Ethiopia: birthplace of coffee

ShareTweet

My research associate Matt Cordes and I landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia early Saturday morning. We’ve made the nearly 8,000-mile journey to investigate issues linked to sustainability–specifically, the ways that climate change affects water and coffee. For this post, we’ll focus on coffee.
The morning after our arrival, we loaded into an early model Land Rover for the 220-mile drive southwest to the city of Jimma. With roughly 120,000 inhabitants, Jimma is the principal city here in the Kaffa region, and it is believed that coffee was first consumed here, hence the name. A word of suggestion: this story is best appreciated if you fill up your own mug and indulge a bit as you read it.

Birthplace of Coffee
The most widely accepted legend is that of Kaldi, a goat-herder who lived in Kaffa in or around the 9th century A.D.
As the story goes, one day Kaldi noticed his goats behaving in an odd, exuberant manner: they were kicking their hind legs, bleating loudly, and having a jolly good time. On closer observation, he saw that they were chewing the leaves and bright red berries of a nearby plant. Intrigued, Kaldi decided to try it himself. He popped a few berries in his mouth, and soon he experienced a pleasant, stimulating effect. The now hyper goat-herder filled his pockets with berries and hurried home to tell his wife.
Kaldi’s wife declared the berries to be heaven-sent and urged her husband to take them to the monks. When Kaldi shared his discovery at the nearby monastery, however, the chief monk threw the berries into the fire, calling them “Devil’s fruit.” But as the berries roasted in the fire, their aroma wafted through the monastery, prompting other monks to gather and investigate.
In a moment of inspiration, the monks raked the roasting beans from the fire, crushed them, and placed the grounds in a pot. Next, they covered the grounds with hot water in order to preserve the goodness. That evening, they drank the rich, aromatic brew. When they realized the concoction would help them stay awake and pray, they declared the berries to be from God, not the Devil.
From then on, the monks relied on coffee to facilitate their nocturnal devotions, just as it is used today by students pulling all-nighters, writers working under deadline, and countless other individuals looking for an added bit of energy. The exact details of Kaldi’s legend may be lost to history, but we know that from these verdant hills, coffee’s popularity slowly percolated to the far corners of the earth.
* * * * *
The cultivation of coffee, as well as every other crop on earth, depends on water. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects a high likelihood that the warming in Africa–throughout the continent and in all seasons–will be larger than the global annual mean. They go on to state that “Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to [the adverse effects of] climate change.” This new climate reality will be exacerbated by the continent’s low capacity for adaptation. Indeed, the IPCC projects that between 75 and 250 million people in Africa will be exposed to increased, climate change-related water stress by the end of this decade.
Ethiopia is considered the reservoir for much of Africa. It feeds the mighty Nile River and numerous other continental aquatic arteries. Ethiopia is also considered to be the cradle of early humankind–it is here that our early hominid ancestors first stood on two legs. Today, more than three million years later, our anthropogenic (human) impact on the ecological sustainability of the planet is clearly evident. More directly related to my profession as a chemist, 2011 is the International Year of Chemistry (IYC 2011). That in itself is not widely known, nor is the fact that it was the Chemical Society of Ethiopia that initially introduced the IYC 2011 proposal to the United Nations. But let’s get back to coffee.
Coffee–and a lot of it–is consumed each day around the globe. It is second only to oil as an exported commodity, and it is a critical source of income for a number of developing countries. Maybe a morning cup of joe is part of your daily routine, just as it is for me and many fellow humans. Coffee is also at the forefront of the global sustainability movement, benefitting from an effort to balance the interconnected ecological, social, and economic interests of our society.
Many of those engaged in the production and promotion of coffee seek to counter past ecological and social/cultural degradation, as well as to provide economic stability for small, rural family farms. Coffee production involves the work of millions, many of whom are growers working tiny plots just to make ends meet. Coffee’s importance to the world economy cannot be overstated. For some countries, including Ethiopia, coffee is their chief export.
Coffee is a social drink, shared in French cafés, Turkish kahvehanes, stateside coffee shops, and similar settings the world over. In no place, however, does the coffee ceremony resonate more clearly than it does here in the Kaffa region of Ethiopia. This morning, as you look into the dark depths of your own coffee, take a moment to think of Kaldi all those years ago. The story of coffee, water, and climate is still unfolding here in Ethiopia, and I will share more as it does.

ShareTweet