Cocoa Farms

After breakfast at the hotel, the three of us took a taxi to KNUST (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology) to meet my contact who would take us to cocoa farms in the surrounding areas.

Once we met Elikem, we had to travel about 20 miles outside of Kumasi. We did this by taking my first ever trotro, a minivan that is used for public transportation. Once we reached the town of Kubease, we hailed a cab to take us over the bumpy dirt roads.

At our first stop, I interviewed Grace Dede who started farming two years ago with her husband. No one in the community spoke English, but we were all very polite. As the chickens ran through the yard she told me that she farmed cocoa as an insurance for the future since she had no education to get a better job.

After thanking Grace in Twi, Mada ase, we continued up the road. In a larger village, I spoke to Kofi Adjei who has farmed cocoa for twenty years. While I interviewed him with Elikem's translations, Sam; Suzanne; and our cab driver explored the small village. The children were extremely excited to see Obrunis (white people) and followed the girls all around the community, posing for pictures and pushing each other out of the way.

Because I had never seen cocoa before, Kofi took me into the forest. He hacked through the underbrush to a cluster of trees from which dangled bright green seedpods. One of the seedpods was infected with black pod rot, and Kofi chopped it down so it wouldn't contaminate the rest of the crop. He broke open the shell and showed me the small cocoa beans inside. These beans will be dried and fermented before being sold to become chocolate.

On our way back to Kumasi, we hit an unexpected roadblock. Local farmers had cut down a tree to use for firewood, but it was lying perfectly perpendicular to the road! The five of us got out of the cab and watched as they cut up the tree. Elikem and our cab driver helped them move just enough of the tree to allow our cab to pass, and then we were on our way back to our hotel.