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The purpose of this paper is to provide ethnographic data on the lives of children working in cocoa‐producing communities in Ghana and to illustrate the importance of contextualisation in understanding the phenomenon of child labour.

The paper is based on anthropological fieldwork carried out in Ghana using participant observation and child‐focused participatory research methods. It also includes an analysis of media sources and policy documents.

It shows that the children involved in this study worked freely and willingly on family cocoa farms. It also shows that research and interventions must be context‐based and child‐centred as forms of child labour in cocoa are not uniform across West Africa.

Unfortunately, the scope of the paper does not allow for a discussion of recent interventions and progress relating to child labour in the West African cocoa industry.

This paper challenges many of the assumptions made about child labour in cocoa and offers new insights into the lives of children in these communities.