Article contents
Labour in Commercial Agriculture in Ghana in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2009
Extract
This paper attempts to gather together information on agricultural labour in the production of cash crops in Ghana. The transition from slave and other bonded labour in the nineteenth century to wage labour in the twentieth is explored. The nature of agricultural labour in palm oil is compared to that in the production of subsequent exports, such as rubber (produced primarily on plantations) and cocoa (produced on Ghanaian-owned smallholdings). The questions of conditions of service, recruitment and sources of labour are considered historically. The preference of workers for agricultural labour is discussed, and compared to recruitment for mining and other industry.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983
References
1 Ghana National Archives, CSO file 1481/30; ADM 56/1/84, passim. All file numbers refer to the Ghana National Archives. Davison, R., Migrant Labour in the Gold Coast (Achimota, 1954).Google Scholar
2 Ingham, B., Tropical Exports and Economic Development (London, 1981)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hart, K., The Political Economy of West African Agriculture (Cambridge, 1982)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Davison, R., Migrant LabourGoogle Scholar; Beckett, W. H., Koransang, A Gold Coast Cocoa Farm (Gold Coast, Department of Agriculture, 1945)Google Scholar; Hill, P., Migrant Cocoa Farmers of Southern Ghana (Cambridge, 1965)Google Scholar; Kotey, R., Okali, C. and Rourke, B., Economics of Cocoa Production and Marketing (University of Ghana, 1974).Google Scholar
3 Amin, S., ed., Modern Migrations in Western Africa (London, 1974)Google Scholar; Kuper, H., ed., Urbanization and Migration in West Africa (Berkeley, 1965)Google Scholar; Benneh, G., ‘Small scale farming systems in Ghana’, Africa XLIII, iiGoogle Scholar; Field, M. J., Akim-Kotoku, an Oman of the Gold Coast (London, 1948)Google Scholar; Gordon, J., ‘The Cocoa Industry in Ghana and Nigeria’ (unpublished manuscript in the possession of the author), and also papers in Rhodes House (MSS Afr. 977–8)Google Scholar; Hill, P., The Gold Coast Farmer (London, 1956).Google Scholar
4 ADM 11/1705, 28, evidence of J. E. Casely-Hayford; Johnson, M., ‘Migrants' Progress’, Ghana Geographical Association Bulletin, ix, x.Google Scholar
5 Jenkins, P., Abstracts from the Gold Coast Correspondence of the Basel Mission (Balme Library, University of Ghana, 1970), II, 180Google Scholar, Mischlisch to Basel, Oct. 1896; Gold Coast Department Reports, Northern Territories, 1904 and 1906; ADM 1/88, encl. 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 Ekem 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.Google Scholar
6 Reynolds, E., Trade and Economic Change on the Gold Coast, 1807–1874 (London, 1974), 82–83Google Scholar; Wilks, I., Asante in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, 1975), 52, 93–94Google Scholar; Arhin, K., ed., Papers of George Ekem Ferguson (Leiden, 1974), 21Google Scholar; Addo-Fening, R., ‘Akyem Abuakwa, c. 1874–1943’, Ph.D. thesis, University of Ghana, 1981, 309Google Scholar; Dickson, K., ‘The agricultural landscape of Southern Ghana and Ashanti-Brong Ahafo, 1800–1850’, Ghana Geographical Association Bulletin, IX, iGoogle Scholar; P. Bartle, pers. comm.; Tudhope, W., Enquiry into the Gold Coast Cocoa Industry (Final Report; Gold Coast Sessional Papers, IV, 1919)Google Scholar; GNA, Conf, 497/30, De Graft, J. Johnson's memo on the vestiges of slavery, 1929Google Scholar; Amherst, H. W., Informal Diaries, Gonja, May 1937 (Rhodes House, Oxford)Google Scholar; 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.Google Scholar
8 Governor Carstensen's Diary (Institute of African Studies, Legon), 3–4, 1842Google Scholar; Jenkins, , Abstracts, za, Zimmerman Report, 1851Google Scholar; Reynolds, , Trade, 69Google Scholar; Rhodes House, MSS. Afr. s. 977, ch. 3; MSS. Afr. s. 1122, box 1/3.
9 Carstensen's Diary, 23–24, 1845Google Scholar; Burkill, I. H., A Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula (London, 1935), I, 893–895Google Scholar; Rhodes House, MSS. Afr. 8.978, 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, 85–86.Google Scholar
11 Carstensen's Diary, 5–6Google Scholar; ADM 5/3/2, evidence of Commander H. Broadhead and R. R. Madden; ADM 1/494, no. 171.
12 Jenkins, , Abstracts, no. 236, ‘Mohr report of journey from Begoro to Anum, 1881’Google Scholar; and I, 62, Clerk report, 1893; Braimah, J. A. and Goody, J. R., Salaga, the Struggle for Power (London, 1967), 144–145 (Parmeter and Krause reports and letters)Google Scholar; Arhin, , Papers of George Ekem Ferguson, 78.Google Scholar
13 ADM 1/88, encl.to no. 181; Braimah, and Goody, , Salaga, 171–172 (B. H. Klosebook)Google Scholar; 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, 129Google Scholar; Mohr, 1880; Wilks, , Asante, 688.Google Scholar
15 Rhodes House, MSS Air. 5.978, section 14. On the role of women see Shepherd, C. Y., Report on the Economics of Peasant Agriculture (Accra, 1936), 78.Google Scholar 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 Gordon, J., ‘The Cocoa Industry in Ghana and Nigeria’ (an unpublished manuscript kindly shown me by Mr Gordon). See also Gordon's writings in Rhodes House.Google Scholar
17 Rhodes House, MSS Afr. s. 1122, Box 1/3; ADM 5/3/16, paras, 228–238, 254–258, and appendix, and memo by E. D. Morel; Shepherd, , Report, 78.Google Scholar The Palm Oil Bill and the debate on it are in Metcalfe, G. E., Great Britain and Ghana (University of Ghana, 1964)Google Scholar; The Gold Coast Farmer, I, xii.Google Scholar
18 Burkill, , Dictionary, I, 893–895Google Scholar; Gold Coast Department Reports, Agriculture, 1911Google Scholar; Rhodes House, MSS Afr. s. 1122.
19 The Gold Coast Farmer, I, iGoogle Scholar; Gold Coast Department Reports, Agriculture, 1911.Google Scholar
20 Gold Coast Blue Books, Agriculture, 1884–1897.
21 Jenkins, , Abstracts, Mohr report, 1893, II, 172, 176Google Scholar; Annual Report 1890; Brokensha, D., Akwapim Handbook (University of Ghana, 1972), ch. 10.Google Scholar
22 Reynolds, , Trade, 176–179Google Scholar; Brokensha, , Akwapim Handbook, ch. 10.Google Scholar
23 Gold Coast Department Reports, Agriculture, 1908Google Scholar; 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, , TradeGoogle Scholar; Report on the Economic Agriculture of the Gold Coast, 1889, in Metcalfe, Great Britain and Ghana.
25 Gordon, , ‘Cocoa Industry’, 3/5.Google Scholar
26 Addo-Fenning, , ‘Akyem Abuakwa’, 313–351Google Scholar; Tamale Archives, series 56/1, quarterly reports; B. Der, University of Cape Coast, pers. comm.
27 Gold Coast Department Reports, Agriculture, 1911, and Ashanti, 1902.
28 In Amin, Samir, Modern MigrationsGoogle Scholar, introduction, as well as contemporary records. EC 6/3, Missionary Magazine, 1836–7, Riis' Diary, 1839, Heidenbote, 53–56.
29 EC 6/3, Missionary Magazine, 1840; Adams, C. D., ‘Activities of Danish botanists in Guinea, 1783–1850’, Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, III, pt. IGoogle Scholar; ADM 5/3/2, passim.
30 ADM 5/3/3, 70–75. On the Napoleon Coffee Plantation wages were only 2½d. a day.
31 Reynolds, , Trade, 68Google Scholar; ADM 5/3/2, R. Madden, 597.
32 The Gold Coast Farmer, I, viiiGoogle Scholar; Gold Coast Department Reports, Agriculture, 1911–1913, 1918; ADM 5/3/11, E. D. Morel; ADM 11/1705, 401.
33 Sekondi Archives, Regional Labour, files 218, 139, 334.
34 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).
35 ADM 56/1/84, passim.
36 Adomako-Sarfoh, J., ‘Migrant Asante cocoa farmers and their families’, Legon Family Research Papers, IGoogle Scholar; Addo, N. O., ‘Some employment and labour conditions on Ghana's cocoa farms’, in Kotey, , Okali, and Rourke, , Economics of Cocoa Production.Google Scholar
37 A. Jones papers, in, 239 ff. (Rhodes House).
38 Hill, , Gold Coast Farmer, 8–17Google Scholar; Darkoh, M., ‘Recent trends in the economic geography of Buem’, Bulletin of the Ghana Geographical Association, IX, 2Google Scholar; Tudhope, , Enquiry (Interim and Final Reports, Gold Coast Sessional Papers II and IV)Google Scholar; Gordon, , ‘Cocoa Industry’, 2/20–21Google Scholar; ADM 11/1705, passim; Field, , Akim-Kotoku, 73–74Google Scholar; Addo, ‘Some employment’Google Scholar; C. Okali, , ‘Labour inputs on cocoa farms’, in Kotey, et al. Economics of Cocoa ProductionGoogle Scholar; Hill, P., ‘Systems of labour employment on Gold Coast farms’ in Proceedings of the West African Institute of Social and Economic Research (1956)Google Scholar; M. Kwamena-Poh, pers. comm.; Adomako-Sarfoh, , ‘Migrant Asante cocoa farmers’.Google Scholar
39 Andah, K., ‘Ghanaian women in agriculture’, Ghana National Council on Women and Development, Seminar, Sept., 1978.Google Scholar Many women were also cocoa farmers in their own right, generally in areas where local, rather than migrant cocoa farmers predominated. Hill, P., ‘Women cocoa farmers’, Economic Bulletin (Economic Society of Ghana), II, vi, 1958.Google Scholar
40 Tudhope, Interim Report; Hill, , Gold Coast Farmer, 25–28Google Scholar; Kwamena-Poh, pers. comm.; Hill, in Proceedings.
41 Tudhope, Interim Report and Final Report; Beckett, W. H., Koransang.Google Scholar
42 Tudhope, Interim Report; Hill, , Gold Coast Farmer, 34–35Google Scholar; Davison, , Migrant Labour.Google Scholar
43 Hill, Gold Coast Farmer, and in Proceedings; Okali, , ‘Labour inputs’Google Scholar; Adomako-Sarfoh, , ‘Migrant Asante cocoa farmers’.Google Scholar
44 Hill, P., Migrant Cocoa Farmers of Southern Ghana (Cambridge, 1963), 214–215.Google Scholar
45 Hill, , in ProceedingsGoogle Scholar; Andah, , ‘Ghanaian women’.Google Scholar
46 Okali, , ‘Labour Inputs’Google Scholar; Hill, P., ‘The size of the Ghana cocoa farmer’ (Rhodes House, MSS Afr. s. 1122)Google Scholar; Davison, , Migrant Labour.Google Scholar
47 Kwamena-Poh, pers. comm.; Ahianyo-Akakpo, A., ‘L'impact de la migration sur la société villageoise: approche sociologique (example Togo-Ghana)’, in Amin, , Modern Migrations.Google Scholar
48 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. 228–230, and appendix, and E. D. Morel memo; ADM 11/1705, evidence of L. A. Smart, 337.
49 Gordon, , ‘Cocoa Industry’, 3/5.Google Scholar
50 Coast, Gold, Report of the Committee on Agricultural Policy and Organisation (1927), 59–61.Google Scholar
51 Clifford's speech in the Legislative Council, Oct. 25, 1917, in Metcalfe, Great Britain and Ghana.
52 Uruquard, D. H., Cocoa (London, 1955), ch. 2Google Scholar; The Gold Coast Farmer, IV, xiiGoogle Scholar; Okali, , ‘Labour inputs’.Google Scholar
53 Although many farmers owned more land, and employed correspondingly more labour. Hill, , ‘Size of the Ghana cocoa farmer’.Google Scholar
54 The Gold Coast Farmer, IV, iv and vGoogle Scholar; Shepherd, , ReportGoogle Scholar; Okali, , ‘Labour Inputs’.Google Scholar
55 The Gold Coast Farmer, I, vi-xi, II, i-iiiGoogle Scholar; Gold Coast Department Reports, Agriculture, 1906, 1908, 1916; Shepherd, , Report.Google Scholar
56 Rourke, B., ‘Profitability of cocoa and alternative crops’Google Scholar; Oni, S. A. and Adubi, J., ‘Economics of fertiliser use in cocoa production’Google Scholar; Leston, D., ‘The diseconomy of insecticides in cocoa production in Ghana’Google Scholar; all in Kotey, et al. Economics of Cocoa ProductionGoogle Scholar; A. Jones papers, Agricultural Advisory Committee, report on the quality of cocoa.
57 Field, , Akim-Kotoku, 19–21Google Scholar; E. Reynolds, pers. comm.; A. Boahen, pers. comm.; Ahianyo-Akakpo, , ‘L'impact’Google Scholar; Kumekpor, T. K. and Looky, S. I., ‘External migration in Togo’, in Amin, , Modern Migrations.Google Scholar
58 Hill, , Migrant Cocoa Farmers, 26–27 and passimGoogle Scholar; The Gold Coast Farmer, III, viiGoogle Scholar; Hill, , Gold Coast Farmer, passimGoogle Scholar;, Brokensha, , Akwapim Handbook, ch. 10Google Scholar; ADM 11/1705, evidence of W. H. Grey, 189.
59 Hill, , Gold Coast FarmerGoogle Scholar; ADM 39/5/79, trade report, March quarter, 1917; Hill in Proceedings.
60 Church, R. J. Harrison, West Africa (London, 1957), 379–380.Google Scholar
61 Wilks, , Asante, 176–177Google Scholar; Gordon, , ‘Cocoa Industry’, 2/16.Google Scholar
62 Church, , West Africa, 365Google Scholar; Wilks, , Asante, 308, 706Google Scholar; Braimah, and Goody, , Salaga, 109Google Scholar; Gold Coast Department Reports, Northern Territories, 1902–1906, 1918. The quotation appears in Benneh, G., ‘Small scale farming systems in Ghana’, Africa, XLIII, ii.Google Scholar The question of some parts of colonies forming labour reserves because of lack of investment in agricultural development there is given more attention in Amin, , Modern Migrations, 85 ff.Google Scholar
63 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.
64 ADM 56/1/84, D. C. Lorha, March 23, 1919.
65 ADM 56/5/1, Oct. 27, 1913; Department Reports, Ashanti 1912, 1916 (there is one reference to 3000 carriers); Davison, , ‘Migrant labour’Google Scholar; Adomako-Sarfoh, J., in Amin, , Modern MigrationsGoogle Scholar; ADM 11/1705, evidence of McDonnell, 415; ADM 65/5/1, Oct. 24, 1913; ADM 63/5/1, 39 (1928); Department Reports, Agriculture, 1912.
66 Addo, , ‘Some employment’Google Scholar; Adomako-Sarfoh, in Ibid.; Gordon, , ‘Cocoa Industry’, 1/3.Google Scholar
67 Sekondi Archives, Regional Labour, File 10; Davison, , Migrant Labour.Google Scholar
68 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. 977–978, ch. 12.
69 Okali, , ‘Labour inputs’Google Scholar; Adomako-Sarfoh, , ‘Migrant Asante cocoa farmers’Google Scholar; Davison, , Migrant Labour.Google Scholar
70 Schildkraut, E., People of the Zongo (Cambridge, 1978), ch. 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
71 Department Reports, Ashanti, 1902, and Agriculture, 1904; ADM 11/1705, McDonnell, 417, A. C. Goff, 401–4; ADM 5/3/3, 40, 70–75.
72 Department Reports, Agriculture, 1911–1912, and Northern Territories, 1915; West Africa, July 13, 1940, ‘Northern chiefs and labour matters’Google Scholar; Department Reports, Agriculture, 1906 to 1912Google Scholar; ADM 11/1705, 417, 1971.
73 ADM 5/3/3, 40, 70–75; Davison, , Migrant Labour.Google Scholar
74 Skinner, E., in Kuper, , Urbanization and MigrationGoogle Scholar; Hart, J. K., in Amin, , Modern MigrationsGoogle Scholar, with reference also to Fortes' work in the 1930s; Amin, , Modern Migrations, introduction, 108Google ScholarNabila, J. S., ‘The processes of the decision to migrate in Ghana; an analysis of the migratory patterns of the Frafra’, in Udo, R., ed., Population Education Source Book for Sub-Saharan Africa (Nairobi, 1979).Google Scholar
75 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.
76 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.
77 West Africa, March I, 1941, ‘Labour conditions in the Gold Coast’; Burden InterviewGoogle Scholar; Burden, , ‘Labour migration in Africa’ (Rhodes House)Google Scholar; Amin, , Modern Migrations, 100Google Scholar, and paper by Adomako-Sarfoh; Skinner, E., in Kuper, , Ubanization and Migration.Google Scholar
78 Burden, , ‘Labour migration’.Google Scholar
- 18
- Cited by