Child Slavery and Chocolate on the Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire)

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Chocolate is one of the most popular sweets in America. In fact, the average person

consumes eleven pounds of chocolate a year, thats a 120 bars (Gregory). But what if people

knew how a lot of the Cocoa used in chocolate was harvested? In Côte d'Ivoire, or as

commonly referred to as the Ivory Coast, 40% of the worlds supply of Cocoa (Hawksley) is in

part harvested by enslaved children, most only eleven to sixteen years old (Gregory), and will

most likely never get to taste it. UNICEF estimates nearly half a million children are used for

forced labour in Côte d'Ivoire (Mckenzie, Swails). These children have to suffer more in their

first eighteen years than most americans ever will, but fortunately some companies and

organizations are taking steps to help raise awareness to end the atrocity that is child

slavery. 6 1/2

In reaction to this, people might ask,”how do children become involved with this

practice?” The saddening answer is many children are kidnapped and sold into slavery, then

trafficked across the county’s borders. Humphrey Hawksley, a BBC reporter interviewed some

children about how they came to the farms, one twelve-year old named Kouadio said he was

taken from his home that was more than 200 miles away (Hawksley) . It is also common for

parents to sell their children into slavery, some believing the child/children will get decent work

and maybe send money back home (Gregory). Another boy Hawksley talked to told him a

chilling story of how his father sold him to the farm owners and he had not seen his family

since. Parents do not do this for the sake of cruelty or negligence, but because of their

poverty they see no other option. Studies have shown that 40% of people in Côte d...

... middle of paper ...

... Ivory Coast’s main

exports is cocoa 4

Work Cited

Gregory, Amanda. “Chocolate and Child Slavery: Say No to Human Trafficking this Holiday Season”. The Huffington Post. Food for Thought. 31 Nov, 2013. Web. 15 Dec, 2013.

Hawksley, Humphrey. “Ivory Coast Cocoa Farms Child Labour: Little Change”. BBC. BBC World News. 10 Nov 2011. Web. 15 Dec, 2013.

Mckenzie,David, and Brent Swails. “Child Slavery and Chocolate: All too Easy to Find”. The CNN Freedom Project. 19 Jan, 2012. Web. 12 Dec, 2013.

“Economy and Industry”. Our Africa. N.P.. Web. 18 Dec, 2013.

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