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Abstract
This study documents the Ghanaian experience in the economic development of kola nuts as a major cash crop from the mid nineteenth century to the early twentieth century. It examines the production, marketing, and organisation of the kola nut trade in Ghana (Gold Coast and Asante) between 1865 and 1920, and argues that kola nut production in Ghana increased to feed both the interior markets of Africa, as well as markets in Latin America, Europe and North America.
Between 1865 and 1874, the northern axis of the Asante kola trade witnessed remarkable growth. Kola exported to Northern Nigeria, Borno, and other parts of the Central Sudan and beyond, came mainly from Asante, Brong Ahafo, and to a lesser extent Akyem. These areas constituted the kola heartland of Ghana in the 19th century.
New areas were brought under kola cultivation, especially after the 1860s, to satisfy the growing consumerism and the expanding market. This was facilitated, by the renewed interest of farmers in kola cultivation. In addition, the penetration of Hausa, Mossi and Yoruba traders into Southern Ghana after the defeat of Asante in 1874, improvements in communication—by road, rail and sea—and later, colonial government policies, provided a further impetus to kola cultivation.
The penetration of Hausa traders into the Salaga-Voltaic basin in the 1880s led to the growth and development of new commercial centres such as Adawso, Atebubu, Kete Krachi and many others. Hausa traders also settled in the coastal cities of Saltpond, Winneba, Sekondi, Shama and traded in kola. The activities of these traders led to a reorientation of the kola trade southwards by sea to Lagos. Traders took advantage of the introduction of steam vessels and mail boats for trade and communication along the West African coast.
One of the major problems which bedevilled the kola industry was labour supply. Kola farmers and traders utilised different types of labour in clearing farms, harvesting kola and preparing the kola for the market. Family labour was extensively utilised, and when it proved insufficient, slave labour became an important supplement, especially in the period before, and immediately after 1874. After emancipation (1874), pawns became increasingly important as a source of labour. In the colonial period, wage and migrant labour constituted important sources of labour.
From 1920, however, kola was overshadowed by cocoa as an international crop. Kola farmers, therefore, transferred resources from kola to cocoa. This attitude killed the kola 'revolution,' and kola failed to take off as an overseas export commodity.
The study, therefore, adds to the historiography of the Gold Coast and Ghana by examining the role of the Hausa in particular, and the Sokoto Caliphate in general in Asante economic and social history. In addition, it shows that at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Atlantic basin was linked together through the kola trade. Furthermore, the study also enhances our understanding of kola as a psychoactive substance and, hence, the importance of kola as a medicinal agent.
