Kofi's Family has Plenty of Food/Produce the Best Cocoa
Artist
Clive Uptton
Printer
Charles & Reed, Ltd, London
Datec. 1950
Dimensions30 x 18 in. (76.2 x 45.7 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LinePoster House Permanent Collection
Object numberPH.7113
DescriptionThe Gold Coast Cocoa Marketing Board that published this poster was one of many set up across West Africa during World War II by the British, who justified these organizations on the grounds of price stabilization. Ghana, as the Gold Coast became known after it declared independence in 1957, was a relatively prosperous African nation because of its cocoa industry. However, marketing boards like this one were generally used to siphon off resources from the agricultural sector to support industrialization and development projects for urban populations and to distribute patronage. After independence, the cocoa industry continued to be exploited by the country’s political elites until at least the 1980s. This poster was produced by the Gold Coast Government and the Gold Coast Marketing Board and designed and printed in England. Both were intended to obscure the realities of this system for the country’s cocoa workers. This one shows the board’s “poster child,” Kofi, preparing an abundant meal with his mother.On View
Not on view
