Engagement with global trade also radically reshaped agriculture in the area around Elmina. While we have no direct records of the crops farmed in Dominase and Ponkrum at the time of their establishment, we know that engagement with the Portuguese and, later, Dutch owners of Elmina castle contributed greatly to the transformation of agriculture in this area. The Portuguese introduced a large number of crops from South America, including maize, cassava, sweet potatoes, groundnuts (peanuts), hot peppers (capsicums), and tomatoes. Other crops introduced later include bananas, oranges, sugarcane, pineapples, pawpaws, cashews, mangoes, plantains, and many species of beans. These introductions were not, by and large, imposed on the population, but rather were efforts by local farmers to take up some of the crops farmed by the Portuguese for their own needs. Cattle, sheep, pigs, and goats were also introduced to this area in the same manner. Thus, the contact with Europeans resulted in a remarkable transformation of the local agroecology, with farms throughout the region incorporating these new crops with great speed.
Such incorporation is no simple task, as the introduction of a new species to an existing ecology comes with several risks. The species may not survive because the soils, timing of seasons, weather, or pests in the area can present insurmountable barriers. The new plant might survive but cause other crops with which it is intercropped to have lower yields because of the way it uses water and/or soil nutrients or because of the pests it might attract. In some cases new species might become remarkably successful in a new setting and start to take over, choking off existing food crops and other local species. None of these outcomes appears to have occurred with plants introduced in and around Ponkrum, which speaks to the skill of local farmers in managing this process of incorporation.
Over time the introduction of new crops to the colonial holdings that would later become Ghana, including the area around Dominase and Ponkrum, became a part of official policy. The slave trade, though abolished by the British in 1807, did not wind down for a decade or two, making trade with this area less and less profitable. To earn income for their mercantile efforts, the European powers began to introduce cash crops that might be exported for profit. For example, by 1820 the British were promoting the growth of oil palm in their holdings around Cape Coast, less than ten miles to the east of Dominase and Ponkrum. While Elmina was a Dutch holding at that time, it is likely the oil palm trade reached the newly settled villages of Dominase and Ponkrum. George Mclean, the British governor at Cape Coast, pushed for the expansion of this trade, and by 1850 oil palm products were the principal items of trade in the area.
Without the slave trade, the Dutch owners of Elmina castle found their investment less and less profitable. In 1872 they transferred their West African holdings to the British, who consolidated the territory around Elmina with other territories to the north to form the Gold Coast Colony in 1901. To ensure these holdings were profitable, the British colonial government focused on the export of gold and the introduction of cash crops. Production of oil palm for export peaked in 1884, before going into a long decline due to challenges from other products in virtually every area of its utility. This instability gradually eroded oil palm's popularity as a cash crop. Although palm products accounted for about 50 percent of the total exports of British West Africa in the period up to 1900, by 1930 its export share had declined to 33 percent, and by the 1950s to 15 percent. Therefore, by the late nineteenth century the Gold Coast Colony (it would not be known as Ghana until independence in 1957) was still seeking an alternative export to replace the long-defunct slave trade.
While oil-palm exports began to decline after 1884, the meteoric rise of cocoa production in the forest areas of the Gold Coast Colony furthered this downturn after the turn of the 20th century. Cocoa production was at virtually zero in 1900, but by 1910 the colony exported nearly 40,000 tons of cocoa, and by 1921 over 130,000 tons. By the end of the 1920s cocoa accounted for 80 percent of all exports from the Gold Coast Colony. By comparison, mining of the gold from which the colony had taken its name, as well as other minerals, made up a mere 5 percent of all its exports by the late 1920s.
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4 Comments
Add CommentIt was extremely enlightening to read of how far back the trend of globalization goes -- even to the early 19th Century, and even in such remote, off-the-beaten-path places. But even here, we see the danger, the devastation of those "left behind" when fiercely independent ego meets evermore interdependent globalization.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow much more, when the height of our 21st century egos meets with the vastly more culturally & economically intertwined, Internetted, wirelessly singular planet. A civilization deeply connected with critical climate and resource issues, whose front web page issues seem to center on which actress wore the shortest, deepest cut dress to the academy awards or which unfortunate model, ice skater, or cheerleader took an embarrassing fall.
We need to focus on our relationships at the most fundamental level and build a mutual responsible humanity from the ground up because only such a humanity can handle and master the problem of an enclosed global word.
Just as a shock illustration, just consider the analogy of these two unfortunate paramecium who are also caught unawares of their enclosing world and try to handle the situation in an every-man-for-himself mode.
Amoeba eats two paramecia (Amoeba's lunch): http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=pvOz4V699gk
We are smarter than paramecium -- at least I hope we are. ...
One can go back almost 200 years and read articles/letters to the editor in the London Times about how textile imports from India were causing problems for people around Manchester in terms of jobs and profitability for manufacturers. Its been a global economy for a long time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEvery people in the world have a history of exploitation. The only way to overcome one's history is to discard the past, discard ancient beliefs, customs and above all religion. Embrace science and modern rational thought. A one child policy must also be imposed world-wide.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAfricans and middle eastern nations cling to the past, they will continue to live in despair and keep exporting their abundant populations; a result of science, delivered to them by compassionate people from the advanced world.
Anyone who sits moping about his/her historic ill-treatment and does nothing about his/her current condition is an idiot and needs no assistance.
Has anyone ever summed up all the aid and charity given to the so called disadvantaged? It will undoubtedly be a staggering amount. Charity entrenches poverty.
Micro-histories like this are much more illuminating than the usual theories and posturings of anthropologists.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's a shame that it's not so clear about the reasons for the decline of the area. Whether the locals were priced out of the market, or population increased to a level which could not be supported.