The Cocoa Wars: Transition to Economic Justice – GDN Exclusive

Afi Osakwe, GDN contributing writer

Africa and the European Union are engaged in a literal trade war over the profits that come from the cocoa industry.  Sixty percent of the world’s cocoa is grown in Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, African countries. It is estimated that less than six percent of the profits from the sale of chocolate goes to the African growers, while the balance of the multi-billion dollars in yearly sales is controlled by multi-national corporations in Europe and America. This disparity has led to the Cocoa Wars that have been joined by Black people world-wide.

The destruction of African civilization began approximately 4500 B.C. and continues today. It is a serious misconception that the Transatlantic Slave Trade, with its characteristic triangular terrorist economic system, was the definitive cause of world economic determinism at the expense of the African continent and descendants worldwide, the Diaspora. How is this to be addressed?

Sociologist, historian, and author  Dr. Chancellor James Williams dedicated his most prolific book, The Destruction of Black Civilization, with the following words, “To the Black youth of the Nineteen Sixties for Beginning the Second Great Emancipation—the Liberation of Our Minds and thus Changing the Course of History.”  Dr. Williams further wrote in Part 1 of the book, A Sumer Legend, “What became of the Black People of Sumer?” the traveler asked the old man, “for ancient record show that the people of Sumer were Black. What happened to them?” “Ah,” the old man sighed, “They lost their history, so they died.”

Like many people before us, there have been strategic efforts toward the unity of African peoples, long denied. As noted earlier by Dr. Williams, there have been two types of emancipation—the first was physical with little to no economic aid, and the second was the struggle for civil rights couched in a status quo denial of human rights—and still is. This also contributes to independent thinking and the denial of African identity if economic mobility remains the achievable “carrot on the stick” for more than a few. The plight of African people deepened on the continent and worldwide.

Considering this dichotomy, those mentioned above, the development of the African Diaspora Development Institute (ADDI), and the current dynamics of the present Cocoa War, it’s logical to see why Dr. Arikana Chihombori-Quao, founder of ADDI and ultimate strategist for African control of its economies both on the continent and throughout the diaspora it has issued a challenge of resistance to historical colonial racist Western and now Eastern powers. Africa’s natural resources: and its people have served others with subservience for hundreds of years: gold, diamond mining, rubber trees, and more. The continent has 40 percent of the world’s gold and up to 90 percent of its chromium and platinum. The world’s largest reserves of cobalt, diamonds, platinum, and uranium are in Africa. It holds 65 percent of the world’s arable land and ten percent of the planet’s internal renewable freshwater source. Resources being raped by Western, Asian, and Middle Eastern exploitation. Millions of Africans have been terrorized and murdered worldwide, particularly in Africa. The Cocoa Wars are not new, but the latest response is.

Dr. Chihombori-Quao is tired of it and says, “Mother Africa is calling her children home!!!” And she has been the major reason ADDI has grown and continues to grow in its pursuit of human rights through African economic liberation. It is the next stage of Pan-Africanism for youth worldwide to become part of the Third Great Emancipation. This article appeals to the youth to utilize Sankofa, “It is not taboo to go back for what you forgot (or left behind).” Sankofa is a phrase that encourages learning from the past to inform the future, reaching back to move forward, and lifting as we climb.“

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(67) Africa’s Plan to Bring Chocolate Profits Home – YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCicz3H-5k4