Cocoa, Cadbury and Forced Labour in São Tomé and Príncipe, West Africa

“Cocoa, Cadbury and Forced Labour” explores an early twentieth century controversy. One of the world’s premier chocolate makers, the Quaker firm Cadbury Brothers Limited of Birmingham, England, spent a decade investigating whether slaves harvested the cocoa the company purchased from the Portuguese island colony of São Tomé and Príncipe. This chapter considers competing British and Portuguese colonial ambitions, the tension between capitalism, philanthropy and ethics, and the different interpretations held by British and Portuguese employers about the nature of work. Higgs examines these issues from multiple perspectives, including those of Joseph Burtt, the fellow Quaker Cadbury Brothers sent to Africa to study the conditions of labour. In a story still familiar a century after Burtt’s journey, the cocoa controversy revealed the idealism, naivety and racism that shaped attitudes toward Africa, even among those who sought to improve the conditions of its workers and to support its farmers.