by YOSEF BRODY
Two new films, Riotsville USA and The Chocolate War, offer valuable insight into mechanisms of economic and racial injustice in the US and West Africa
The Chocolate War (directed by Miki Misrati, 2022; 80min)
A look at the very bottom of the chocolate supply chain and the legality of contemporary child slavery
If by chance your attention has been focused elsewhere recently, you may have missed the Supreme Court’s Big Chocolate decision. Laying down a meaningful landmark in the nation’s fraught history over the slavery economy, the Court in 2021 ruled 8-1 that US chocolate manufacturers cannot be held legally responsible for the exploitation of enslaved children, even if their business model depends on such abuse.
The Chocolate War, which had its world premiere at this year’s CPH:DOX, updates viewers on the legal battles over the darkest segments of the industry. Director Miki Misrati’s third documentary on chocolate embeds with a small group of determined human rights attorneys. The blue-chip companies they are up against are not only aware of the systemic human rights violations they depend on, they even signed a major agreement 20 years ago to work to end child slavery. Since then, however, the problem has only gotten worse.
The global chocolate industry, dominated by a handful of large corporations, is estimated to be worth over $50 billion. Prior to being processed and consumed in the US and Europe, where the major manufacturers and the largest consumer markets can be found, most global cocoa is sourced from only two countries in West Africa, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana. In these two countries alone, 1.56 million children are suffering the harvest, almost all of them in hazardous jobs, according to a 2020 University of Chicago study.
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