The Ivory Coast supplies 50% of the world supply of cocoa. Huge plantations are all over the country. There are 10's of thousands of cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast alone. But what are the conditions of these plantations. A journalist from the Ivory Coast who has been working for 17 years to investigate the cocoa production estimates that 90% of plantations in the Ivory Coast use slavery.
These workers come from a modern form of the slave trade. Boys hop the border from Mali into Ivory Coast looking for work. What happens is that most are traded for money to a plantation owner who promises to pay them. The boys are kept in sheds while the person they entrusted to find them help goes to the market and sells them in exchange for a few bucks.
The workers are usually teenage boys, some younger and some older. The oldest ones according to the same journalist are 25 years old. They work all hours of the day, from when the sun comes up until there is no more light.The boys are given old tin cans to use as a toilet. They are 3 days walk from any town. These boys find themselves hundreds of miles away from home with no money and a job that is not going to pay them any money. Some have not been paid in over 5 years. So why don't they run? They have tried and they have failed, but most importantly they are scared to run, scared for their lives.
The slave boys in these plantations are beaten daily. I will post a picture below that shows the back of boy working in the cocoa plantations. They are beaten, threatened, tortured and even put into isolation for trying to run away. It is no mystery to them though, they know that they are slaves. The boys tell stories of fellow slaves that have tried to run away, have been caught, are beaten, taken away and are never seen again. They are whipped for not doing work. The plantation owner see's them as an investment, not as a human.They are modern day slaves; slaves working to support the consumption of luxury goods for the privileged. They have never eaten chocolate themselves. When asked what they would say to chocolate eaters around the world, one boy said "they are eating my flesh". We all contribute to these conditions.
The World Bank and IMF give loans to these industries in order to produce cheap cocoa while ignoring the conditions they are causing by handing out these loans. Since the 1980s the price for cocoa has been dropping steadily while the price for chocolate has gone up. Where does all this extra profit go to? Not to the workers, it goes in the pocket of Corporate executive officers and shareholders. In addition, the WTO encouraged the governments of cocoa producing countries to remove the price guarantees on cocoa, allowing huge corporations to take advantage of desperate poor plantation owners that use slaves. In fact, they are forced to use slaves in order to compete in the world market of cocoa. If the price continues to fall then a plantation owner must find a way to eliminate costs. Those costs that are eliminated are labor. This also eliminates any small farmers because there is no way they can compete slave labor prices.
The answer is not to stop eating chocolate, that is not what I am advocating. But around this holiday, do some research, find a good company that does not employ slave labor. If we stop buying chocolate altogether, that will drive the price of chocolate down further. That will ensure that more slaves need to be used in order to produce cheaper cocoa. Support good cocoa production. Divine Chocolate is good, Equal Exchange Chocolate also. It is easy, just google it.
Watch Slavery: A Global Investigation if you want to learn more
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