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Book ID: CBB001421818

Chocolate Islands: Cocoa, Slavery, and Colonial Africa (2012)

Higgs, Catherine (Author)

Ohio University Press
Publication date: 2012
Language: English

ISBN: 9780821420065

Publication Date: 2012
Physical Details: xv + 230 pp.; ill.; maps; bibl.; index

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Cocoa cultivation; chocolate industry Slavery Colonialism Portugal, colonies Labor and laborers Travel; exploration Race Cross-cultural interaction; cultural influence Agriculture 20th century, early São Tomé and Príncipe Africa

In Chocolate Islands: Cocoa, Slavery, and Colonial Africa, Catherine Higgs traces the early-twentieth-century journey of the Englishman Joseph Burtt to the Portuguese colony of São Tomé and Príncipe---the chocolate islands---through Angola and Mozambique, and finally to British Southern Africa. Burtt had been hired by the chocolate firm Cadbury Brothers Limited to determine if the cocoa it was buying from the islands had been harvested by slave laborers forcibly recruited from Angola, an allegation that became one of the grand scandals of the early colonial era. Burtt spent six months on São Tomé and Príncipe and a year in Angola. His five-month march across Angola in 1906 took him from innocence and credulity to outrage and activism and ultimately helped change labor recruiting practices in colonial Africa. This beautifully written and engaging travel narrative draws on collections in Portugal, the United Kingdom, and Africa to explore British and Portuguese attitudes toward work, slavery, race, and imperialism. In a story still familiar a century after Burtt's sojourn, Chocolate Islands reveals the idealism, naivety, and racism that shaped attitudes toward Africa, even among those who sought to improve the conditions of its workers.

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Description “Traces the early-20th-century journey of Joseph Burtt to the Portuguese colony of São Tomé and Príncipe---the chocolate islands---through Angola and Mozambique, and finally to British Southern Africa.” (from the publisher)

Reviewed By

Review Kevin Grant (2015) Review of "Chocolate Islands: Cocoa, Slavery, and Colonial Africa". American Historical Review (pp. 1580-1581). unapi

Review Cleveland, Todd (2014) Review of "Chocolate Islands: Cocoa, Slavery, and Colonial Africa". Agricultural History (pp. 608-610). unapi

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