This unpublished essay of 1946 examines the West African cocoa industry as a case study of the attempt by African agricultural producers to resist exploitation by European capital. On the Gold Coast, native farmers developed robust cocoa production without European investment or other assistance; if they were white, they would soon have become a prosperous community of independent peasant farmers, begun processing raw material, and eventually achieved Dominion political status. Because they were Black they faced unhindered exploitation, refusals to give them voice in industry or the state, and ignorance and betrayal on the part of British officials. Merchant cartels monopolized the market and suppressed the price paid for raw cocoa, farmers were prevented from hedging against fluctuations on the world market by storing their crop, and they were driven into ruinous loans by moneylenders. The farmers’ early success in boycotting the cocoa market was disrupted by the advent of World War II, when the British government established a government monopoly and fixed cocoa prices. The cocoa farmers’ self-organization should be recognized as a model for the emancipation of colonial populations.