Fair Trade Chocolate Renegotiated: Critical Perspectives on Post-Colonial Narratives of the History and Consumption of Cocoa

Abstract

The article examines the processes and dynamics of consumption and distribution of cocoa and chocolate from a global historical perspective. Thus, it presents a critical reflection on the Eurocentric patterns of exoticism that have emerged in this context.

Episodically, it outlines the development of cocoa products, beginning with the origins of the cacao tree, through the first traces of consumption, to a global mass commodity. In this process, a division of the world into producing and consuming regions has been consolidated, creating, transmitting, and representing Eurocentric perceptions.

An increasingly communicative global network led to critical approaches on the method of mass consumption and demands for fair conditions regarding the production of goods. Alongside Western-influenced fair trade marketing strategies, local actors in Central and South America developed their own sustainable and regional alternatives of production and distribution.

This article draws a wide arc between the beginnings of a cultural plant that is now widespread throughout the world and the development of a critical approach to consumption, as a consequence of which actors from the regions of origin are slowly but steadily reclaiming more power to act.