The purpose of this chapter is to document and clarify the variety of ways in which labour was put to work in the cocoa economy after the prohibition of slavery and pawning. The first three sections consider the importance of non-market inputs: from the farmer and from his or her spouse (a matter to be related to the gender distribution of farm ownership); from children; and from the cooperative work (nnɔboa) group. We then consider the origins of a wage labour market in rural Asante, initially in carrying and on the mines, c.1900–c.1920; describe the spread of regular wage labour, from c.1916 to the mid-1930s, mostly recruited from men, and mostly from the savanna; and document a remarkable transition from regular wage-labour to sharecropping contracts, from the late 1930s onwards. Finally, we examine state policy on rural labour.

Self and Spouse Labour in the Context of Mostly Male Ownership of Cocoa Farms

The most widespread form of cocoa-farm labour, throughout the period, was the farmer him or herself. In gender terms, the vast majority of the early cocoa farmers were male. Though female cocoa farmownership rose gradually throughout the period, by the end of it women were still very much a minority among cocoa farmers. The next most widespread category of cocoa labour was that of help from spouses. The implication of the distribution of farm ownership is that in the great majority of cases this meant wives helping husbands rather than the other way round.