Ghana's Black Gold

Before Ghana became Ghana, the British colonial state called it the "Gold Coast." However, along with its celebrated gold reserves, Ghana has long been known as one of the world's leading producers of "black gold," high-quality cocoa.

This week while visiting in Berkeley, California, I've already twice seen Ghana's influence on the international trade in chocolate. My daughter pointed out the Divine chocolate line of Fair Trade chocolate in a local grocery store. 

Not only is the wrapping gorgeous and covered with Ghana's striking and meaningful traditional adinkra symbols,  each square is also individually stamped. I especially appreciate how the "V" in the name "Divine," is reminiscent of a variation of the "sankofa" (return and fetch) symbol. The story of the Divine company is heartwarming, and I'm pleased to say that the chocolate is delicious, too. 

A day later, I stopped at (the original) Pete's Coffee shop, and noticed a bar of "fine, artisanal chocolate" at the checkout stand. The chocolate bar was wrapped beautifully and stamped with another adinkra symbol, the "ram's horns," symbolizing strength and humility (also found on the Divine chocolate wrapper shown to the right of the Peet's wrapper).

When I mentioned I wanted to blog about the Divine chocolate initiative, daughter Abena kindly stopped by the local Fair Trade store to show me the wide range of the Divine bars.

Ghana's chocolate is found numerous other places worldwide. I've (written about and) savored (Korean) Lotte chocolate bars from Japan, as well as Jameison's. As a confirmed chocolate lover, I wanted to continue to share about this Ghanaian resource.