Read the 2 articles about child labour in Ghana, West Africa, and then write a TEEEL of approximately 300 - 350 words. Include in-text citations in your synthesis and a reference list at the end. You must refer to the articles in your response and use relevant points from both articles. You will have 60 minutes to complete this task. You may use a paper English-to-English dictionary for this task.TASK: What are the most important causes of child labour in the West African cocoa industry?BACKGROUND INFORMATION Jonathan Rollason, 2015 There is a surprising association between chocolate and child labour in the Ivory Coast of West Africa. Children are often forced to work in cocoa farms or even sold into slave labour. These children harvest the beans, from which chocolate is made. There are many reports of inhumane conditions and extreme abuse of children working in the cocoa industry in Ghana. There are some major and minor factors that experts consider to be at least partly responsible for creating conditions for slavery and abuse on cocoa farms.SOURCE 1: The Dark History of the Cocoa Industry Sky Rosing, Stop the Traffik, 5/1/14, http://www.stopthetraffik.org/darkhistoryofthecocoaindustry Historical and continuing dependence is the major cause of child labour on the cocoa farms of Ghana. By the latter part of the 1970s, cocoa overtook coffee as the major commodity when a cocoa boom occurred as the government encouraged farming by offering various price incentives. This emphasis on cocoa production has been central to the economy to the extent that many farmers are dependent on cocoa for their income. At present, a substantial one-third of Ghana's economy is based on cocoa exports, which has meant continued dependence on the world market prices for cocoa. The problem with this is that cocoa is considered one of the most unstable commodities in terms of the rise and fall of market prices. The profitability of cocoa depends on world prices that farmers cannot control and also on natural conditions that affect cocoa crop products, such as droughts. For instance, since 1996 the price for a pound of cocoa beans has dropped from sixty-four cents to fifty-one cents. Consequently, this negatively affects the farmers as they get less profits and they are often already poor. So then they look for ways to cut costs by using cheap labour, driving them to resort to using slave labour. This combines with a secondary contributing factor: many African children are used to working in various industries already and families tend to view this as part of everyday life.SOURCE 2: Poverty, Culture and Modern Slavery Angus Eckermann, Modern Slavery, 7/9/14, http://www.modernslavery.org/slaveryandyourchocolatebar/ Poverty is one of the most important causes of child labour in Ghana, if not the most important one. Although some children come from Burkina Faso and Togo, most of the trafficked children come from Mali. Since Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world with a GDP of $850 per capita, people travel to Ghana to find jobs. Of the estimated 15,000 child slaves, the majority are from Mali. With so few opportunities in their own countries, people often travel elsewhere in search of jobs, like the Malians do. If people are able to secure work, then they could send money back home to help their families for their daily existence. Therefore, families allow their children to go away with people who turn out to be slave traders. Most of the West African countries have extremely high levels of poverty, ranging from 40% to 72%. Culture is another reason for the practice of child labour, although not as powerful as other factors. The children of Ivorian farmers also help cultivate cocoa beans, so some farmers do not see why it is wrong to use the labour of other children. Aside from the implicated farmers though, in the culture of much of Africa, the sight of children working is quite common and not necessarily seen negatively. In fact, the percentage of children between 5 to 14 years old in the workforce is between 40-50%. Men have multiple wives and many children, so the kids start working at an early age to help their families.
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