Where Cocoa Originated
Tetteh Quarshi as Wall Art
The Swiss set up a collecting warehouse, called a "factory," to collect the cocoa beans from the cash crop farmers and ship them to Switzerland, making Switzerland a name for itself as a producer of fine chocolate. The first half of the twentieth century was characterised by a large and rapid expansion of commercial cash cropping of the cocoa. Each farm was organized, often by a wealthy trader with enough capital, mainly men and some women. They went to the north of the country to find labourers, historically seen as slaves by the Akan, to come and work on the cocoa farms. This was very different from subsistence farming by women for food. The second half of the century saw the slowing of the expansion and decline of the industry because of a series of national blunders in export and farm policies, and because the rape of the large hardwoods (poor enforcement of rules against that) which depleted the source of forest protection for the cocoa plants.
Cocoa Pods Grow on the Trunk, Not on Branches
Cocoa Beans Taken Out of the Pods
The cocoa tree must grow under the big rain forest hardwoods to be sheltered from the heavy sun. The pods grow on the side of the trunk, not on the branches. The pods must be harvested, split open to obtain the beans, and they allowed to ferment in the forest floor, for the outer pulp to fall off, before they are brought to the village to dry.
Poor Photos. Sorry. Cocoa Harvesting after Fermentation
Drying the Cocoa Beans
Covering the Cocoa Beans When it Rains