The plantation paradigm

Colonial agronomy, African farmers, and the global cocoa boom, 1870s–1940s

Bibliographic Data

ID12876440
AuthorsCorey Ro (0000-0002-1051-2865, University of Birmingham, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume9
Issue1
Pages49-71
Publication date2014-02-12
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Global History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1740-0228 • E-ISSN: 1740-0236
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1740022813000491
OpenAlexW1987865382
LanguageEN
Citations received23
References cited47

This article investigates the powerful normative role of plantation-oriented agricultural practices in what was arguably the premier indigenous crop revolution of the colonial era: the West African cocoa boom. It traces the links between the extraordinary growth of cocoa production in the region – above all in the Gold Coast – and the longer experience of cocoa estates in other parts of the world, in particular the Caribbean, which served as a key reference point for the expanding global cocoa frontier in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In spite of the manifest competitive success of African farmers’ extensive agricultural practices during this period, most outside observers retained a strong partiality towards intensive production techniques under centralized European management. This article emphasizes the role played by the transcontinental exchange of ideas in sustaining the cultural authority of such cultivation techniques long after their commercial viability came into question

Agriculture · Archaeology · Boom · Colonialism · Commodity · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Frontier · Geography · Gold coast · Indigenous · Market economy · Political science · African history and culture studies · Cocoa and Sweet Potato Agronomy · Engineering · History · Law