The history of coffee in Rwanda is complex, at times tragic, at others triumphant.
Commercial arabica coffee cultivation was introduced to the region under German colonial influence as early as 1905. After WWI the Belgians had replaced the Germans, and by 1927 were “aggressively promoting coffee production.” In 1931 they formally legitimized its forced cultivation.
The decades that followed involved escalating, systemically reinforced tensions between two groups of people in Rwanda – the rural, agrarian majority Hutus and the minority Tutsis, whose pre-colonial attachment to cattle wealth became interpreted as “traditional authority” in the eyes of Belgians, who exploited this political disparity for economic advantages.
In 1956 after years of lobbying internationally, the Catholic Church donated a hectare of land to aid Hutu farmers, establishing a coffee cooperative called TraFiPro (travail, fidélité, progrès – labor, faith, progress). Rwanda’s soon-to-be first president, Gregoire Kayibanda, was named the cooperative’s head in 1957, and the organization became a political launching pad for a counter-elite movement. By 1958, TriFiPro was also economically successful – yet its leadership had become dominated by Tutsis.
Divided on increasingly ethnic lines – which had been reinforced for generations by European colonizers – the country voted for independence in 1961. A “Hutu Revolution” was declared, under the guise of which tens of thousands of Tutsis died and hundreds of thousands more were displaced.
Coffee had become Rwanda’s primary source of foreign currency by the middle of the twentieth century, but the country’s rifts were far from healed. After a transition of national power, TraFiPro was dissolved under a policy of privatization. This policy precipitated rapid consolidation of land ownership to the extent that “by 1991 43% of the land was held by 16% of the landowners.” Prosperity in urban areas increased tensions with coffee growers and other rural citizens in tandem with the ongoing rise of coffee’s prominence as the country’s leading export revenue generator.
Overreliance on coffee caused a massive crisis with devastating consequences in the years following 1989’s dissolution of the International Coffee Agreement and resulting devaluation of the crop on global markets. Faced with a cratering economy, a foreign-backed military incursion, and sparked by the death of the country’s president and the president of Burundi when their plane was shot down over Kigali, civil war and violence once again beset the country in April of 1994. Atrocities were enacted asymmetrically, once again along ethno-political lines. 800,000 people died in less than 100 days.
In the wake of such violence there’s little that can be said that doesn’t somehow cheapen or diminish the unmitigated tragedy of the loss of life. Yet if there’s a motif that can be held as hope in such circumstances, it’s the resilience of humanity. In the case of Rwanda, its revival happened to be aided, somewhat unexpectedly, by the very crop which had catalyzed its crisis: coffee.
Beginning in 2000, funds from USAID filtered through an organization called Partnership for Enhancing Agriculture in Rwanda through Linkages (PEARL) to begin working with the country’s cooperatives and cuppers to improve qualities and enhance training. One of PEARL’s early successes is the Maraba Coffee brand, supported by National University of Rwanda. PEARL’s project manager, Tim Schilling, would go on to found World Coffee Research (WCR).
It could be argued that, in addition to training national quality control specialists, PEARL’s greatest contribution to the country was emphasizing the value added by washing coffee. Since the first years of the 21st century, production of “ordinary” (the country’s commodity grade natural and semi-washed coffees) has declined while washed coffees have skyrocketed in production. Myriad sources report dramatically improved incomes for farmers and agriculture labors as a direct result of higher prices for Rwandan coffee.
Washing station management over the past decade has been fraught with turnover, as many organizations originally assembled as cooperatives dissolved and sold to private owners. However, the essential infrastructure and training remain largely in place. Rwanda’s iconic, blue-painted fermentation tanks and yellow-tarp-covered raised drying tables can be spotted from hillsides away.
Today, the country’s coffee production volume still fluctuates annually and faces challenges such as climate change, gradually declining yields, and the ever-present nuisance of potato taste defect. However, the industry’s foundations are strong, with strong government and private sector support. We’ll continue to see remarkable Rwandan coffees for many years to come.