Hi. I’m Benjamin Setor Gbadago.
I’m a cultural researcher and supply chain storyteller exploring people, spaces, and cultures in Africa’s cocoa supply chain.
I grew up among cocoa farmers in Ghana’s Eastern Region where the country’s premium-cocoa-exporter story begun. In fact, the very home I was raised in was a cocoa warehouse.
But for many years, cocoa activities were just a normal routine; nothing interesting. Until 2020.
That year, I entered the cocoa industry as a field research assistant and interpreter to global cocoa-chocolate scholar Dr. Kristy Leissle. Many trips across Ghana’s cocoa belt opened my eyes to the experiences and stories of cocoa farmers as they worked to make chocolate possible. In many ways this felt like discovering something that was right under my nose.
Yet while my fascination for cocoa farmers increased, the internet showed a lack of nuance in its portrayal of these diverse individuals: articles and documentaries simplified them as poor people perpetuating child labor and deforestation. I saw an opportunity to re-present cocoa farmers in a more dignified way.
So, in 2022, I started African Cocoa Stories – a digital story archive where curious chocolate enthusiasts, researchers, and policy makers can immerse themselves in the lives of cocoa farmers and other actors in Africa’s cocoa supply chains.
The ultimate goal is the bridge the cultural and knowledge gap between cocoa consumers and the communities that produce it. And my approach combines ethnography with documentary photography to reveal the humanity in a global supply chain.
My work has reached audiences at Clasen Quality Chocolate (US), Chocolate Has a Name (UK), Harvard, Emory University, Vienna University of Economics and Business (Austria), and Leiden University (Netherlands).
I love street photography. I love to hear people tell their stories. And I enjoy the thrill of learning surprising facts about my cocoa farmer neighbors.