Labour in commercial agriculture in ghana in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

The Journal of African History

Volumn 24, Issue 4, 1983, Pages 461-483

  Sutton, Inez ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84971765263     PISSN: 00218537     EISSN: 14695138     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853700028000     Document Type: Article

References (77)

1. Ghana National Archives, CSO file 1481/30; ADM 56/1/84, passim. All file numbers refer to the Ghana National Archives. R. Davison, Migrant Labour in the Gold Coast (Achimota, 1954).
2. B. Ingham, Tropical Exports and Economic Development (London, 1981); K. Hart, The Political Economy of West African Agriculture (Cambridge, 1982); R. Davison, Migrant Labour-, W. H. Beckett, Koransang, A Gold Coast Cocoa Farm (Gold Coast, Department of Agriculture, 1945); P. Hill, Migrant Cocoa Farmers of Southern Ghana (Cambridge, 1965); R. Kotey, C. Okali and B. Rourke, Economics of Cocoa Production and Marketing (University of Ghana, 1974).
3. S. Amin, ed. Modern Migrations in Western Africa (London, 1974); H. Kuper, ed. Urbanization and Migration in West Africa (Berkeley, 1965); G. Benneh, ‘Small scale farming systems in Ghana’, Africa xliii, ii; M. J. Field, Akim-Kotoku, an Oman of the Gold Coast (London, 1948); J. Gordon, ‘The Cocoa Industry in Ghana and Nigeria’ (unpublished manuscript in the possession of the author), and also papers in Rhodes House (MSS Afr. 977-8); P. Hill, The Gold Coast Farmer (London, 1956).
4. ADM 11/1705, 28, evidence of J. E. Casely-Hayford; M. Johnson, ‘Migrants’ Progress’, Ghana Geographical Association Bulletin, ix, x.
5. P. Jenkins, Abstracts from the Gold Coast Correspondence of the Basel Mission (Balme Library, University of Ghana, 1970), 11, 180, Mischlisch to Basel, Oct. 1896; Gold Coast Department Reports, Northern Territories, 1904 and 1906; ADM 1/88, end. to no. 181, 28 June 1889, Firminger to Sect'y of State; ADM 1/490, no. 49, Hodgson to Sect'y of State, 17 Feb. 1890. Firminger's allegations are supported by George Ekern Ferguson, the Fante geologist employed by the government to explore and make treaties in the north, ‘Mission to the Gonja Districts’, cyclostyled, Dept. of History, University of Ghana.
6. E. Reynolds, Trade and Economic Change on the Gold Coast, 1807-1874 (London, 1974), 82-3; I. Wilks, Asante in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, 1975), 52, 93-4; K. Arhin, ed. Papers of George Ekem Ferguson (Leiden, 1974), 21; R. Addo-Fening, ‘Akyem Abuakwa, c. 1874-1943’, Ph.D. thesis, University of Ghana, 1981, 309; K. Dickson, ‘The agricultural landscape of Southern Ghana and Ashanti-Brong Ahafo, 1800-1850’, Ghana Geographical Association Bulletin, ix, i; P. Bartle, pers. comm.; W. Tudhope, Enquiry into the Gold Coast Cocoa Industry (Final Report; Gold Coast Sessional Papers, iv, 1919); GNA, Conf, 497/30, J. de Graft Johnson's memo on the vestiges of slavery, 1929; H. W. Amherst, Informal Diaries, Gonja, May 1937 (Rhodes House, Oxford); A. A. Boahen, pers. comm. One other recent form of labour was described to me by Dr Michael Kwamenah-Poh, of UST, Kumasi. This was perhaps similar to apprenticeship, or possibly indenture. See below.
7. ADM 11/1705, 28; GNA, Conf. 497/30, de Graft Johnson's memo; Addo-Fening, ‘Akyem Abuakwa’, 389.
8. Governor Carstensen's Diary (Institute of African Studies, Legon), 3-4, 1842; Jenkins, Abstracts, 2a, Zimmerman Report, 1851; Reynolds, Trade, 69; Rhodes House, MSS. Afr. s. 977, ch. 3; MSS. Afr. s. 1122, box 1/3.
9. Carstensen's Diary, 23-4, 1845; I. H. Burkill, A Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula (London, 1935), 1, 893-5; Rhodes House, MSS. Afr. s. 978, section 14, and p. 134. One reference to the Krobo planting of oil palms and the creation of such plantations with slave labour is in ADM 1/494, no. 171. See also Johnson's ‘Migrants’ Progress’, for planting of oil palms in Akwapim as well as Krobo.
10. ADM 5/3/2, Report of the Select Committee on the State of British Possessions on the West Coast of Africa, 1842, evidence of Commander H. Broadhead; Reynolds, Trade, 85-6.
11. Carstensen's Diary, 5-6; ADM 5/3/2, evidence of Commander H. Broadhead and R. R. Madden; ADM 1/494, no. 171.
12. Jenkins, Abstracts, no. 236, ‘Möhr report of journey from Begoro to Anum, 1881'; and i, 62, Clerk report, 1893; J. A. Braimah and J. R. Goody, Salaga, the Struggle for Power (London, 1967), 144-5 (Parmeter and Krause reports and letters); Arhin, Papers of George Ekern Ferguson, 78.
13. ADM 1/88, end. to no. 181; Braimah and Goody, Salaga, 171-2(B. H. Klose book); ADM 5/3/2, evidence of W. B. Sewall and J. A. Clegg; Jenkins, Abstracts, Clerk report.
14. Jenkins, Abstracts, no. 11, 21, Muller, 1885, 129; Möhr, 1880; Wilks, Asante, 688.
15. Rhodes House, MSS Afr. s. 978, section 14. On the role of women see C. Y. Shepherd, Report on the Economics of Peasant Agriculture (Accra, 1936), 78. There are also references to large numbers of women among the slaves traded to Krobo in the late nineteenth century in ADM 1/88.
16. For relative values one source is J. Gordon, ‘The Cocoa Industry in Ghana and Nigeria ‘(an unpublished manuscript kindly shown me by Mr Gordon). See also Gordon's writings in Rhodes House.
17. Rhodes House, MSS Afr. s. 1122, Box 1/3; ADM 5/3/16, paras, 228-38, 254-8, and appendix, and memo by E. D. Morel; Shepherd, Report, 78. The Palm Oil Bill and the debate on it are in G. E. Metcalfe, Great Britain and Ghana (University of Ghana, 1964); The Gold Coast Farmer, 1, xii.
18. Burkill, Dictionary, 1, 893-5; Gold Coast Department Reports, Agriculture, 1911; Rhodes House, MSS Afr. s. 1122.
19. The Gold Coast Farmer, 1, i; Gold Coast Department Reports, Agriculture, 1911.
20. Gold Coast Blue Books, Agriculture, 1884-97.
21. Jenkins, Abstracts, Möhr report, 1893, 11, 172, 176; Annual Report 1890; D. Brokensha, Akwapim Handbook (University of Ghana, 1972), ch. 10.
22. Reynolds, Trade, 176-9; Brokensha, Akwapim Handbook, ch. 10.
23. Gold Coast Department Reports, Agriculture, 1908; Gordon, ‘Cocoa Industry’, 2/18; Governor Clifford's speech on the state of trade, Oct. 1913, in Metcalfe, Great Britain and Ghana. From about five and a half million pounds exported in 1899, the export of rubber fell to under two million pounds in 1908.
24. Reynolds, Trade-, Report on the Economic Agriculture of the Gold Coast, 1889, in Metcalfe, Great Britain and Ghana. 25 Gordon, ‘Cocoa Industry’, 3/5.
25. Addo-Fenning, ‘Akyem Abuakwa’, 313-51; Tamale Archives, series 56/1, quarterly reports; B. Der, University of Cape Coast, pers. comm.
26. Gold Coast Department Reports, Agriculture, 1911, and Ashanti, 1902.
27. In Samir Amin, Modern Migrations, introduction, as well as contemporary records. EC 6/3, Missionary Magazine, 1836-7, Riis’ Diary, 1839, Heidenbote, 53-6.
28. EC 6/3, Missionary Magazine, 1840; C. D. Adams, ‘Activities of Danish botanists in Guinea, 1783-1850’, Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, iii, pt. 1; ADM 5/3/2, passim.
29. ADM 5/3/3, 70-5. On the Napoleon Coffee Plantation wages were only 2 1/2d. a day.
30. Reynolds, Trade, 68; ADM 5/3/2, R. Madden, 597.
31. The Gold Coast Farmer, 1, viii; Gold Coast Department Reports, Agriculture, 1911-13, 1918; ADM 5/3/11, E. D. Morel; ADM 11/1705, 401.
32. Sekondi Archives, Regional Labour, files 218, 139, 334.
33. With the introduction of cocoa, one also sees a decline in shifting cultivation. Cocoa demanded a long-term use of the land, and food crops also tended to become more permanently cultivated - especially those interplanted with cocoa. A. Jones papers, in, 530 (Rhodes House).
34. ADM 56/1/84, passim.
35. J. Adomako-Sarfoh, ‘Migrant Asante cocoa farmers and their families’, Legort Family Research Papers, 1; N. O. Addo, ‘Some employment and labour conditions on Ghana's cocoa farms’, in Kotey, Okali and Rourke, Economics of Cocoa Production.
36. A. Jones papers, iii, 239 ff. (Rhodes House).
37. Hill, Gold Coast Farmer, 8-17; M. Darkoh, ‘Recent trends in the economic geography of Buem’, Bulletin of the Ghana Geographical Association, ix, 2; Tudhope, Enquiry (Interim and Final Reports, Gold Coast Sessional Papers 11 and iv); Gordon, ‘Cocoa Industry’, 2/20-21; ADM 11/1705, passim; Field, Akim-Kotoku, 73-4; Addo ‘Some employment'; C. Okali, ‘Labour inputs on cocoa farms’, in Kotey, et al. Economics of Cocoa Production-, P. Hill, ‘Systems of labour employment on Gold Coast farms ‘in Proceedings of the West African Institute of Social and Economic Research (1956); M. Kwamena-Poh, pers. comm.; Adomako-Sarfoh, ‘Migrant Asante cocoa farmers’.
38. K. Andah, ‘Ghanaian women in agriculture’, Ghana National Council on Women and Development, Seminar, Sept. 1978. Many women were also cocoa farmers in their own right, generally in areas where local, rather than migrant cocoa farmers predominated. P. Hill, ‘Women cocoa farmers’, Economic Bulletin (Economic Society of Ghana), 11, vi, 1958.
39. Tudhope, Interim Report; Hill, Gold Coast Farmer, 25-8; Kwamena-Poh, pers. comm.; Hill, in Proceedings.
40. Tudhope, Interim Report and Final Report; W. H. Beckett, Koransang.
41. Tudhope, Interim Report; Hill, Gold Coast Farmer, 34-5; Davison, Migrant Labour.
42. Hill, Gold Coast Farmer, and in Proceedings; Okali, ‘Labour inputs'; Adomako-Sarfoh, ‘Migrant Asante cocoa farmers’.
43. P. Hill, Migrant Cocoa Farmers of Southern Ghana (Cambridge, 1963), 214-15.
44. Hill, in Proceedings; Andah, ‘Ghanaian women’.
45. Okali, ‘Labour Inputs'; P. Hill, ‘The size of the Ghana cocoa farmer’ (Rhodes House, MSS Afr. s. 1122); Davison, Migrant Labour.
46. Kwamena-Poh, pers. comm.; A. Ahianyo-Akakpo, ‘L'impact de la migration sur la société villageoise: approche sociologique (exemple Togo-Ghana)’, in Amin, Modem Migrations.
47. Gold Coast Department Reports, Agriculture 1906 and 1909; ADM 5/3/16, Committee on the Tenure of Land in the West African Colonies and Protectorates, para. 228-30, and appendix, and E. D. Morel memo; ADM 11/1705, evidence of L. A. Smart, 337.
48. Gordon, ‘Cocoa Industry’, 3/5.
49. Gold Coast, Report of the Committee on Agricultural Policy and Organisation (1927), 59-61.
50. Clifford's speech in the Legislative Council, Oct. 25, 1917, in Metcalfe, Great Britain and Ghana.
51. D. H. Uruquard, Cocoa (London, 1955), ch. 2; The Gold Coast Farmer, iv, xii; Okali, ‘Labour inputs’.
52. Although many farmers owned more land, and employed correspondingly more labour. Hill, ‘Size of the Ghana cocoa farmer’.
53. The Gold Coast Farmer, iv, iv and v; Shepherd, Report; Okali, ‘Labour Inputs’.
54. The Gold Coast Farmer, 1, vi-xi, 11, i-iii; Gold Coast Department Reports, Agriculture, 1906, 1908, 1916; Shepherd, Report.
55. B. Rourke, ‘Profitability of cocoa and alternative crops'; S. A. Oni and J. Adubi, ‘Economics of fertiliser use in cocoa production'; D. Leston, ‘The diseconomy of insecticides in cocoa production in Ghana'; all in Kotey, et al. Economics of Cocoa Production; A. Jones papers, Agricultural Advisory Committee, report on the quality of cocoa.
56. Field, Akim-Kotoku, 19-21; E. Reynolds, pers. comm.; A. Boahen, pers. comm.; Ahianyo-Akakpo, ‘L'impact'; T. K. Kumekpor and S. I. Looky, ‘External migration in Togo’, in Amin, Modern Migrations.
57. Hill, Migrant Cocoa Farmers, 26-7 and passim; The Gold Coast Farmer, in, vii; Hill, Gold Coast Farmer, passim; Brokensha, Akwapim Handbook, ch. 10; ADM 11/1705, evidence of W. H. Grey, 189.
58. Hill, Gold Coast Farmer; ADM 39/5/79, trade report, March quarter, 1917; Hill in Proceedings.
59. R. J. Harrison Church, West Africa (London, 1957), 379-80.
60. Wilks, Asante, 176-7; Gordon, ‘Cocoa Industry’, 2/16.
61. Church, West Africa, 365; Wilks, Asante, 308, 706; Braimahand Goody, Salaga, 109;
62. ADM 56/5/1; ADM 56/1/84, CC Northern Territories to Colonial Sect'y, 6 Nov. 1914, and 7 Nov. 1916; ADM 68/5/2, Oct. 14, 1913.
63. ADM 56/1/84, D. C. Lorha, March 23, 1919.
64. ADM 56/5/1, Oct. 27, 1913; Department Reports, Ashanti 1912, 1916 (there is one reference to 3000 carriers); Davison, ‘Migrant labour'; J. Adomako-Sarfoh, in Amin, Modern Migrations-, ADM 11 /1705, evidence of McDonnell, 415; ADM 65/5/1, Oct. 24, 1913; ADM 63/5/1, 39 (1928); Department Reports, Agriculture, 1912.
65. Addo, ‘Some employment'; Adomako-Sarfoh, in Gordon, ‘Cocoa Industry’, 1/3
66. Sekondi Archives, Regional Labour, File 10; Davison, Migrant Labour.
67. Department Reports, Agriculture, 1915; ADM 68/5/2, Oct. 14, 1913; ADM 11/1705, McDonnell, 415; G. N. Burden Papers, Rhodes House; Rhodes House MSS Afr. s. 977-8, ch. 12.
68. Okali, ‘Labour inputs'; Adomako-Sarfoh, ‘Migrant Asante cocoa farmers'; Davison, Migrant Labour.
69. E. Schildkraut, People of the Zongo (Cambridge, 1978), ch. 3.
70. Department Reports, Ashanti, 1902, and Agriculture, 1904; ADM ii/1705, McDonnell, 417, A. C. Goff, 401-4; ADM 5/3/3. 40, 70-75.
71. Department Reports, Agriculture, 1911-12, and Northern Territories, 1915; West Africa, July 13, 1940, ‘Northern chiefs and labour matters'; Department Reports, Agriculture, 1906 to 1912; ADM 11/1705, 417, 1971.
72. ADM 5/3/3, 40, 70-75; Davison, Migrant Labour.
73. E. Skinner, in Kuper, Urbanization and Migration; J. K. Hart, in Amin, Modern Migrations, with reference also to Fortes’ work in the 1930s; Amin, Modern Migrations, introduction, 108; J. S. Nabila, ‘The processes of the decision to migrate in Ghana; an analysis of the migratory patterns of the Frafra’, in R. Udo, ed. Population Education Source Book for Sub-Saharan Africa (Nairobi, 1979).
74. ADM 56/1/188, Ag. P.C. N.E. Province, Dec. 2, 1914; Department Reports, Northern Territories, 1915; ADM 56/1/84; Sekondi Archives, Regional Labour, files 139 and 218.
75. Conf. file 497/30; CSO 1481/30, memo 18/3/36, and Dept. of Agriculture 16/12/36; Interview with G. N. Burden, Labour Commissioner in the Gold Coast and Ghana, 1946-60 (Rhodes House); ADM 56/1/84; ADM 11/1705, 404.
76. West Africa, March 1, 1941, ‘Labour conditions in the Gold Coast'; Burden Interview; Burden, ‘Labour migration in Africa’ (Rhodes House); Amin, Modern Migrations, 100, and paper by Adomako-Sarfoh; E. Skinner, in Kuper, Ubanization and Migration.
77. Burden, ‘Labour migration’.