Tetteh Quarshie didn't bring cocoa to Ghana; Rev. Hass did - Historian

A history professor at the University of Ghana (UG), Professor Akosua Adoma Perbi, has said it was not Tetteh Quarshie who brought the famous cash-crop cocoa to Ghana.

Rather, cocoa was originally brought to Ghana from Brazil by a Basel Missionary called Reverend Hass, Prof Perbi said.

Adding, she said it was between 1851 and the 1880s that Rev. Haas, Mole and other missionaries cultivated cocoa farms in Ghana.

Tetteh Quarshie from Akuapim Mampong, is the man widely celebrated in Ghana by many as the one who brought cocoa seedlings to Ghana from Fernando Po, now Equitorial Guinea.

He is said to have started the first cocoa farm at Akuapim Mampong in the Eastern Region, thus leading to the spread of the cash crop in Ghana.

Speaking at the sixth edition of Achimota School’s 90th anniversary education forum, the history professor, said available records indicated that Dutch missionaries planted cocoa in the coastal areas of the then Gold Coast as early as 1815, whilst in 1857 Basel missionaries also planted cocoa at Aburi.

Prof Perbi however, acknowledged the key role Tetteh Quarshie played in popularizing the cultivation of the cash crop in the country.

She said although cocoa was brought by the missionaries, many Ghanaians became aware of it when Tetteh Quarshie brought in his pods from Fernando Po.

Prof. Perbi specializes in indigenous slavery in Ghana, women and slavery,  slave camps and slave sites in Ghana.

In the video below, Prof Perbi explains how cocoa came to Ghana in what she termed as “historical correction” to the popular assertion many Ghanaians subscribe regarding the originator of Cocoa in Ghana.

Read also..http://www.ug.edu.gh/history/staff/akosua-perbi