Abusa

This speculative essay seeks an interpretation of abusa, a share‐cropping arrangement which has been of fundamental importance in the development of the Ghanaian cocoa industry. According to theoretical expectations, such an arrangement is both inefficient and inequitable, a ‘pre‐modern or ‘pre‐capitalist’ productive relationship which will inevitably yield to a pattern of fixed rents and wage labour. Here, the role of abusa in the spectacular growth of the cocoa economy and in its recent decline is examined with reference to the development of individual contracts. It is argued that this ‘ontogenetic’ development of abusa is structured by the changing domestic circumstances of farm owner and farm worker; their competing interests in a maturing cocoa farm are negotiated and expressed in a sequence of contractual arrangements which gives the worker increasing access to the land and the product of his own labour. It is suggested that if the evolution of productive relations towards more evidently capitalist forms has been slow and uncertain, this is largely because social processes of the kind manifest in the individual abusa contract develop in what is effectively a contrary direction

Agriculture · Cropping · Division of labour · Economic rent · Economic system · Economics · Interpretation (philosophy) · Labour economics · Market economy · Microeconomics · Product (mathematics) · Production (economics) · Wage · Wage labour · Yield (engineering) · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development · Ecology · Land Rights and Reforms

• Sharecropping

  R Pearce, R P Pearce•The Journal of Peasant Studies•1983

  Incluir item

• Economic Differentiation and Export Crop Production in a Ghanaian Village

  Open Access•Tsutomu Takane•Journal of African Studies•1996

  Incluir item

• Incentives, Institutions, and Small Scale Agricultural Production

  Open Access•Tsutomu Takane•Journal of African Studies•1999

  Incluir item

• The Spread of Sharecropping in Tuscany

  Rebecca Jean Emigh•American Sociological Review•1997

  Incluir item

• Cash-Crop Migration Systems in East and West Africa

  Open Access•Mary De Haas, Michiel De Haas et al.•Migration in Africa•2022

  Incluir item

• Capturing Ambiguities

  Open Access•Ben K Fred-Mensah•World Development•1999

  Incluir item

• Does the Development Discourse Learn from History

  Open Access•Albert Sanghoon Park•World Development•2017

  Incluir item

• Sharecropping and the capitalist transition in agriculture

  Open Access•David Lehmann•Journal of Development Economics•1986

  Incluir item

• Trees, tenure and conflict

  Open Access•James Fenske•Journal of Development Economics•2013

  Incluir item

• The efficiency of share contracts in Ghana's cocoa industry

  Fred O Boadu•The Journal of Development Studies•1992

  Incluir item

• Intersections between informal social and economic systems in Ghana

  Open Access•Theodora Akweley Asiamah•Cogent Arts and Humanities•2024

  Incluir item

• Poverty finance and the durable contradictions of colonial capitalism

  Open Access•Nick Bernards•Geoforum•2021

  Incluir item

• The Emergence of Capitalist Relations in South Asante Cocoa-Farming, C. 1916–33

  Open Access•Gareth Austin•The Journal of African History•1987

  Incluir item

• Exploitation, colonial capitalism, and the deep roots of climate vulnerability in West Africa

  Open Access•Nick Bernards•New Political Economy•2026

  Incluir item

• The Dynamics of Rural Accumulation in South Africa

  Open Access•Timothy Keegan•Comparative Studies in Society…•1986

  Incluir item

• The work of the ancestors and the profit of the living

  Open Access•Mariano Pavanello, Marcelo Antonio Pavanello•Africa•1995

  Incluir item

• Women's Land Rights in the Transition to Individualized Ownership

  Agnes Quisumbing, Agnes R Quisumbing et al.•Economic Development and Cultural…•2001

  Incluir item

• Using social reproduction theory to understand unfree labour

  Open Access•Ernesto Gore, Ellie Gore et al.•Capital & Class•2019

  Incluir item

• Social institutions and access to resources

  Open Access•Sara Berry•Africa•1989

  Incluir item

• Immigration, land transfer and tenure changes in Divo, Ivory Coast, 1940-80

  Open Access•Robert M Hecht, Robert Hecht•Africa•1985

  Incluir item

• Studies in rural capitalism in West Africa.

  Polly Hill•Studies in rural capitalism in…•1970

  Incluir item

• Cocoa, custom, and socio-economic change in rural Western Nigeria

  Sara Berry•Cocoa, custom, and socio-economic…•1975

  Incluir item

• Subsistence agriculture and economic development

  Clifton R Wharton•Subsistence agriculture and…•1969

  Incluir item

• The awkward class

  Teodor Shanin•The awkward class•1972

  Incluir item

• Social classes in agrarian societies

  Rodolfo Stavenhagen•Social classes in agrarian…•1975

  Incluir item

• Position of the Chief in the Modern Political System of Ashanti

  K A Busia•Position of the Chief in the…•2018

  Incluir item

• Kinship and the Social Order.

  Meyer Fortes•Kinship and the Social Order•2013

  Incluir item

• Kinship and the Social Order

  Meyer Fortes•Kinship and the Social Order•2017

  Incluir item

• Incentives and Risk Sharing in Sharecropping

  Joseph E Stiglitz•The Review of Economic Studies•1974

  Incluir item

• Neo-colonialism in West Africa

  Samir Amin•Neo-colonialism in West Africa•1973

  Incluir item

• The migrant cocoa-farmers of southern Ghana

  Polly Hill•The migrant cocoa-farmers of…•1997

  Incluir item

• The developmental cycle in domestic groups

  Jack Goody•The developmental cycle in…•1971

  Incluir item

• Research in Economic Anthropology

  George Dalton•Research in Economic Anthropology•1981

  Incluir item

• Politics in Ghana, 1946-1960

  Dennis Austin•Politics in Ghana, 1946-1960•1970

  Incluir item

• Alternative theories of sharecropping

  Clive Bell•The Journal of Development Studies•1977

  Incluir item

• Tenurial obstacles to innovation

  David Newbery, D M G Newbery•The Journal of Development Studies•1975

  Incluir item

• Ghana Cocoa farmers—income, expenditure relationships

  Barbara Ingham, Barbara M Ingham•The Journal of Development Studies•1973

  Incluir item

• The Occupations of Migrants in Ghana

  Polly Hill•Occupations of Migrants in Ghana•1970

  Incluir item

• Modern Migrations in Western Africa

  Samir Amin•Modern Migrations in Western Africa•2018

  Incluir item

• Community of Strangers

  Open Access•J B Loudon, A F Robertson•RAIN•1979

  Incluir item

• Resource Allocation under Share Contracts

  D Gale Johnson•Journal of Political Economy•1950

  Incluir item

• Uncertainty, Entrepreneurship, and Sharecropping in India

  C H Hanumantha Rao•Journal of Political Economy•1971

  Incluir item

• African Traders and Economic Development in Ghana

  Walter Elkan, Peter C Garlick•The Economic Journal•1972

  Incluir item

• Studies in Rural Capitalism in West Africa

  I G Stewart, P Hill et al.•The Economic Journal•1971

  Incluir item

• Agriculture in Development Theory

  Christopher Bliss, L G Reynolds et al.•The Economic Journal•1977

  Incluir item

• A Study in Agricultural Backwardness Under Semi-Feudalism

  Amit Bhaduri•The Economic Journal•1973

  Incluir item

• Development of Capitalism in Russia

  Simon Clarke•Development of Capitalism in Russia•2007

  Incluir item

• Akim-Kotoku

  Barbara Ward, Barbara Lynne Ward•African Affairs•1949

  Incluir item

• Ashanti Law and Constitution

  Abebe Woldesenbet Aseffa•African Affairs•1929

  Incluir item

• Akokoaso

  W H Beckett, I Schapera•Geographical Journal•1944

  Incluir item

• People of the Zongo

  Open Access•Enid Schildkrout, Daniel F Mccall et al.•People of the Zongo•1978

  Incluir item

• The Family Farm in Buganda

  Open Access•A F Robertson, Gordon Hughes et al.•Development and Change•1978

  Incluir item

• Social Change at Larteh, Ghana

  David Hilling, David W Brokensha et al.•Geographical Journal•1967

  Incluir item

• A Study of Contemporary Ghana

  W Bra, W Brass et al.•Population Studies•1967

  Incluir item

• Dependence and Opportunity

  Graham W Irwin, J Dunn et al.•The International Journal of…•1975

  Incluir item

• African Systems of Kinship and Marriage

  A R Radcliffe‐brown, A R Radcliffe-Brown et al.•African Systems of Kinship and…•2015

  Incluir item

• An Economic History of West Africa

  Patrick Manning, A G Hopkins•Economic History of West Africa•2014

  Incluir item

• On Sharecropping

  A F Robertson•Man•1980

  Incluir item

• Home-Town

  Open Access•J Middleton•Africa•1979

  Incluir item

• Farmers, Traders and Brokers in the Gold Coast Cocoa Economy

  R Southall, Roger J Southall•Canadian Journal of African…•1978

  Incluir item