ZekiAnim Obuobisah :
Dutch missionaries planted cocoa trees in the Gold Coast in 1815 and later by the Basel missionaries at Akropong in 1857 and Aburi in 1858 with seeds from Suriname. Johannes Haas, a Basel missionary, established a Cocoa Research Station at Akropong. However, pests, crop diseases and tropical illnesses, affected this initiative, causing them to give up on it by 1870. Then later in 1879, Tetteh Quashie, a Basel Mission trained blacksmith, brought the Amelonado Cocoa pod (a variety of cocoa) from Fernando Po, successfully establishing the crop at Akuapem Mampong where. and other places of the Akuapem area, local commercial farming flourished. The Eastern region subsequently became the leading cocoa producing area in the Gold Coast until the Swollen Shoots epidemic of the 1930s, affecting the crop and leading to a "cutting out" policy, destroying millions of cocoa trees (including healthy trees) by the colonial government. This, coupled with low cocoa prices, affected the incomes and livelihoods of cocoa farmers. It deeply angered them, sparking widespread resistance, protest (e.g., the Mangoase cocoa hold up of 1938 and other riots) and political tension, becoming part of the groundswell of support for nationalist movement for independence.
2026-09-05 00:43:00