Cocoa Migration and Patterns of Land Ownership in the Densu Valley near Suhum, Ghana

THE town of Suhum, with a population of about 10,000 in 1960, lies some 39 miles, as the crow flies, north-north-west of Accra, in latitude 6' 02' north and longitude 0' 27' west (Fig. 1). The area around the town is typical of much of the eastern forest of Ghana in its economic and social geography. The exact extent of the area of investigation was determined by the availability of Department of Agriculture farm-plans, some explanation of which is called for here. These plans are produced by the Survey Branch of the Cocoa Division in order to facilitate the payment of grants for cutting out diseased cocoa trees and replanting with new ones. In the Suhum area, where there was almost total devastation by disease, every farm has been surveyed and registered, and official farm-plans produced on the scales of 88 yards to the inch and 8 inches to the mile. A simplified representation of these plans is given in Figure 4. The survey area contains 5605 separately registered farms covering an area of 16,297 acres (25-46 square miles). The first aim of the investigation was to determine the place of origin of each registered farm owner. Official registers were consulted by courtesy of the Department of Agriculture; and, in difficult cases, information sought from Liaison Officers of the Cocoa Division. Once each farmer's place of origin was known, land ownership was tabulated and mapped (Table I and Fig. 5) and a flow-diagram of the migration constructed (Fig. 6). In 1960, chiefs and elders in twenty-six villages and hamlets around Suhum (Fig. 3) were interviewed, through interpreters, on the details of their migration and settlement. The results of the field work and map analysis are presented below.