Tetteh Quarshie

Tetteh Quarshie (* 1842 in Teshie ; † December 25, 1892 ) brought the first cocoa seeds to Ghana in 1876 ​​(according to other sources 1879) and thus for the first time cocoa cultivation on the African mainland.

Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa Farm - One of the cocoa trees planted in 1879

Tetteh Quarshie was from Ghana (then the British colony of Gold Coast ) from the Ga-Adangme language group . He was trained as a blacksmith by the Basel Mission . From 1870 to 1876 he lived and worked on the island of Bioko, off the West African coast in the Gulf of Guinea . Bioko was called Fernando Poo at that time and was a Spanish colony. Cocoa was already being grown here at that time, but the export of young plants or seeds was prohibited. Tetteh Quashie, who probably worked on one of these first cocoa plantations off the coast of the African continent, smuggled some seeds from the island into his Ghanaian homeland. In the village of Mampong (Akwapim), he successfully cultivated cocoa plants for the first time on the African mainland, thus breaking the Portuguese and Spanish monopoly. His plantation can still be visited there today.

Cocoa cultivation developed extremely successfully in Ghana - within a few decades the Gold Coast became the world's largest cocoa exporter. Cocoa is still one of the country's most important export products.

According to legend, Tetteh Quarshie later traveled the country and distributed cocoa seeds to poor farmers like a Ghanaian Johnny Appleseed . Tetteh Quashie is a popular figure in Ghana today. According to him z. B. the transport hub Tetteh Quarshie Circle in the capital Accra and the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital in Mampong named. The Ghanaian musician Kobina Okine (1924–1985) composed a highlife song 'Tetteh Quarshie' in his honor .

Web links

• facts - With the help of missionaries from Basel, Ghana became the world's largest cocoa producer
• Tetteh Quarshie - FATHER OF GHANA'S COCOA INDUSTRY on www.ghanaweb.com (English)