In the United States, it is common for nearly all holidays, birthdays, and other milestones of life to include some sweet treat for the event attendees to indulge in. Generally, anything from cakes, ice cream, brownies, or even a box of chocolates is supplied. However, what most people don’t know about the chocolate, in each of these desserts, is its origin. According to an article titled “Fair price for cocoa beans,” from the Korean Herald, “The Ivory Coast produces almost 50 percent of the world’s cocoa and derives 90 percent of its foreign earnings from the trade.” The Ivory Coast is well-known for its cocoa business; the owners of the cocoa factories have an efficient method which exports chocolate around the world as fast as possible. Yet, there is a dark side to the cocoa business that not many people know about, due to the fact that it is kept under wraps. Many young children are bribed or sold from neighboring countries to the Ivory Coast in hopes of gaining a better life. In reality, the children become slaves, and live in poor conditions with little pay. This violence and abuse is just a part of the conflict the cocoa industry brings to the country. It is also the cause of the civil war of 2002 and the violence between the North of the Ivory Coast and the South. The cocoa business is the tool that the Ivory Coast uses to continue its survival; ironic, however, because it is the cause of the country’s downfall and increase in violence within the past decade.
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| Young children work long hours and under poor conditions on the cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast. |
According to an article by Carol Off, for the Canberra Times, “The Ivory Coast [is] reasonably affluent in comparison with other countries because of the cocoa.” The country depends upon the cocoas industry for survival. The one way they made their business successful was the introduction of cheap labor. Perhaps a better way to put it, is that the labor was, and still is, free. Young children from nearby countries come to the Ivory Coast voluntarily in hopes of work or are forced by their families who are living in poverty. According to The Straits Times, “some [children] are kidnapped by traders while playing outside their homes; others are sold by parents living in poverty.” For people in the Western world, this may seem a bit extreme for a parent to sell their child, but it is normal in this part of the world when parents are desperate for money. Cocoa farmers know that there is a need and demand for chocolate and are willing to supply the world with their exports at any cost to the children.
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| Usually, bags of cocoa produced by Forces Nouvelle are re-bagged with a bag that says the cocoa is produced in Ghana. |
In addition, a South China Morning Post article said, “some of the children working in the Ivory Coast [are] actually from neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, desert countries where the economies are so desperate, parents [are] selling their children to farmers who sometimes paid their workers nothing, often leaving them malnourished and sometimes meting out beatings.” The name given to the chocolate produced by the hard work of the slave children is “blood chocolate,” and for a good reason. “According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, over 15,000 children are working on coffee and cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast,” (Cocoa Kids’). Further, an effect of this slave trade involves the education of children. “Children are kept out of school and forced to work on farms to meet the world’s craving chocolate and profit drive by the multinationals. Some are sold as child slaves, but most are put to work because cocoa farmers are too poor to hire adult labor” (Hawksley). Education isn’t the only basic right of children that is taken away. “…the children are imprisoned on farms and forced to work long hours in the fields” (Cocoa Kids’). Young African children look to the cocoa farms as a place of opportunity; somewhere that money can be earned. However, this ends up being a false hope, leaving the children with no money, no food, and no strength.
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| The Forces Nouvelle are a group of rebels that control 10% of the cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast. |
The government, in a bigger picture, adds even more violence to the scenario. A video produced by Al Jazeera shows that, “it was the government itself, the Ivorian Government, at the centre of this criminal world” (Off). About 10 years ago, the Ivory Coast split into two different groups or regions. The North contains the rebels, Forces Nouvelle, while the Ivorian Government controls the South. In 2002, a civil war broke out between the two groups, yet tension still remains throughout the country today. In addition, Forces Nouvelle control 10 percent of the country’s cocoa, even though it is illegal to export their cocoa. However, the process still happens behind closed doors. Emilie Serralta, of Global Witness, said “Forces Nouvelle makes 30 million dollars per year off of the cocoa trade. [They are] using a system of taxation on cocoa to make the movement survive and also enrich themselves as individuals,” (Hot Chocolate). In addition, in 2006, the rebels claimed that they exported more than 130,000 tons of cocoa each year, making the product essential to the survival of the Ivory Coast economy. Though, war isn’t the only option the rebels have considered.
In 2007, the rebels signed a peace deal with the Ivorian Government, yet Forces Nouvelle is still clinging onto its cocoa farms in order to keep some control, leading to inevitable conflict. The rebels decided to hold onto their land because they are comfortable with their current lifestyle. If they allow the Ivorian government to take over their farms, they would no longer be able to tax the buyers of the cocoa, which gave them a large profit. The cocoa, for the rebels, provides quick cash, making it a lucrative crop. This is the main cause of violence that is seen between the rebels and the government. Indigenous Ivoirians took it upon themselves to defend their native land from immigrants. However, the government deemed this unlawful. The UN intervened, sometimes firing guns at the Ivoirians, which makes their actions part of the 5th largest peace keeping mission in the world for the organization. The Burkina Faso immigrants are now frightened to go anywhere near the indigenous people, fearing their lives and land.
In the meantime, chocolate consumption everywhere, is most likely supporting, “murder, forced recruitment of child soldiers, rape, torture, [and] the worst kinds of human rights abuses” (Hot Chocolate). It is apparent that cocoa is the “life blood of the Ivory Coast,” and that both the Northern and Southern groups will do anything to keep their goals intact. While the North plans on illegally producing cocoa and exporting it, the South unsuccessfully tries to make peace with the rebels. Meanwhile, the health of the children is in jeopardy. Many young children are forced from their homes and living under poor conditions. Only the government can help those who struggle, yet it seems as though the government is too weak to fight back. Between the violence within the cocoa farm or the violence surrounding producers of cocoa, the Ivory Coast’s main commodity has many issues that put the country in grave danger. The one thing maintaining the Ivory Coast’s economy causes a ripple effect of violence throughout the country.
To learn more, watch this documentary made by BBC.
To learn more, watch this documentary made by BBC.
*Most of my sources came from LexisNexis and could not be linked to. Therefore, I made a works cited for those sources:
Works Cited
Hawksley, Humphrey. “Fair price for cocoa beans.” Korea Herlad 24 Aug. 2007: n. pag. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 1 June 2011.
No author. “Cocoa kids’ fate exposes growing trade in slaves.” The Straits Times 16 Apr. 2001: 14. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 1 June 2011.
Off, Carol. “The dark side of the sweet stuff.” Canberra Times 30 Sept. 2008, Final ed.: A4. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 1 June 2011.
Palmer, Karen. “Bid to prevent child labour in disarray; US-led plan to fight exploitation in West African cocoa plantations is in trouble.” South China Morning Post 14 Feb. 2007: 11. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 1 June 2011.
