Mampong residents demand rewrite of Tetteh Quarshie's story- Insist cocoa "smuggling" narrative inaccurate

Some residents of Akuapem Mampong are asking that the story surrounding the introduction of cocoa beans by Tetteh Quarshie into the country be rewritten. 

They have rekindled the controversy surrounding the notion that Tetteh Quarshie swallowed cocoa beans to beat immigration, eased himself upon entering Ghana and took out the beans for planting.

They told The Mirror in a chat last Sunday that the wrong impression had been documented in some textbooks of the country when the history of cocoa is being narrated.

They described the notion as a “stupendous lie” which had been believed as the truth.

Question

The question some of the residents asked was that: “the voyage from Fernando Po to Gold Coast usually lasted six weeks on the high seas, so if he had swallowed the beans, wouldn’t he have eased himself within that period before reaching the shores of the country?”

Residents
A resident and a teacher, who is also a relative of Tetteh Quarshie, Ms Akosua Adobea Addo, said: “There are so many textbooks with this information and sometimes l wonder why we have them on the market because it is not propagating the right information for our children. A stupendous lie repeated with zeal is believed as a sacrosanct truth. This is exactly the case with how Tetteh Quarshie transported cocoa beans from Fernando Po, now Equatorial Guinea to then Gold Coast”.

Another resident, Nana Obeng Dompreh Asare, said the narrative was shameful and should not be encouraged, adding that “we need to start selling the right information rather than these lies. We need to bring back the museum at the Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa farm. We need to restore the farm into a proper farmhouse”.

COCOBOD

Again the residents insist that COCOBOD should reinstate the Tetteh Quarshie Museum, explaining that the museum showcased the tools Tetteh Quarshie used to work on his cocoa farm and also served as an avenue to advertise cocoa products to tourists who visited the farm to buy.

They were of the view that closing down the museum made the place boring as there was no other exciting activity after touring the cocoa farm.

Cocoa farm

The Tetteh Quarshie cocoa farm, also known as the Ecomuseum of Cocoa, was the first farm created for cultivating cocoa in Ghana. Tetteh Quarshie brought the first cocoa plant to Ghana in 1879 and that gave birth to a booming cocoa industry.

Museum
The Mirror’s visit to the farm revealed that the museum had been closed for so many years. A source who spoke on anonymity said the museum had been locked up for over five years.

“We used to have a museum which had the tools Tetteh Quarshie used for the farm and other cocoa souvenirs for sale but it has been closed down for years. So after a tour, we lead visitors to the museum to sell to them and make profit. All we have here is just the farm and a washroom. Tetteh Quarshie was also an artist. He created beautiful images out of wood and we had them all in the museum, including some of his pictures which we received from his family but COCOBOD came to take everything out of the museum and sent it to Accra. We only have just one of his pictures here”, the source explained.

History

Stating the history of the legendary Tetteh Quarshie, who was also a blacksmith, the source said he was on a missionary journey at Fernando Po and brought some cocoa pods back to the country.

“He had just six cocoa pods so it was impossible for him to swallow the pods. He hid them in his tool box and covered them with his tools because he was required to pass through the checkpoint, just like any individual returning to their country needs to be checked for any foreign item. So that was the decision he took. And it worked for him and so he was allowed to get on the ship for six weeks. He journeyed back to the then Gold Coast with the six pods,” the source explained.

The source said Tetteh Quarshie first planted in Accra but it failed due to the nature of the soil.
“Because of his missionary work, he returned  to Akuapem Mampong and he showed the cocoa pods to the then Mampong chief who gave him some acres of land where he planted his very first seed and that’s where cocoa cultivation started in Gold Coast, now Ghana. That is the history,’’ the source claimed.

According to the source, the farm had suffered encroachment, with only one acre remaining, adding that the farm was still in good shape, producing bags of cocoa for the country and there were still cocoa from the ones Tetteh Quarshie first planted.

Quality

While at the farm, the source brought out some of the dried Tetteh Quarshie cocoa beans and compared them with the current crop of cocoa beans, stating that “the beans Tetteh Quarshie brought was of a better quality compared to the others. It has aroma, taste and the original dark brown colour”.

“Currently, the cocoa beans Tetteh Quarshie brought to Ghana are out of the system, you will only get some here. Farmers do not like it because they complained it took long to mature. It takes seven years unlike the current seeds which take two years”, the source explained.