The development of agrarian capitalism in Ghana: with particular reference to ejura district

Abstract

The study of the emergence of capitalism in agriculture is both interesting and challenging because of the complex production relationships that exist in the rural areas and also because of the different paths that capitalism follows in its evolution. Of course, the question of the rise of agrarian capitalism is part and parcel of the larger question of the development of capitalism as a whole. In its essential feature capitalism is the division of classes between property less wage earners and entrepreneurs who own capital. This, applied to agriculture, means that agrarian capitalism is characterized by the private ownership of the means of production such as land, farm, tools etc. the employment of labor power by wages which suggest that this labor power has attained the value of a commodity to be bought and sold in the market just like any other commodity, and finally, production is not merely for the reproduction of the labor power but for the wider market with the expressed motive of earning profit. This study in the first part deals with an outline of the development of agrarian capitalism in Ghana as a whole during the colonial and post-colonial period, and the second part is a case study of a region; Ejura in the same country in certain spheres, the overlapping of some facts has become unavoidable since the case study is nothing but a reflection of the whole situation although in a restricted area.