To Defeat Galamsey, We Must Remember 'Cocoa Rehabilitation' (2)

07 Oct 2025

Feature Article To Defeat Galamsey, We Must Remember Cocoa Rehabilitation (2)

TUE, 07 OCT 2025

ALTHOUGH the “Cocoa Rehabilitation' campaign launched by the Gold Coast Government in the 1940s--50s to save the country's cocoa industry from being destroyed by the “Swollen Shoot” disease was immensely successful, it was nearly still-born. It had tremendous drawbacks, caused mainly by a well-known social malady known as-- the “human factor”!

Gold Coast sciety, ike the Ghanaian equivalent that succeeded it, was immensely corrupt. As soon as the Government announced that a “repayment grant" would be paid for every cocoa tree that would be cut down to prevent “swollen shoot” from continuing to spread, cocoa farmers who had formerly attacked ”CR” teams, now befriended them.

Liaison Officers ("L.O.s") who were the first point of contact between CR and cocoa farmers, began to establish secret “contact groups” (based on close kinship/family links) through which farmers were able to get their cocoa farms officially “surveyed” and diseased cocoa trees in them identified and “marked” for cutting out.

Where the diseased cocoa trees were numerous, the trees were counted and payment made on the basis of a “per -tree-cut-down" system.

Where the diseased trees were few, however, a corrupt Liaison Officer, on seeing the preliminary figures, would convey them secretly to the farmer, and if he agreed to the advice of the L., the technical personnel would be induced to alter the figures, and thereby transform the status of the farm in question to one which was to be paid for on an “acreage” basis instead. The secret “understanding” was that after the ”payout” to the beneficiary, he would share “the booty” among all those who had co-operated to make the scam possible.

The wholesale destruction of farms was known by the code -term, “All die” and many people in the cocoa-growing areas became wealthy from the proceeds of the fraudulent practice.

Occasionally, an acutely intelligent ASO would smell a rat whilst going over the books of his personnel. So, some were sent to jail for cooking the books. But by and large, human nature triumphed over commonsense.

Later, the CR department amended its policies and used its own employees to carry out the replanting of farms, thereby deducting money from the replanting grant payout. The new scheme entailed a system known as “pegging and lining”. Under this new system, cocoa seedlings, usually of the more robust genus known as "Amelonado", were planted on “treated” farms and the farmers left to nurture them.

It is to be noted that ”cocoa rehabilitation” was conceived and financed by the Government of the day and its modalities created by the Government. But its operation was CONSTANTLY MONITORED and changes made to the operation, where and when necessary. .

Now, because “swollen shoot” occurred at a time when the Ghana independence struggle was at its fiercest, much political capital was made of its weaknesses. . But the colonial authorities, expert propagandists though they were, did NOT sit on their behinds and take the easy way out by attempting to combat “swollen shoot” with WORDS! Neither did they cover up for officials who were corrupt or ineficient in the struggle aganst the ”swollen shoot” disaster.

AND THAT IS WHY TODAY, WE STILL HAVE A COCOA INDUSTRY TO BOAST OF AND SUSTAIN OUR ECONOMY WITH!

Martin Cameron Duodu is a United Kingdom-based Ghanaian novelist, journalist, editor and broadcaster. After publishing a novel, The Gab Boys, in 1967, Duodu went on to a career as a journalist and editorialist.. More Martin Cameron Duodu (born 24 May 1937) is a United Kingdom-based Ghanaian novelist, journalist, editor and broadcaster. After publishing a novel, The Gab Boys, in 1967, Duodu went on to a career as a journalist and editorialist.

Education
Duodu was born in Asiakwa in eastern Ghana and educated at Kyebi Government Senior School and the Rapid Results College, London , through which he took his O-Level and A-Level examinations by correspondence course . He began writing while still at school, the first story he ever wrote ("Tough Guy In Town") being broadcast on the radio programme The Singing Net and subsequently included in Voices of Ghana , a 1958 anthology edited by Henry Swanzy that was "the first Ghanaian literary anthology of poems, stories, plays and essays".

Early career
Duodu was a student teacher in 1954, and worked on a general magazine called New Nation in Ghana, before going on to become a radio journalist for the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation from 1956 to 1960, becoming editor of radio news <8> (moonlighting by contributing short stories and poetry to The Singing Net and plays to the programme Ghana Theatre). <9> From 1960 to 1965 he was editor of the Ghana edition of the South African magazine Drum , <10> and in 1970 edited the Daily Graphic , <3> the biggest-selling newspaper in Ghana.< citation needed >

The Gab Boys (1967) and creative writing
In 1967, Duodu's novel The Gab Boys was published in London by André Deutsch . The "gab boys" of the title – so called because of their gabardine trousers – are the sharply dressed youths who hang about the village and are considered delinquent by their elders. The novel is the story of the adventures of one of them, who runs away from village life, eventually finding a new life in the Ghana capital of Accra . According to one recent critic, "Duodu simultaneously represents two currents in West African literature of the time, on the one hand the exploration of cultural conflict and political corruption in post-colonial African society associated with novelists and playwrights such as Chinua Achebe and Ama Ata Aidoo , and on the other hand the optimistic affirmation of African cultural strengths found in poets of the time such as David Diop and Frank Kobina Parkes . These themes come together in a very compassionate discussion of the way that individual people, rich and poor, are pushed to compromise themselves as they try to navigate a near-chaotic transitional society."

In June 2010 Duodu was a participant in the symposium Empire and Me: Personal Recollections of Imperialism in Reality and Imagination, held at Cumberland Lodge , alongside other speakers who included Diran Adebayo , Jake Arnott , Margaret Busby , Meira Chand , Michelle de Kretser , Nuruddin Farah , Jack Mapanje , Susheila Nasta , Jacob Ross , Marina Warner , and others.

Duodu also writes plays and poetry. His work was included in the anthology Messages: Poems from Ghana ( Heinemann Educational Books , 1970).

Other activities and journalism
Having worked as a correspondent for various publications in the decades since the 1960s, including The Observer , The Financial Times , The Sunday Times , United Press International , Reuters , De Volkskrant ( Amsterdam ), and The Economist , Duodu has been based in Britain as a freelance journalist since the 1980s. He has had stints with the magazines South and Index on Censorship , and has written regularly for outlets such as The Independent and The Guardian .

He is the author of the blog "Under the Neem Tree" in New African magazine (London), and has also published regular columns in The Mail and Guardian ( Johannesburg ) and City Press (Johannesburg), as well as writing a weekly column for the Ghanaian Times (Accra) for many years.< citation needed >

Duodu has appeared frequently as a contributor on BBC World TV and BBC World Service radio news programmes discussing African politics, economy and culture.

He contributed to the 2014 volume Essays in Honour of Wole Soyinka at 80, edited by Ivor Agyeman-Duah and Ogochukwu Promise.Column: Cameron Duodu

Disclaimer: "The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect ModernGhana official position. ModernGhana will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements in the contributions or columns here." Follow our WhatsApp channel for meaningful stories picked for your day.

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To Defeat Galamsey, We Must Remember 'Cocoa Rehabilitation' (2)

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