Speech

Let me tell you about Drissa’s day… Drissa doesn’t go to school. He doesn’t even speak the language where he lives. He works a 12 hour day under the scalding hot sun. He spends his day swinging a razor sharp machete harvesting cocoa and hauling back breaking loads across the plantation where he works. When night comes and his work day is finally over, Drissa is locked in a room with 17 other teen age boys with only a small can for a toilet. Like his roommates, Drissa has been lured from the western part of the Ivory Coast by the promise of a good job. The reality is very different.

They have become slaves on cocoa plantations. The slave owners have the boys convinced they are under a magical spell. If they run away the will be paralyzed. Some of the boys still try to escape. Most are recaptured and savagely beaten over the course of several days. Many do not survive. Those who do are put back to work as so as they can walk again. Their wounds remain untreated. The boys rely on maggots to eat their flesh and clean their wounds to ward off gangrene.

And why does he spend his days like this? So your chocolate bar can be as little as one tenth of one cent cheaper.

Child labor exists in the Ivory Coast as a part of the chocolate industry. It thrives through a combination of corruption, inaction, and ineffective measures to prevent it.

It is estimated that 145,000 adolescents work in the chocolate industry in the Ivory Coast. They range in age from 10 to 16 years old with some as young as seven. They recruited from rural areas by smugglers with the promise of jobs and money. In some cases, their families are willing to sell the children for as little as $1.50 and the promise of a better life for the child.

The smugglers target markets gathering groups of 10 to 15 children. They bus the children to the border cities near the Ivory Coast. The children are handed off to be smuggled across on motorcycle taxis using back roads to avoid authorities. Once inside the Ivory Coast they are sold to plantation owners under the protection of local militia. The children are sold for roughly 250 euros or about $300.

It is estimated that three percent of the world wide labor pool in cocoa farming are adolescents. Eliminating this cheap source of labor will have almost no impact on the cost of chocolate. It will, however, eliminate a horror that steals the childhood and many times the lives of thousands of children.

What is being done to stop this horror?

Efforts fall into two categories. Lip service that does nothing more than perpetuate the practice and, under-supported efforts which could make a real difference.

In 2001, chocolate manufacturers attempted to address the problem as a group. The major manufacturers signed the Harkin-Engel Protocol. it called for the elimination of child labor in the cocoa industry by the year 2008. The protocol led to some progress in that it kept the issue in the public eye and as a topic of public debate. But, it led to little real change in behaviors. Chocolate manufacturers continue to abdicate the responsibility to their suppliers. The chocolate manufacturers don’t own the cocoa plantation and claim they have no direct control. They fail to acknowledge their powerful indirect influence.

Ivory Coast officials like Tohe Adam Malick, Chief Secretary of the Department of Labor in the Ivory Coast, claim the government has the problem under control. They claim the laws on the books in the Ivory Coast are sufficient. They also claim the children are not coming over the border exclusively as slaves. Many are coming for vacation.

There are some real efforts to stop child slavery in the cocoa industry. Interpol took action on plantation on the Ivory Coast. The operation successfully rescued 65 children originally from eight different countries. They ranged in ages from 11 to 16 years old. They also arrested five traffickers.

A local attempt to monitor trafficking and rescue children is headed by the General Secretary of the Drivers Union in Sikasso, Mali. From 2006 through 2009, he has rescued over 570 children from traffickers. He and his drivers simply watch for children on the buses and stations in their town. Think of the lives saved by a single man’s efforts in a single town.

Is it worth a penny more on your chocolate bar to stop this tragedy perpetrated against children? What should be done to restore the futures and perhaps even the lives of thousands of west African children?

The authorities must get serious about the issue. Increased action by Interpol to continue its good work can directly save more children. Even more impactful are the local efforts like those in Sikasso. Border towns can have a dramatic impact simply through vigilance. Chocolate manufacturers must use their indirect influence over cocoa farmers to buy only fair wage produce. Finally, the cocoa producers themselves should be educated to understand that child labor is neither morally nor economically sustainable.
But what can you do? Support companies who support fair labor practices. Use your dollars in an activist manner. Drissa and the other west African children will be gratefu