Since our inception, Food Empowerment Project (F.E.P.) has worked to share the reality of the cacao industry and unfortunately, it has not improved; however, we wanted to share a story of hope for one individual, Nana Nyanteng Ahenkan, who was able to escape and create a new life for himself by starting his own chocolate company.
1) What country were you born in and where do you live now?
I was born in Ghana. I live at Kyekyewere, a farming community in the Ahafo Ano North Municipal of the Ashanti region, Ghana.
2) I understand you were formerly enslaved as part of the cocoa industry. How old were you?
I remember I was around 7 or 8 years old.
3) Were you taken far away from your family? How did you end up enslaved for the cacao industry?
Myself and four other children were living with our late dad because there was a marriage breakup with our mom. My father himself was a cocoa farmer, and he was abusing us with farm work because he was ignorant about child slavery. We used to work in our dad’s farm and some of his friends.
4) Can you talk about what type of work you were forced to do?
Myself together with my siblings were forced to harvest cocoa, weed with machetes, carry heavy loads, etc.
5) Were you able to go to school?
Yes but not always.
6) What equipment did you use?
Machetes for weeding and Go-to-Hell equipment to harvest the pods on the cocoa trees.
7) How much did you have to work?
About 8 to 9 hours a day.
8) What were some of the abuses you endured outside of the work?
Beating and starving.
9) When did you get out and how old were you?
In 1998, when I was 17 years old.
10) Can you tell us about why you wanted to start your own chocolate company?
I wanted to start my own chocolate company to be able to:
- Make chocolate affordable to my fellow farmers and their children.
- As another source of income to help curb child slavery in cocoa, because most of the farmers use their children at the farms because they want cheap labor. They want cheap labor because they can’t afford to pay adult laborers. They can’t pay adult laborers because the bigger chocolate companies pay a penny for our beans.
11) What have been the barriers to getting your company up and running?
Lack of funding to complete my chocolate kitchen, to buy equipment, documentation, etc.
12) Can you tell us how your chocolate company is different from other chocolate companies?
My company is different from others because:
- The Shahamana farm is a child-labor free farm.
- The farm is organic (free from pesticides and weedicides).
- The farmers themselves are involved in the chocolate-making process.
- We use the best fermentation method.
- Our chocolate bars are made from 100-year-old-plus cocoa trees.
13) What can people do to support your new company?
I know I need a lot of support and assistance, but the most important thing now is funding and training to become an expert chocolate maker.
I will be glad if people will donate money or equipment to support me. Investors are also welcome to join my start up. I am also ready for chocolate-making internship training from chocolate-making institutions and ethical companies.
To support go to:https://www.facebook.com/ShahamanaChocolates/
We would like to thank our volunteer Tracy Dwomoh-Bonsu for connecting us with Nana so we could make sure his story is heard by more.
