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Labour in Commercial Agriculture in Ghana in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Inez Sutton
Affiliation:
Ruskin College, Oxford

Extract

This paper attempts to gather together information on agricultural labour in the production of cash crops in Ghana. The transition from slave and other bonded labour in the nineteenth century to wage labour in the twentieth is explored. The nature of agricultural labour in palm oil is compared to that in the production of subsequent exports, such as rubber (produced primarily on plantations) and cocoa (produced on Ghanaian-owned smallholdings). The questions of conditions of service, recruitment and sources of labour are considered historically. The preference of workers for agricultural labour is discussed, and compared to recruitment for mining and other industry.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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