
Gunnarsson, Christer. The Gold Coast Cocoa Industry 1900–1939: Production, Prices and Structural Change. Lund, Sweden: Economic History Association, 1978.
A basic book that covers the earliest economic history of cocoa production in West Africa.
Hill, Polly. The Gold Coast Farmer: A Preliminary Survey. London: Oxford University Press, 1956.
A groundbreaking micro-analysis of peasant cocoa farmers in Ghana that illuminates a wide array of themes relating to access to land and labor.
Muojama, Olisa G. The Nigerian Cocoa Industry and the International Economy in the 1930s: A World Systems Approach. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2018.
A critical Wallerstenian examination of the Nigerian cocoa industry during the Great Depression.
Ruf, François, and P. S. Siswoputranto, eds. Cocoa Cycles: The Economics of Cocoa Supply. Cambridge, UK: Elsevier, 1995.
Examines the cyclical boom-and-bust nature of cocoa supply as a major problem for the international cocoa industry and particularly for developing countries. It explains the powerful economic, social, and political factors which impact on the cocoa economy. It shows that the laws of cocoa supply are closely linked to environmental, ecological, and institutional factors. The book fills the gap in terms of non-English scholarship and research.
Ryan, Orla. Chocolate Nations: Living and Dying for Cocoa in West Africa. London: Zed Books, 2013.
Written from an anthropological first-hand account on issues, this book is a sobering examination of the inequalities that exist between cocoa-producing and cocoa-consuming countries and how cocoa production has not done much to assist in the development of coffee-producing countries.
Urquhart, H. Duncan. Cocoa. London: Longmans Green, 1955.
One of the earliest published books on cocoa in West Africa, focusing on the transformative impact of cocoa production on the West African peasantry and economy.
Wilson, C. Ken. Coffee, Cocoa and Tea. Wallingford, UK: CABI, 1999.
A general overview of cocoa production and international trade.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Achebe, Chinua
- Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
- Africa in the Cold War
- African Masculinities
- African Refugees
- African Socialism
- Africans in the Atlantic World
- Aid and Economic Development
- Alcohol
- Algeria
- Angola
- Arab Spring
- Arabic Language and Literature
- Archaeology and the Study of Africa
- Archaeology of Central Africa
- Archaeology of Eastern Africa
- Archaeology of Southern Africa
- Archaeology of West Africa
- Architecture
- Art, Art History, and the Study of Africa
- Arts of Central Africa
- Arts of Western Africa
- Asante and the Akan and Mossi States
- Bantu Expansion
- Benin (Dahomey)
- Boer War
- Botswana (Bechuanaland)
- Brink, André
- British Colonial Rule in Sub-Saharan Africa
- Burkina Faso (Upper Volta)
- Burundi
- Cameroon
- Cape Verde
- Central African Republic
- Children and Childhood
- China in Africa
- Christianity, African
- Cinema and Television
- Cocoa
- Coetzee, J.M.
- Colonial Rule, Belgian
- Colonial Rule, French
- Colonial Rule, German
- Colonial Rule, Italian
- Colonial Rule, Portuguese
- Communism, Marxist-Leninism, and Socialism in Africa
- Comoro Islands
- Conflict Management and Resolution
- Congo, Republic of (Congo Brazzaville)
- Congo River Basin States
- Congo Wars
- Conservation and Wildlife
- Crime and the Law in Colonial Africa
- Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire)
- Development of Early Farming and Pastoralism
- Diaspora, Kongo Atlantic
- Disease and African Society
- Djibouti
- Dyula
- Early States And State Formation In Africa
- Early States of the Western Sudan
- Eastern Africa and the South Asian Diaspora
- Economic Anthropology
- Economic History
- Economy, Informal
- Education
- Education and the Study of Africa
- Egypt
- Egypt, Ancient
- Environment
- Environmental History
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Ethiopia
- Ethnicity and Politics
- Europe and Africa, Medieval
- Family Planning
- Famine
- Farah, Nuruddin
- Feminism
- Food and Food Production
- Fugard, Athol
- Fulani
- Gabon
- Gambia
- Genocide in Rwanda
- Geography and the Study of Africa
- Ghana
- Gikuyu (Kikuyu) People of Kenya
- Globalization
- Gordimer, Nadine
- Great Lakes States of Eastern Africa, The
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Hausa
- Hausa Language and Literature
- Health, Medicine, and the Study of Africa
- Historiography and Methods of African History
- History and the Study of Africa
- Horn of Africa and South Asia
- Igbo
- Ijo/Niger Delta
- Image of Africa, The
- Indian Ocean and Middle Eastern Slave Trades
- Indian Ocean Trade
- Invention of Tradition
- Iron Working and the Iron Age in Africa
- Islam in Africa
- Islamic Politics
- Kenya
- Kongo and the Coastal States of West Central Africa
- Language and the Study of Africa
- Law and the Study of Sub-Saharan Africa
- Law, Islamic
- Lesotho
- LGBTI Minorities and Queer Politics in Eastern and Souther...
- Liberia
- Libya
- Literature and the Study of Africa
- Lord's Resistance Army
- Maasai and Maa-Speaking Peoples of East Africa, The
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Mali
- Mande
- Mau Mau
- Mauritania
- Media and Journalism
- Military History
- Modern African Literature in European Languages
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Music, Dance, and the Study of Africa
- Music, Traditional
- Nairobi
- Namibia
- Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Nollywood
- North Africa from 600 to 1800
- North Africa to 600
- Northeastern African States, c. 1000 BCE-1800 CE
- Obama and Kenya
- Oman, the Gulf, and East Africa
- Oral and Written Traditions, African
- Oromo
- Ousmane Sembène
- Pastoralism
- Police and Policing
- Political Science and the Study of Africa
- Political Systems, Precolonial
- Popular Culture and the Study of Africa
- Popular Music
- Population and Demography
- Postcolonial Sub-Saharan African Politics
- Religion and Politics in Contemporary Africa
- Rwanda
- Senegal
- Sexualities in Africa
- Seychelles, The
- Siwa Oasis
- Slave Trade, Atlantic
- Slavery in Africa
- São Tomé and Príncipe
- Social and Cultural Anthropology and the Study of Africa
- Somalia
- South Africa Post c. 1850
- Southern Africa to c. 1850
- Soyinka, Wole
- Spanish Colonial Rule
- Sport
- States of the Zimbabwe Plateau and Zambezi Valley
- Sudan and South Sudan
- Swahili City-States of the East African Coast
- Swahili Language and Literature
- Tanzania (Tanganyika and Zanzibar)
- Togo
- Tourism
- Trade
- Traditional Religion, African
- Transportation
- Trans-Saharan Trade
- Tunisia
- Uganda
- Urbanism and Urbanization
- Wars and Warlords
- Western Sahara
- Women and African History
- Women and Colonialism
- Women and Politics
- Women and Slavery
- Women, Gender and the Study of Africa
- Women in 19th-Century West Africa
- Yoruba Diaspora
- Yoruba Language and Literature
- Yoruba States, Benin, and Dahomey
- Youth
- Zambia