Talk:Cocoa production in São Tomé and Príncipe/GA1

GA Review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch

Nominator: Yue (talk · contribs) 17:14, 11 September 2024 (UTC)

Reviewer: Rollinginhisgrave (talk · contribs) 02:37, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

I'll review this article. Rollinginhisgrave (talk) 02:37, 12 September 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for bringing this to GAN, I'm very grateful. I'll continue when this stuff has been addressed.

Content

• Leissle (2013) presents a different motive for moving cocoa production to West Africa:

As for all the region’s major agricultural exports, cocoa’s shift to West Africa was a colonial story. Spain and Portugal, colonizers of the New World, lost their imperial holds on Brazil, Ecuador, and Venezuela—major cocoa producers—in the early nineteenth century. At the same time, the Industrial Revolution was gaining momentum in Europe and major advances were occurring in the chocolate industry: what was once a bitter, costly drink transformed, by the late nineteenth century, into a sweet, cheap, mass-marketable bar. Industrial manufacturers needed a steady supply of cocoa, but their New World sources were drying up. Around this time, Europe’s imperial gaze turned to West Africa—which has an ideal climate for growing cocoa. Sao Tome, a Portuguese colony in the Gulf of Guinea, soon became the predominant global supplier.

- Page 22

I would certainly say this should earn a mention.

A paper by Martin and Sampeck is saying the same thing on page 48.

• Slave labour and indentured servitude were used to produce cocoa during this period of growth and prosperity. worth elaborating here that the labor system here was directly imported from practices in Brazil.
• due to boycotts from British and German chocolate manufacturers, who had become aware of the slave-like working conditions of the roças. It took them a decade of pressure from activists and journalists.

"With journalists reporting on the issue, activists in Britain protested slave production of cocoa. Though it took the better part of a decade, these protests eventually resulted in a Cadbury boycott of Sao Tomé cocoa in 1909.”” While Sao Tomé’s role as cocoa exporter declined afterwards, the boycott did not end labor abuses. Clarence-Smith documents the continued use of coerced labor, in Sao Tomé, Principe, and elsewhere in the Gulf of Guinea region for long afterwards."

- Leissle (2018) page 41

Satre (2005) also engages with this in a lot of depth, and probably needs to be engaged with to meet the criteria of broadness (although I'm already about to ask you do that for another source so I won't press hard there).

• São Toméan cocoa producers of the 21st century have gradually shifted their focus to promoting the quality of their product. A number of cocoa farmers have oriented their operations towards the production of fair trade cocoa, that is, cocoa grown without the use of fertilizers or herbicides. this description of fair-trade chocolate has a lot of room for improvement, it seems to be referring to organic chocolate rather than fair trade.

I'm less familiar with the 20th century Sao Tome cocoa production stuff so can't make as many comments. This is interesting. I would say the section needs to engage with Clarence-Smith since he's so influential in the historical study here. I've left some quotes below that could be integrated; I can send you the book PDF or continue listing quotes.

You need to update the discussion of fine and flavor cocoa. You can also link flavor cocoa, although the article is not great. Essentially the terms were "officially" redefined in 2022.

Content suggestions

• the colony became the largest producer of sugar in the world this would be really helped if it got a "by XXXX year" addendum.
• Might be worth being more specific that Sao Tome was the biggest producer between 1905 to 1911.

"The Portuguese island colony of São Tomé and Príncipe briefly became the world’s largest producer in 1905, and The Gold Coast [Ghana] took a sustained lead in 1911."

- Clarence-Smith (2000), page 6

[In 2015] The only West African origin to achieve flavor status recommendation was Sao Tomé and Principe, for 35 percent of exports. [because the process is political]

- Leissle (2018) page 162

Some quotes to integrate

Clarence-Smith (2000):

"São Tomé and Príncipe’s plutocrats were obliged to shore up Portugal’s crumbling finances, including transfers of funds to meet fiscal deficits in other colonies (Clarence-Smith 1985:86). An export duty of 14 reis per kilo was imposed in 1882. This was pared to 12 reis per kilo in 1892 for São Tomé, equivalent to 8. 5 per cent ad valorem, while Príncipe was granted duty-free exports for ten years. In both cases, cocoa had to be sent to a Portuguese port in a Portuguese vessel, for duties on exports in foreign ships or to foreign ports were set at prohibitive levels (Nogueira 1893:77–8, 85–6). The duty was raised to 18 reis per kilo in 1894, to replace a rural land tax that had hardly been collected. Planters complained that they got little in return: fourteen kilometres of railway, a short road, and a rudimentary iron quay (Sociedade de Emigração 1915:16, 114, 199). The flood of beans entering Lisbon was almost entirely re-exported, on payment of a moderate tax (Moreira Júnior 1905: II, 121). The cash-strapped Republican authorities proposed to lower the export duty in São Tomé to 13 reis per kilo in 1912, but to impose a land tax and a 30 reis per kilo re-export tax in Lisbon. Protests erupted, as it was claimed that this would make the tax burden one of the highest in the world (Sociedade de Emigração 1915:199)." page 45

[In the 1900s] "Vertical commercial integration became somewhat more significant, especially as large landowners retained ownership of their beans until sale in the West, usually arranged by a broker (Knapp 1923:87). Among the world’s large producers, Ecuador and São Tomé exported most cocoa this way" page 81

"Although the great bulk of São Tomé and Principe’s cocoa was exported by a dozen great planters, Portuguese traders, including some Sephardic Jews, bought beans from smaller farmers. ‘Native brokers’ only seem to have bought cocoa from African smallholders, and they were commonly accused of purchasing beans stolen by plantation workers" page 86

"After further accusations levelled at dealers in Le Hâvre and Amsterdam, it dawned on the editors of Der Gordian that wealthy planters were responsible for price manipulation. São Tomé planters, resident in Portugal, made their first recorded attempt to nudge prices upwards in 1898, although rotting beans in Lisbon warehouses soon ensured the failure of this scheme (Gordian: IV, 1295–6; XII, 1105). To stem a renewed market fall in 1901, the planters enlisted the aid of Henri Burnay, a Belgian immigrant and the foremost Portuguese banker of his day. With ample funds to hand, stocks in Lisbon were reported to have risen to around 75,000 bags of 60 kilos, rather than the usual 20,000–25,000 bags, and prices picked up in response (Gordian: VI, 2563; VIII, 3523; IX, 3723–4). Encouraged by this experience, and angered by the continuing downward drift in prices, São Tomé planters launched their most ambitious assault on the market in 1906..." page 87

Prose

• on the island which island?

Suggestions

• accounting for 54% of its exports MOS:DATED

Rollinginhisgrave (talk) 11:38, 13 September 2024 (UTC)

@Rollinginhisgrave: Thank you for the review so far. It's finally the weekend for me so I'll begin working on integrating your suggestions today. Cheers. Yue🌙 16:48, 14 September 2024 (UTC)

@Rollinginhisgrave: Still working on your suggestions, but I've implemented around half of them so far. It would be really helpful if you could send the PDFs of the books you suggested, either on my talk page or to my email yuewikigmail.com. Cheers for now; I'll return to editing this article later this weekend. Yue🌙 01:18, 15 September 2024 (UTC)

@Rollinginhisgrave: Still fixing up the article, but could you tell me what source you're looking at for your suggestion of "worth elaborating here that the labor system here was directly imported from practices in Brazil." I was unable to find something speaking to that regard in the sources I have or the ones you sent me. I was only able to find the reverse, where Sao Tomean slavery practices were used by plantation owners who moved to Brazil. Thank you in advance! Yue🌙 19:49, 25 September 2024 (UTC)

Apologies for the delay. It's from Chocolate: History, Culture and Heritage from the chapter Establishing Cacao Plantation Culture in the Atlantic World: Portuguese Cacao Cultivation in Brazil and West Africa, Circa 1580-1912, which is another PDF I can send you if you want it.

The relevant quote I was drawing from to make that comment is "Through the exploitation of slaves and coerced laborers, the early Portuguese colonial cacao industry in Brazil became successful and profitable. The legacy of these labor practices is evident across Brazil's "cacao lands" - Bahia, Ceará, Grão-Pará, and Maranhão - where indigenous peoples and innumerable descendants of African slaves still make their homes. However, because the Portuguese transplanted cacao trees - and then the entire plantation system that cultivated them most efficiently - across the Atlantic Ocean in West Africa, the production methods peculiar to Portuguese plantation operations were perpetuated into the 20th century. Indeed, on cacao plantations in present-day West Africa, methods pioneered by the Portuguese in Brazil continue as current standard operating procedure." Rollinginhisgrave (talk) 08:35, 27 September 2024 (UTC)

@Rollinginhisgrave: I was able to find and access the PDF for that chapter. Thank you!

Here are all the changes I've made since you took on the review. I've integrated all the content you've suggested and made several tweaks and other additions based on your advice. I've looked at more of Clarence-Smith's work, and it turns out he's a prolific writer on São Tomé and Príncipe's early history in general! However, I couldn't find anything more from him specifically about post-independence cocoa production. I've added a bit more detail in that regard, but not a lot.

What else are you looking for in terms of coverage to pass this article? Yue🌙 01:58, 28 September 2024 (UTC)

You've done everything I wanted to meet GAN broadness. I'll take another look over the article.

Prose and content

• West African I'm not sure Sao Tome and Principe is actually considered a West African country. Our article on West Africa doesn't mention it.
• Portugal's simultaneous loss of Brazil, simultaneous implies a second thing?
• notably Cadbury notably including Cadbury
• Natural pests why do you specify that pests are natural?
• in order to make up for a rural land tax that had been seldom collected reword this sentence, meaning unclear

Suggestions2

• You link reis a lot further down than the first use

Sources

• "Sao Tome and Principe (01/19/12)" this source is unused

Spot checks:

• [10f] Y
• [28a] Y
• [28c] Y
• [33] Y
• [34] clock better to say "In 2021" rather than "as of 2022"; more precise

Other

• Images:

• Fresh cacao: change the URL as the blog is dead, but the flickr is live. Some beautiful photos from that photographer.
• Everything else is appropriately tagged, captioned Y

• Broad / summary style Y
• Neutral Y
• Stable Y
• No OR / COPYVIO Y 15.3%; repetition of Sao Tome and Principe

Rollinginhisgrave (talk) 08:12, 28 September 2024 (UTC)

@Rollinginhisgrave: Fixed those small things. Yue🌙 15:37, 28 September 2024 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.