Chase Arnold and Professor Sheila Bibb, Anthropology

At the turn of the 20th century, British imperialism renewed with remarkable vigor. The British Empire was expanded, its borders defined, and greater effort was invested into making each of its distant lands more profitable for Crown and country. A remarkable, yet often overlooked, portion of this colonial narrative belongs to the Republic of Ghana in West Africa, which was then known as the British Gold Coast. For several centuries following the first European encounters, the Gold Coast was primarily tied into the Atlantic slave trade, serving as a lucrative market where Africans could be both bought and sold for great profit, hence its name. However, with the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807, colonial officers had to seek new, legitimate commerce within their territories. This was realized through a number of cash crops including palm wine, rubber, and even coffee. However, in the 20th century, the Gold Coast transitioned to a new cash crop that drastically affected the colony’s economy, its people, and eventually its government. This new crop was cocoa. With my Orca Grant, I explored the historical and anthropological repercussions from the development of this crop.

My primary research concern was how the cocoa trade had affected Ghanaian culture during the 20th century and continues to affect it today. Rather than attempt an exhaustive ethnography on the issue, I choose to limit my study to cocoa’s impact on Ghanaian kinship structures. In Ghana, most of its ethnic groups are traditionally matrilineal, meaning that an individual traces their ancestry and inheritance through their mother and their mother’s family. As such, a young man expects his inheritance from his maternal uncle rather than his father. A review of the extant literature had revealed that the cultural forces of the 20th century, including British colonialism, modernization, and globalization, had all encouraged subtle changes to this system. While matrilineal society was still recognized, paternal rights and the concept of the nuclear family had gained new ground. My research was intended to show how cocoa farming either contributed to or reflected this change.

I completed my research during a 3-month field study in the Asante region of central Ghana. For that time, I lived in the small farming community of Wiamoase. This village is primarily composed of farm owners who have other professions yet maintain ownership of cocoa farms as a form of rural capital and investment. With this population, I was able to focus on how cocoa farms were inherited. To discover this information, I mostly completed semi-structured interviews with local farmers and farm owners. These interviews revealed that most farms continue to follow matrilineal inheritance lines. For example, if a man had inherited a farm from his maternal uncle, there was no question that he would be passing the farm on to one of his nephews. However, these interviews also revealed an interesting compromise between the nuclear family and the matriline. While farmers were still sure to pass on “family land” (i.e. matrilineal family land) to another member of the matriline, many farmers worked to purchase a private farm on their own. It was these private farms that they then intended to pass on to their own children. Thus, their matrilineal family would be satisfied and respected while their own children would have the assurance of an inheritance from their father. Other farmers also explained how they used “family farms” to care for their nuclear family. Many spoke about how the wealth from their cocoa farms, inherited from their matriline, was used to pay school fees and to buy food for their children. Some farmers even explained that after they gave these “family lands” to their nephews, they expected their nephews to continue using the farm to support their children, or otherwise incur their deceased uncle’s displeasure. These findings revealed that matrilineal inheritance is still a respected tenet of Ghanaian kinship practice. However, it also revealed that there is a continual negotiation between the nuclear and matrilineal family that is perfectly mirrored in the inheritance and management of their cocoa farms.

Aside from these interviews, I also completed an extensive amount of archival research to explore the history of cocoa’s cultural impact. In this, I relied upon the records maintained at the Ashanti Public Records Office and Archive located in Kumasi. The archive’s collection includes a host of colonial documents dating from 1901 until 1957 when Ghana gained its independence. I hoped that these manuscripts would reveal a number of issues. First, how had the British government introduced cocoa cash cropping to African farmers? And second, what cultural implications resulted from the cocoa trade between 1901 and 1957? In my first point, I was disappointed to learn that the colonial government had played no part in cocoa’s introduction to the Gold Coast. Instead, cocoa had been brought to the colony by an African farmer in the late 19th century and had grown in popularity without the colonial government’s influence. As for my second question, concerning cocoa’ cultural impact, I discovered that the British government was highly concerned with traditional culture. First, many administrators wanted to record and codify African tradition as by-laws under the colonial system. Some began this work as an act of cultural preservation while others felt it would improve colonial relations. Furthermore, many administrators studied African tradition in order to understand its potential impact on their interests. For example, while cocoa farming was producing valuable commerce, British officers were concerned that African traditions regarding inheritance and land tenure might impede the trade from achieving its full potential. These inquiries were considered so pressing in fact that a special commission was organized in London to consider how traditional society throughout all of Great Britain’s colonies in West Africa was impacting trade and commerce. Thus, the British colonial government’s occupation with African culture was largely pragmatic: did traditional practices impede their interests?

I am currently compiling this research into a history capstone and honors thesis, to be completed by the end of winter semester 2011. This thesis will combine these two avenues of research, presenting how cocoa cash cropping created unique cultural bridges under colonialism and continues to impel cultural transformation in modern African society. When completed, this thesis will also be submitted to professors Sheila Bibb and John Hawkins of the BYU anthropology department who are heading an anthropological research project on cocoa’s global impact. It will then be combined with similar research studies completed by other BYU students who have studied cocoa’s cultural impact in North America, Europe, and Latin America. Finally, I hope to continue this research in the coming year when I begin a master’s program in African Studies. For my several applications, I have proposed to complete a thesis regarding cocoa cash cropping throughout West Africa in the 20th century. This would extend my area of study to the other British colonies of West Africa, including Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and the Gambia. I would also consider the French colonies of West Africa, particularly Côte d’Ivoire. Since my eventual aim is to organize relief work in West Africa, I will also expand this research by considering the economic and political repercussions of cocoa cash cropping. With this completed work, I will be better prepared to design and implement rural development projects that can balance the profitability of cash cropping with the necessity of food sustainability.