The history of Ghana's ice cream bars is intertwined with the broader narrative of the cocoa industry, ethical business practices, and the challenges of child labor and slavery. This article delves into the origins of Divine Chocolate, a company at the forefront of ethical confectionary business, and sheds light on the darker aspects of cocoa production in Western Africa and Brazil.
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Divine Chocolate: A Ghanian Cooperative's Success Story
Divine Chocolate (DIVINE), established by a Ghanian cooperative of cocoa farmers KUAPA, has been at the forefront of ethical confectionary business since its foundation in 1998. Divine Chocolate’s history starts with Kuapa Kokoo (KUAPA), or “good cocoa farmer” in the Ghanaian language of Twi, - a cooperative of cocoa farmers in Ghana founded in 1993 following the liberalization of the Ghanaian economy.
Initially formed by around 2,000 small-scale farmers, KUAPA aimed to shield its members from the fluctuations of international cocoa prices and improve their socio-economic conditions. By 2024, KUAPA’s membership has grown to over 100,000 farmers representing over 57 co-operative societies spanning 71 districts in Ghana. Over the years, KUAPA has established the Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Union (KKFU), the Kuapa Kokoo Limited (KKL) - a licensed cocoa-buying company, the Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Trust (KKFT) to handle the premiums from international cocoa sales, and the Day Chocolate Company in the UK. This company, supported by partners like Twin Trading, The Body Shop, and Christian Aid, launched the world’s first farmer-owned Fair Trade chocolate bar, Divine Chocolate.
Over time, KUAPA's share in the company grew, and in 2006, The Body Shop transferred its shares to KUAPA, solidifying the farmers' control over the venture. Divine Chocolate built its brand around the principles of quality, equity, and fairness by obtaining Fair Trade certification for all its products. KUAPA farmers have enjoyed the benefits of DIVINE’s growth.
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KUAPA farmers not only succeeded in launching a chocolate brand in the UK; they also set a new standard for ethical business practices around the world. In acknowledgement of the company’s equitable business model, in 2008 DIVINE was named Best Ethical Business by The Observer newspaper, a renowned publication in the UK. Since then, the company has received many awards, including the Trader of the Year during the 2020 International Faretrade Awards.
Key Milestones of Divine Chocolate
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1993 | Kuapa Kokoo (KUAPA) cooperative founded in Ghana. |
| 1998 | Divine Chocolate established by KUAPA. |
| 2006 | KUAPA gains full control of Divine Chocolate. |
| 2008 | Divine named Best Ethical Business by The Observer. |
| 2020 | Divine receives the Trader of the Year award during the International Faretrade Awards. |
Child Labor and Slavery in the Chocolate Industry
Chocolate is a product of the cacao bean, which grows primarily in the tropical climates of Western Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Western African countries, mostly Ghana and the Ivory Coast, supply about 70% of the world’s cocoa. The cocoa they grow and harvest is sold to a majority of chocolate companies, including the largest in the world.
In the past few decades, a handful of organizations and journalists have exposed the widespread use of child labor, and in some cases slavery, on cocoa farms in Western Africa. Child labor has been found on cocoa farms in Cameroon, Guinea, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, although since most of Western Africa’s cocoa is grown in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, the majority of child labor cases have been documented in those two countries. In recent years, evidence has also surfaced of both child labor and slavery on cocoa farms in Brazil. Cocoa workers there face many of the same abuses as those on the cocoa farms of Western Africa.
The farms of Western Africa and Brazil supply cocoa to international giants such as Hershey’s, Mars, and Nestlé as well as many small chocolate companies-revealing the industry’s direct connection to the worst forms of child labor, human trafficking, and slavery.
The Worst Forms of Child Labor in Western Africa
In Western Africa, cocoa is a commodity crop grown primarily for export; cocoa is the Ivory Coast’s primary export and makes up about half of the country’s agricultural exports in volume. Cocoa was originally brought to Western Africa by European chocolate companies seeking to grow it where labor was cheap or free, and that colonial legacy exists in the chocolate industry today. As the chocolate industry has grown over the years, so has the demand for cheap cocoa.
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Most cocoa farmers earn less than $1 per day, an income below the extreme poverty line. As a result, they often resort to the use of child labor to keep their prices competitive. In many cases, this includes what the International Labour Organization (ILO) calls “the worst forms of child labor.” These are defined as practices “likely to harm the health, safety, or morals of children.” Approximately 2.1 million children in the Ivory Coast and Ghana work on cocoa farms, most of whom are likely exposed to the worst forms of child labor.
The children of Western Africa are surrounded by intense poverty, and many begin working at a young age to help support their families. Some children end up on the cocoa farms because they need work and traffickers tell them that the job pays well. Other children are sold to traffickers or farm owners by their own relatives, who are unaware of the dangerous work environment and the lack of any provisions for an education.
Often, traffickers abduct the young children from small villages in neighboring African countries, such as Burkina Faso and Mali, two of the poorest countries in the world. Journalists who went undercover as cocoa farmers documented traffickers in Ghana selling children to them for $34 a child. These children were liberated, and social workers reunited them with their families.
Most of the children laboring on cocoa farms are between the ages of 12 and 16, but reporters have found children as young as 5. Holding a single large pod in one hand, each child has to strike the pod with a machete and pry it open with the tip of the blade to expose the cocoa beans. Every strike of the machete has the potential to slice a child’s flesh. Many children have scars on their bodies from their work in on the cocoa farms. In addition to the hazards of using machetes, children are also exposed to agricultural chemicals on cocoa farms in Western Africa.
The farm owners using child labor usually provide the children with the cheapest food available, such as corn paste or the cassava and bananas that grow in the surrounding forest. In some cases, the children sleep on wooden planks in small windowless buildings with no access to clean water or sanitary bathrooms. Around 30% of children laboring on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast do not attend school, which violates the ILO’s Child Labour Standards.
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Slavery in Western Africa
Many children trafficked into Western African cocoa farms are coerced to work without pay. Both children and adults are enslaved on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast and Ghana. Cases of slavery in the cocoa industry often involve acts of physical violence, such as being whipped for working slowly or trying to escape. Reporters have also documented cases where children were locked in at night to prevent them from escaping.
In the Supreme Court case Nestlé USA and Cargill v. Doe, six people from Mali sought damages from Nestlé and Cargill for being trafficked into the Ivory Coast as children and forced to work on cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast. The formerly enslaved plaintiffs described how guards would punish child workers who attempted to flee with atrocities such as forcing them to drink urine or cutting open their feet.
Child Labor and Slavery in Brazil
Unlike child labor and slavery in the West African cocoa industry, which has been exposed for some time, these abuses remained hidden on Brazilian cocoa farms until only a few years ago. While cocoa is native to the Amazon, Brazil only produces about 3.7% of the world’s supply. The Brazilian states of Pará and Bahia account for almost all of the country’s cocoa production. At least 7,900 children and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 17 work on Brazil’s cocoa farms.
Like in Western Africa, the Brazilian child workers also use machetes to harvest the cocoa from tree branches. They then carry baskets of the fruit, which can weigh up to 44 pounds, on their backs. Enslaved cocoa workers have been subject to unsanitary housing, poor work conditions, debt bondage, and long work hours.
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