Valentine’s Day is rolling around and many know what food source is associated to this holiday… chocolate. But when you get that heart shaped box of goodies do you stop and think about where it came from? Who made it? Who’s forced out of their homes into slavery onto cocoa farms working in inhumane conditions? How about the young boys who are beaten down at the ages of 12 to 16, or even younger. Neither did I.
When you think of chocolate you think of words such as sweet, delicious, rich. When these children think of chocolate they think of words such as pain, hideous, fear. According to “Knight Ridder Newspapers across the country ran a series of investigative articles that revealed a very dark side to our chocolate consumption the series profiled young boys who were tricked into slavery, or sold as slaves, to Ivory Coast cocoa farmers.Ivory Coast, located on the southern coast of West Africa, is by far the world’s largest supplier of cocoa beans, providing 43% of the world’s supply. There are 600,000 cocoa farms in Ivory Coast which together account for one-third of the nation’s entire economy”. (Robbins) These children are being bought or stolen from their families located in countries such as Mali, Burkina Faso, and Togo.
These slave traders persuade these families and the children with gifts like bicycles and toys and even a chance at a better way of life. Little do these families know that they might never see their children again. Though slavery is illegal everywhere it doesn’t mean that it’s not happening.From one of the articles that I read he says “The ownership of one human being by another is illegal in Ivory Coast, as it is in every other country in the world today. But that doesn’t mean slavery has ceased to exist. Rather, it has simply changed its form” (Robbins), which I believe to be completely true.
Though these children aren’t exactly owned they are held there by fear of violence, knowing that if they try to leave they will be killed. Just like slavery years ago, these children are paid almost nothing and constantly enforced by violence or the threat of violence. The conditions that these children are put through are unimaginable. Put to work for 80-100 hours a week and if they ever do get paid it won’t be until they put in a couple years of work. These children are beaten down, whipped with chains, and left scarred physically, emotionally and mentally forever.
One of the slaves who escaped a plantation was interviewed and said “The beatings were a part of my life,” Aly Diabate, a freed slave, told reporters. “Anytime they loaded you with bags (of cocoa beans) and you fell while carrying them, nobody helped you. Instead they beat you and beat you until you picked it up again” (Robbins). When you look at them you can tell that they are barely fed.
From photos you can see the pain in their eyes just wishing for a chance to be free. Many fear trying to escape knowing what will happen if they are caught. Astonishing statistics I found “In Cote d’Ivoire on the Ivory coast 40-50% of children between 5 and 14 years of age work full time.” (Nourisher) also “15,000 are captured, beaten, forced to work, underfed and not paid” (Nourisher).Ironically most of these children who are risking their lives, beaten daily, and never paid have never even seen or tasted chocolate.
Im sure after reading about this you’re wondering why hasn’t this been stopped. Why haven’t these chocolate companies such as Hershey’s and Nestlea been sued? After all of these statistics and photos how is this child labor continuing? The answer to that is because everyone pushes the blame onto someone else (Chatterjee,Raghavan) “Farmers who use slaves blame the people responsible for the price of cocoa. Middlemen who deal with farmers say they don't see any slavery. Ivory Coast government officials who enforce slavery laws say it's foreigners who are selling and using slaves in their country.
Cocoa suppliers say they can't be responsible because they don't control the farms.Chocolate companies say they rely on their suppliers to provide cocoa untainted by slave labor. The trade associations blame Ivory Coast's unstable political situation. And consumers don't have an inkling that their favorite chocolate treats may be tainted by slave labor” (Chatterjee, Ragahavan). But pushing the blame around from one group to another is still allowing it all to occur.
We learn when were young in elementary school not to blame others for our mistakes and the fact that this is what these people are doing while endangering children just to save a buck is disgusting.The more I learn and further I read I become more disgusted and shocked. After learning about the pain and distress slavery caused for many people it’s astonishing that it’s still occurring every day. All of the progress the world has made in many other aspects such as racial issues and technology it’s sad that we have set ourselves back again.
As if we have learned nothing and became heartless all over again. Sadly I have to admit that I was unaware of this issue until recently and now I couldn’t imagine not trying to fix it or make some sort of a difference even if it is informing others about the topic. One way of fixing this problem is only buying fair trade chocolate or trying to persuade stores to only sell fair trade chocolate.The idea of Fair trade chocolate was created by Teun (Tony) Van de Keuken who filmed himself eating 19 chocolate bars and then calling the cops on himself.
When they arrived he said they should arrest him for buying stolen goods which were the cocoa beans from the chocolate slaves. They denied his request to be arrest but it was taken to court. From there Tony had caught the attention of many people who were inspired by his story which brings us to Fair trade chocolate which is a “demand that companies work with communities who are implementing education and health care projects which lift the ’standard of living’ of workers and ensure sustainable environmental and economic futures” (Nourisher).That means that the people who are getting the cocoa are doing so in conditions that are suitable to work in, therefore taking away the chocolate slavery.
Though it might sound simple it’s not and will take time but with help of everyone we can abolish this once and for all.
