When we find ourselves in times of trouble, chocolate often gives relief. Even in recession, chocolate sells.
Steady as a rock, chocolate is Ghana’s main export, most of it grown by 1.6 million farmers on plots of land averaging three hectares, and its steadiness has infected the land.
In 2008, Africa’s relationship with democracy was challenged by violent electoral breakdowns in Kenya that resulted in at least a thousand deaths so far, and by the fiasco in Zimbabwe during which international observers agree President Robert Mugabe stole a run-off election. Ghana bucked this trend with steady faith in democracy through its recently concluded presidential elections, which included a national run-off and a re-vote in one district. It is the second time since Ghana’s establishing democracy in 1992 that an opposition candidate has peacefully succeeded. Ghana is the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to have that happen.
To the surprise of some and the relief of many, the ruling party’s candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, let the results be, and conceded publicly.
Ghana’s new President John Atta Mills comes to office which much on his plate. Oil has recently been discovered offshore in Ghanaian waters, presenting an important opportunity for Ghana to become an example contrary to Nigeria’s disastrous oil-related violence. Rising drug trafficking presents an important early challenge to weed out corrupt politicians and bureaucrats benefiting from such clandestine activities.
But of course, it wouldn’t be a west African goverment without chocolate on its plate. The highest world prices in 23 years for cocoa have led many of Cote d’Ivoire’s cocoa farmers to smuggle their cocoa over the border into Ghana for export, avoiding their country’s tendency to extract income earned from cocoa exports.
From this far off perch, across oceans and deserts, there is steady faith in Ghana’s ability to deal with these and other issues and to deal with them without violence because as far as we can tell, violence wasn’t used to obtain power and therefore isn’t needed to sustain power. The rest of Africa has much to learn from Ghana, and I’m not talking about how to grow chocolate.
Published Date: January 09, 2009