The "other" black gold: cocoa

I bet when you think cocoa you think South America. Who doesn't?

In fact, 70% of the world's cocoa supply begins life in West Africa: 20% in Ghana, 40% in The Ivory Coast, and the balance is supplied from Cameroon and Nigeria.

The remaining 30% comes from Brazil, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, PNG, Indonesia, Colombia, Malaysia and Mexico.

Global Social Benefit Incubator

We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read Global Social Benefit Incubator there.


Social Edge's site is brilliant for anyone interested in social entrepreneurism.

Global Social Benefit Incubator Competition on Social Edge - Up to 20 will win US$25,000 Scholarship - Enter by Jan 20 2009Are you a social entrepreneur or the leader of a social venture, or do you know someone with a social venture that could benefit from capacity building, in-depth consultation on their business plan and mentoring by Santa Clara University faculty and Silicon Valley start-up veterans?The Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI™) is a capacity building program for leaders of social benefit enterprises run by Santa Clara University’s Center for Science, Technology and Society.Enter now for a chance to attend.The competition is hosted on Social Edge, the online community for social entrepreneurs. The online application for Santa Clara University’s seventh annual GSBI is available now at http://www.socialedge.org/ and social benefit entrepreneurs from around the world should complete their first exercise online by January 16th. Deadline extended to 20/1/09 08:00 GMT.Through the GSBI competition, up to 20 candidates, who best demonstrate a sustainable and scalable approach to addressing urgent human needs throughout the world, will each receive a full scholarship valued at US$25,000 to attend the GSBI program which combines 4 months of on-line preparation and culminates with an intensive two-week residential program at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley.Press release: http://tinyurl.com/GSBI2009Apply now: socialedge.org/features/gsbi

20 minutes in the life of Ghana...Elmina to Cape Coast

We have a new site www.g-lish.org where you can read all articles from This is Ghana in a much more organised fashion. Read 20 minutes in the life of Ghana...Elmina to Cape Coast there.


When these women carrying beams of timber on their head passed me this morning I decided to chronicle the journey to work in pictures--it takes about 20 minutes in a share taxi (when it doesn't break down, take a detour, or get pulled over by police at barriers)--so join me in 20 minutes in the life...

...of my journey from home to work that starts here, on the side of the highway, where I flag down a share taxi and still catch myself awed...

...by the women (it's mostly women--and they usually have a baby wrapped on their back to boot) who carry heavy loads on their heads because there's no other way for them to get it from A to B: these women have Pure Grace, the slogan emblazoned on the mini bus's rear windscreen, as they are on almost every vehicle in the country that...

...stops to set down passengers who need a break...

...and almost exclusively have windscreens that look like cystallized spider's webs...

...with side mirrors to match...

...so it's best to gaze out the side windows to see the fishermen carrying nets for mending....

...where piles of Gari--ground cassava--sit in neat stacks on tables across the highway from the Ewe fishing villages...

...and fishermen's pirogues (for fishing is a male domain) sit awaiting their next dip into the ocean and nets sit stretched for mending...

...for several kilometres along the highway...

...and children sell "pure water" from aluminium basins on their heads by the highway where the Atlantic waves pound the beach...

...and billboards advertise the ubiquitous game...

...before you come upon the village where pirogues set the scene...

...and lone fishermen take stock...

...and communities of fishermen participate in a communal hand-over-fist dance to haul in the nets...

...before coming upon the lagoon at Bakaano where a thin strop of sand separates the lake from the sea...

...and you shortly find yourself entering Cape Coast proper where you can buy a timber bed frame on the side of the road...

...and avoid falling in the open sewage trenches...

...and buy an onion from a street hawker and mind the firewood that will soon become charcoal that most people use to fuel their small coal braziers over which they cook almost everything, including...

...pancakes that will soon be sold from that little green shed by a lady who piles them up in a glass case and wanders along the road until they're "finished"...

...and do a spot of chair shopping before the day gets going...

...and make a call for 25 cents from the yellow umbrella stand...

...and stop at the blue painted shop that sells stales like milk, of course, and sugar, rice, single tea bags, and other food stuffs in small portions from 5 cent sizes to $1 or more...

...and a bite of wakye (wah-chy), a dish of rice and red beans and sold in those large silver bowls along streets all over Ghana...

...so you can fill your stomach for a day at the office!

That was a 20 minutes in the life from Elmina to Cape Coast...