history of kenya
The people of Kenya have profound respect for coffee and the environment; they are committed to nurturing their crops and protecting their land. Coffee is more than a commodity; it is a piece of indigenous culture and a piece of history.
Image source: Royal Coffee
Kenya, along with Ethiopia and Somalia, was historically part of the land of Oromia, the first place where indigenous tribes cultivated coffee as their main crop. Before the coffee was brewed, indigenous tribes would mix butter, salt, and coffee beans to create energy snacks called bunna qela and kuti, tea from young coffee plant leaves.
Coffee has been a large part of Kenyan culture for centuries, yet Kenyans have faced oppression when it comes to coffee production. As coffee culture spread to Europe via the colonization of the 15th century, villagers were forced to grow and sell coffee for an unfair price and trade it for goods such as salt.
As coffee became a commodity, the beautiful culture that surrounded it began to fade into the material world. Kenyans didn’t have control over their coffee until 1960 when they began fighting against government restrictions. The coffee industry in Kenya has since been dominated by a cooperative system of production, that allows for voting on representation, marketing and milling contracts for their coffee, and profit allocation. In recent years, however, there has been a significant movement away from larger cooperatives, some of which have tended towards mismanagement and corruption. Independent producers have instead embraced a new model - micro-cooperatives. This new system allows farmers to make independent decisions on how their coffee will be processed and traded, establish relationships with buyers and long-term partnerships, and, as a result produce a higher-quality cup for a better price.
