3071-The political economy of new slavery

Amanda Berlan 177
cultivation. For example, the price per litre of cocoa insecticide had
increased from 1,500 Cedis to 20,000 Cedis (while the half-season price
for cocoa at the time was only 141,000 Cedis per bag). In these circumstances,
many farmers simply had no other choice but to make their
children work on the farm full-time as school fees had become completely
unaffordable. Although the SAP aimed to assist poor producers,
it had a negative effect on farmers’ livelihoods and this strongly
impacted on child rights. More positively, a change of government and
new policies have seen an improvement in living standards and given
the flagging cocoa industry a new impetus. Such changes are central to
promoting sustainable and responsible farming practices and, combined
with increased awareness and campaigning on the issue of children’s
rights all over Ghana, create an environment in which child labour can
be more effectively tackled.
Conclusion
The aim of this chapter was to present some of the complexities
surrounding the problem of child labour on cocoa farms in Ghana in
a way that could make a practical contribution to policy-making and
advocacy. The field data I have used are by no means exhaustive and
only convey the reality of village life as I have experienced it. In this
respect, I make no claim to absolute objectivity in my research findings.
Issues such as the socialization of children, corporal punishment or the
quality of rural schools can vary and are also to some extent subject to
individual interpretation. On such complex and often sensitive issues
there is always much more to be said and further questions need to
be asked. When writing about development issues from an anthropological
perspective, one must also manage a sometimes uneasy balance
between ethnography and advocacy. By making my recommendations
to policy-makers and campaigners (as distinct from sociological analysis)
as explicit as possible, I hope the distinction between these two positions
has emerged clearly to the reader.
There are numerous paradoxes associated with the particular case
of children and cocoa in Ghana. First, although globalization has
brought a new sense of familiarity with Third World problems, it has
not necessarily led to a better understanding of them. Because of the
domestic structures of the cocoa industry in Ghana, there is a need
to think broadly about child labour in this context, and to dissociate
our thinking from the stereotypes of rogue farmers and rapacious
multinationals often presented to us in the media. In-depth knowledge
and understanding of domestic structures are prerequisite to advocating