Written Description on Country, Chosen Issues, Suggested Social Action

 

Chocolate and Child Labour

The rule and exploitation by developed countries on developing countries has continued from the beginning of the 20^th century with the age of imperialism all the way through to the modern age in the 21^st century. Many problems encountered by the people of Africa take time to be solved. In the past, slave labour in Congo allowed most people living in America to buy and own their car. One could say that we continue to gain happiness while some people who are less fortunate have to suffer. The modern electronics products which we enjoy using are also causing people in Congo a certain degree of suffering. Cacao plantations are the same. Children living in rich countries can eat as much chocolate as they desire while those who work in the plantations may have never eaten any. Some don’t even know what it is that they are harvesting.

In the west is Guinea and Liberia. North is Mali and Burkina Faso. East has Ghana sharing the border. Most of the land is 300m from sea level. The southern parts are a tropical rainforest with hot and humid conditions. The average temperature is 25-28 degrees. The yearly rainfall amount is 1270 mm. Republic of Cote d’Ivoire or Republic of Ivory Coast as it is sometimes called, has an area of 320, 803 sq. km.³The population is 21,570,000 people.⁷

By law, the capital city is Yamoussoukro (the first president made it the capital just because he had been born there), but it is really (de facto capital) Abidjan (‘the NewYork of western Africa’). Many more people live in Abidjan than in Yamoussoukro. It was decided in 1983 but the move was never completed. 39% of the total population are Islamic, 26% are Christian (mainly catholic), and there are (60%) other native religions/traditional beliefs. The average lifespan is around 45 for all people. The death rate for children is 99.6% (2001) and only 48.1% are literate (2003).⁵ Notable ethnic groups are the Akan and Mande. The official language is French, with the other languages being Baule, Anyi, Bete, Bambara and Dan. The currency is the CFA franc. Cote d’Ivoire has a savanna region in the north, an equatorial rainforest in the west, a narrow coastal region in the south and a cultivated forest zone in the east.

Close to half of the workforce are employed in jobs to do with agriculture or forestry.Food for local consumption is produced. Exports include coffee, cacao, banana, pineapple, rubber, timber and other wood products as well as diamond, gold and iron. Industries include food processing, cotton spinning, timber, fertiliser and car manufacturing.⁴

The country is a republic with one legislative house. The president is the head of state and government with the prime minister only assisting. Its history begins with European powers coming to the area to trade in ivory and slaves back in the latter part of the 15^th century. The French came near the end of the 17^th century. It became part of the French Union in 1946. In 1947 the upper part of the country separated to become what is now known as Burkina Faso. Autonomy was achieved in 1958 and independence in 1960. The first elections were held in 1990. After 1993, political stability was lost and a civil war in 2002 left the country divided into two sections. A power sharing agreement was signed by both sides in 2007. In the presidential elections of 2010, some mix-up caused both sides to insist that they had become the president. The former president had to be arrested by the army.⁵

There are many different types of chocolate. Some are expensive while others are very cheap. The main ingredient used in making chocolate is cacao. My chosen issue is related to chocolate and child labour in Cote d’Ivoire. Cacao is a food with over 2000 years of history. The Latin word means ‘food of the god’s’. It was precious and in some places, cacao was a currency. Trees that grow cacao are only found in places close to the equator. Cacao trees grew naturally in Brazil, near the Amazon River and in Venezuela, near the Orinoco River. In the 16^th century, cacao was brought to Spain, and spread throughout Europe as a royal drink. Cocoa powder was invented in the Netherlands, and milk chocolate in Switzerland.⁶

Approximately 70% of the world’s cacao is produced in western Africa. Côte d’Ivoire produces 43% of the world’s cacao. An accident in 2001 allowed the world to learn through the media the fact that child labour was being used in harvesting cacao and that children were being sold as workers. Child slavery is a serious issue that has been rather difficult to solve. Many thousands of children are said to have been bought or stolen from their parents in countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso and Togo. Those children were transported by ship to Côte d’Ivoire to become slaves in cacao plantations. They work from 6 o’clock in the morning until sundown.

Investigations in 2002 found that in Côte d’Ivoire there were 130,000 children working in plantations. Most plantations were said to be small-sized family businesses. Therefore the children were only helping out the family. 12,000 children were completely unrelated to the family. The majority of these children had never been to school. Findings also seemed to support the previous slavery assumptions. 64% were under the age of 14. This led to concerns over safety of children at work. The fertilisers and sharp tools were especially dangerous.¹

The famous Harkin-Engel Protocol which was agreed to in October 2001 was unable to end child slavery. The deadline was changed from 2005 to 2008 then increased to 2010. Even now, in 2016, chocolate manufacturers exist that make large amounts of profit from the suffering of children. A report from 2015 shows that juveniles working in the cacao bean industry have increased by 51% between 2009 and 2014. An estimate of 1,400,000 has been put forward as the total population of juveniles working in the whole cacao bean industry. As for child slaves, an increase of 10% from 2009 for kids working under slavery conditions makes a total of 1,100,000.²

All countries with large consumption rates should actively do something. America has the highest consumption rate as a country and Germany has the highest average consumption per person. (2004) The company Equal Exchange and the idea of fair trade chocolate never really succeeded in the chocolate market, It is unfortunate that the cacao produced in South America is expensive. The first step for all confectionery companies is to make employees understand and recognise the facts of child labour within the cacao industry. Without this, nothing can be done. Many children have no choice but to work (in the countries where cacao is produced). Rich countries with high consumption of cacao do not completely recognise child labour as an issue and as a result, minimal social action is undertaken. Much of the campaigning was done in America, and that was in the past. Someone or something must act, or everyone will just leave things for other people to fix, thinking ‘it is not my problem’ or ‘someone else will take care of things’.

Even a museum exhibition on chocolate made possible by a group of designers in 2007 made reference to the people who make everything possible through only several photos of cacao plantation workers.⁸

Any action must be well thought out, unique and attract the attention and support of people. Children in Ghana already have many groups trying to bring happiness to their lives. For Côte d’Ivoire, where real help is needed, less seems to be done.

Since everything happening now is due to the present system; the way of things in the present, it is not up to the independently set up groups or volunteers to increase awareness or bring happiness to all humans. The companies making huge profits from selling chocolate must do something. Something new, straightforward and easy to understand. Not all countries can be equal. The problem is child labour. Eliminating child labour should be an easy job for the companies, as long as they want to do it. They don’t. Or most do not anyway. A single large company is not enough for things to change. As long as there is still one giant breaking the rules, this issue remains unsolved.⁹

Slavery is an issue that seemed to have been solved. Adult slaves were given up. But children were different. They don’t require payment. Most haven’t been to school and don’t understand much. They can’t unite and get rid of their present situation. Most have to grow up and then travel abroad, to California, where they can be heard. But even then, it doesn’t make it into any of the news we read. If the price of chocolate rose, sales would drop. An old solution was rather simple. Make sure that the profits are divided fairly. And they supposedly are. Child slavery must be stopped, and those rich companies will do that for us. The issue would be forgotten and no more students would have to think up of any social action. Slaves should not exist in the modern world which we all live in.¹⁰

Nestle says as an excuse that the issue of child labour is too big and too complicated for any companies using cacao from Côte d’Ivoire to get rid of child labour from the supply chain. Mars says that it will take at least 10 years to ensure that no children are used at the plantations. Mondelez International was able to ensure that cacao beans can be manufactured for many more years but was unable to help much with the child labour issue. Perhaps we could stop consuming chocolate and see what happens. But that would not be considered as appropriate social action.

My creative piece is based on the similarity of the shape of the side of a key and a chocolate bar with the bite marks of teeth. A key also means in many different languages, a method/logic/tool of solving something or a symbol of exploring a new world. It was the best representation of my topic: Using chocolate to think about Africa. We use keys to open doors. This leads to other metaphors, such as something that leads us to a new world, allowing us to find new problems or a new start. My chocolate keys express the fact that I disclose the structure of the rule and exploitation by successful countries that caused the many small issues in Africa and hid behind them.

¹ ACE2009, チョコレートと児童労働  http://acejapan.org/childlabour/report/chocolate, (accessed 25/02/2016).

²世界の裏側ニュース2016, 子供の奴隷を使っているチョコレートブランド7社http://ameblo.jp/wake-up-japan/entry-12127771409.html (accessed 25/02/2016).

³“Côte d’Ivoire” 2011, Britannica Concise Encyclopedia, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

⁴“コートジボワール” 2013, ブリタニカ国際大百科事典小項目電子辞書版, Britannica Japan Co., Ltd.

⁵“コートジボワール” 2013, 百科事典マイぺディア電子辞書版, Hitachi Solutions Business, Ltd.

⁶“カカオ” 2013, 百科事典マイぺディア電子辞書版, Hitachi SolutionsBusiness, Ltd.

⁷“アフリカ” 2009、エピソードで読む世界の国243、山川出版社

⁸Sabrina Morrison 2007, Cocoa Abstractions In Mind http://pingmag.jp/2007/07/27/sweat-designs-with-cocoa-in-mind/, (accessed 25/02/2016).

⁹National Geographic Japan 2007, ビジュアル大世界史, “現代”

¹⁰“どれい【奴隷】” 2015, デジタル大辞泉, Shogakukan, Japan

 

Noah Nishihara T09