Why should a site devoted to African and South African cooking have a section on chocolate? Well the reason is very simple
Africa produces approximately 80% of the world's cacao bean, the Ivory Coast alone producing 46%.In this section of the AFRICHEF website, you can look at chocolate recipes ranging from chocolate mousse, chocolate cakes, and chocolate cookies as well as chocolate cheese-cakes so if you don't want to read further on this page you can click on the menu on the left hand side and choose whichever section of this you're interested in.
There exists world overproduction of cacao beans, one of the reasons is that the major chocolate manufacturers have succeeded in putting other vegetable oils in your chocolate and some of them have as high as 50% vegetable fats causing the chocolate not to really be chocolate and contributing to the overproduction of the bean, because of the lower offtake.
Major chocolate manufacturers are lobbying to increase the percentage of vegetable fats, and still be able to call the result chocolate, something they can't do at present. If they have too high a percentage of vegetable, fats the manufacturer may not call the end result chocolate.
Although the cacao bean originated in South America when it was introduced to Africa the cacoa bean found the climate extremely conducive to its growth. The end result being that Africa now produces 80% of the world's cocoa bean production, the Ivory Coast alone producing 46% of this production.
The overproduction has led to the cacao bean producers getting the cheapest labour they possibly could. As a result the wages of the cocoa bean workers are in general pathetically low.
The greatest sickening practice is that in this day and age some of the cacao plantations have child slaves, who were bought from their parents. Although uni-chef believes they are only 600 child slaves, if there was only one slave, it'll be one 1 to many.
Children as young as 5 years old. are forced to work in the cacoa plantations.
Perhaps you should think of these injustices as you enjoy your chocolate cake, and check the ingredient label on the chocolate slab before you buy it. If it has a high percentage of fat choose another brand, in this way you will send a message to the chocolate producers that you want chocolate and not a fat bar
If possible, pay a little extra for your chocolate and obtain it from manufacturers who support "Fair Trade"
By doing these two things you will help to alleviate the poor working conditions of the cacoa bean plantation workers, something incredibly worthwhile.
Initially grown in South America the Aztecs believed chocolate was food of the gods. When the cocoa bean reached Africa the Egyptians believed it was a gift from Allah.
In the past chocolate was used in many ways. it was even used as a medicine for the treatment of fevers.
The cocao bean is used to produce cocoa and chocolate. I hope you have taken note of the disastrous state of cocoa growing in AfricaI and will decide to help in whatever small way you can. I trust you will enjoy the recipes you will find on this section of the website.
