Neocolonialism and West Africa's Cocoa Industry
This paper examines neocolonialism through the lens of West Africa's cocoa industry, arguing that former colonial powers continue to exert economic control over nations like Ghana and Ivory Coast through mechanisms such as differential tariffs, suppressed cocoa prices, and foreign aid conditions. Drawing on scholarly analysis and industry reporting, the paper traces the origins of cocoa overproduction in the 1960s, documents present-day exploitation including child labor and human trafficking, and demonstrates how structured trade inequities prevent African nations from developing value-added manufacturing. The paper concludes that formal political independence has not translated into genuine economic freedom for these nations.
- Introduction: Thesis linking neocolonialism to cocoa dependence
- Background: Defining Neocolonialism: Scholarly definition and foreign aid critique
- West African Cocoa Industry in the 1960s: Overproduction boom and roots of exploitation
- West African Cocoa Industry Today: Child labor, tariffs, and persistent poverty
- Discussion: US imports, farm poverty, and trafficking cycle
- Conclusion: Independence without economic freedom persists
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper uses a single, well-chosen case study — the West African cocoa industry — to ground an abstract theoretical concept (neocolonialism) in concrete, verifiable detail.
- It builds the argument chronologically, showing how 1960s overproduction dynamics evolved into today's child labor crisis, giving the analysis historical depth.
- Quoted evidence from Langan (2018) on differential EEC tariff rates (5.4% on raw cocoa vs. 22% on processed cocoa) provides a specific, hard-to-dispute data point that strengthens the central claim.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates comparative tariff analysis as argumentation: by juxtaposing the low tariff on raw cocoa beans against the high tariff on processed cocoa powder, the student translates an abstract power relationship into a measurable, structural mechanism. This technique — letting policy numbers do the rhetorical work — is more persuasive than assertion alone and models how to use economic evidence within a humanities-style argument.
Structure breakdown
The paper follows a clear six-part structure: an introduction establishing the thesis, a background section defining neocolonialism with scholarly support, a historical section on 1960s cocoa production, a present-day section documenting current exploitation, a discussion section connecting cocoa economics to human trafficking, and a conclusion restating the argument's stakes. The flow moves from theory to history to present consequence, a logical progression that keeps the argument coherent throughout.
Introduction
Colonialism marked the expansion and consolidation of power by countries like Britain and France. The British and French exercised substantial influence over places like Cameroon, Chad, Congo, and South Africa. After some time, these former colonies gained independence and attempted to stabilize their respective economies. However, most made little progress and remained dependent on resources such as foreign aid to survive. Such hardship gave rise to a new form of power dynamics: neocolonialism. Neocolonialism is a stark reminder of the power developed nations hold over former colonies. West Africa's cocoa industry demonstrates how poorer nations remain poor through the limited export of raw resources — a pattern that maintains dependence and diminishes innovation.
Background: Defining Neocolonialism
Neocolonialism is "a situation of infringed national sovereignty and intrusive influence by external elements" (Langan, 2018, p. 1). While some scholars may feel uncomfortable invoking the term, it accurately describes the situations many African countries — former colonies — continue to face. These individual African states have endured colonization and economic destabilization while simultaneously attempting to overcome historical obstacles. It is important that scholars not ignore the very real efforts by developed nations to maintain African dependence on foreign countries. As Langan argues, "development interventions in Africa by external elements, both corporate and donor… is the continuation of external control over African territories by newer and more subtle methods than that exercised under formal Empire" (2018, p. 4).
Foreign aid, for example, often takes the form of high-interest loans that do nothing but keep African governments in crippling debt. Even when foreign aid does not come in the form of loans, it comes with conditions. Langan indicates "that aid monies would not only be used to bring about economic policy change conducive to the extraction of raw material wealth but would also be used to fund infrastructure projects conducive to this 'robbery'" (2018, p. 63). This context helps explain the situation of the cocoa industry in West Africa. Raw resources such as food and minerals have become the primary exports of many African nations. These countries cannot sustain themselves unless they farm certain crops or permit the mining of their vast mineral reserves, leading to a stifling of innovation and a continued inability to achieve economic prosperity.
West African Cocoa Industry in the 1960s
The 1960s brought a production boom of cocoa in several African countries. This led to overproduction and a reduction in the global selling price of cocoa. While cocoa can be readily sold, it can only earn African nations so much, leaving these countries unable to develop a robust economy. Value-added revenue can only be generated through manufactured goods.
If Ghana, for example, manufactured its own chocolate bars and marketed them as organic and fair-trade products, it would earn significantly more from its product than from simply selling raw cocoa beans. However, changes within these countries and trading agreements between them and their former colonizers produced an environment that moved away from manufacturing. Furthermore, the rapid industrialization of the era made it easier and cheaper to grow cocoa beans, allowing developed nations like Britain and the United States to offer suppressed buying prices. Taken together, these conditions facilitated the exploitation of raw materials and stifled African manufacturing and processing. As Acquaah notes, "The decade 1960–69 created a new kind of demand for agricultural products of West African countries of Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. Rapid industrialization in these countries created an additional load of satisfying the intermediate input demands of domestic industry" (1999, p. 152).
West African Cocoa Industry Today
The cacao bean grows mainly in West Africa's tropical climates, particularly in countries like Ivory Coast and Ghana, which together supply up to 70% of the global cocoa supply. Major chocolate companies such as Hershey's, Nestlé, and Mars purchase the harvested cocoa (FEP, 2018). What many consumers do not know is that the production, growing, and harvesting of cocoa in those regions relies heavily on child labor, and rampant government corruption in those countries is closely tied to the cocoa industry.
Why is there so much corruption, and why are there child laborers? Put simply, child labor keeps the price of cocoa low so that these countries can sell their product at competitive prices. In West Africa, cocoa is a commodity crop grown primarily for export; 60% of Ivory Coast's export revenue comes from cocoa. As the global chocolate industry has grown over the years, so has the demand for cheap cocoa. On average, cocoa farmers earn less than $2 per day — an income below the poverty line (FEP, 2018).
Due to the abject poverty experienced in these countries, children begin working at an early age to support their families. Some are kidnapped or sold to traffickers and begin working on farms as young as five years old (FEP, 2018). This is one of the most severe negative effects neocolonialism has on African nations.
As Langan notes, tariffs on cocoa beans and powdered cocoa differ sharply, effectively forcing African states to continue producing raw materials rather than developing their own chocolate products. He cites "EEC tariffs of 5.4% on raw cocoa beans from Africa, compared with a tariff of 22% on processed powdered cocoa — as evidence that European powers sought to maintain African states in a subordinate position" (2018, p. 12). Even with the potential for tariff reductions through trading blocs, the flood of low-cost European and American products into the market creates competitive pricing that most African countries cannot match — hence the resort to cheap and coerced labor to generate any profit. It is through these subtle mechanisms that neocolonialism remains a real threat to the economic stability of African states.
The cocoa industry in West Africa is a prime example of neocolonialism in action. It demonstrates what continues to be reinforced even after African nations achieved formal political independence. When countries like Ghana were colonies, they were economically exploited and had their raw materials taken. Today, their raw materials are still being extracted — only through different means, such as imposing high tariffs on manufactured or processed goods while maintaining low tariffs on raw materials. Because most buyers of exported raw materials from Africa are former colonial powers, they can effectively dictate prices, keeping profits for Africans extremely low. This translates into continued control over African economies and contributes to the slavery and human trafficking observed in these regions.
Conclusion
The West African cocoa industry represents what can happen when former colonies attempt to re-stabilize in a world that does not support that effort. Even though former colonial powers like Britain are no longer formally in control, they still exert influence over what these former colonies produce and what they can export. Neocolonialism exists and will continue to exist, maintaining a persistent political and economic hold that developed nations have over underdeveloped former colonies. While change may be possible in the future, it must begin with understanding the harmful effects of neocolonialism and working to dismantle the obstacles it has created.
Child slavery is a reality in cocoa-producing countries like Ghana. The constant demand for supply and the low prices forced on African countries growing and exporting cocoa perpetuate human trafficking in West Africa. Children work on cocoa farms or are forced into slavery, enduring harsh conditions. While African nations have gained their formal independence, they have not truly gained their economic freedom. Colonialism may be over, but neocolonialism continues.
References
Acquaah, B. (1999). Cocoa development in West Africa: The early period with particular reference to Ghana. Accra: Ghana Universities Press.
FEP. (2018). Child labor and slavery in the chocolate industry. Food Empowerment Project. Retrieved from http://www.foodispower.org/slavery-chocolate/
Hauser, W. K. (2017). Invisible slaves: The victims and perpetrators of modern-day slavery. Chicago: Hoover Institution Press.
Keefe, B. (2016, March 1). Inside big chocolate's child labor problem. Fortune. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/big-chocolate-child-labor/
Langan, M. (2018). Neo-colonialism and the poverty of 'development' in Africa (1st ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.
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