Burundi (East Africa)

This month’s know your bean was supposed to be Colombia in all honesty, and I was going to publish it next week. Unfortunately today the president of Burundi died of a heart attack. I decided to learn more about this country today, considering it’s one of my better coffees, yet rarely known. I was further saddened by the news to see Burundi was found to be the unhappiest country in a study done in 2018, according to Wikipedia. While there are some African countries that are thriving, like much of the world Burundi seems to be trying to find it’s identity in political strife. Considering there was a coup attempt on this president, the future will be interesting.

This led me to my typical contemplation. First and foremost, like most coffee, you are contributing on a large scale to many small economies. I have learned the lesser known the coffee, the greater the impact you are having since it hasn’t been commercialized and bastardized. Burundi is no exception. It’s 2 main exports are tea and coffee. For a country trying to find and economic identity that currently relies heavily on foreign aide, supporting this economy in the coffee you drink will have a greater impact than in places like Hawaii, or Panama. There’s a handful other, but it’s amazing as an American how the impact of drinking coffee can be to a developing country and economy. With that said, it’s also why it’s so important that some kind of fair trade practice is followed. Very often areas of poverty make bad business decisions, which further fuel poverty and a vicious cycle by business people willing to exploit them.

There’s not a whole lot to say about Burundi, colonization seemed to hurt this area and in my early reading I don’t see any positive impact in this specific country from the German or Belgium settlers, as one could say in other regions. Some other low points, they are second to last in a telecommunication survey on readiness to develop. Only 2% of the country holds a bank account, for me personally that’s not always a bad thing, but nonetheless it’s a fascinating statistic and less than .5% us a loan of any sort. Again not such a bad thing considering how we abuse debt in our society. Reality though in business you need to assume some kind of debt and investment to grow along with bank influence, none of which Burundi seems to have. They have had 2 civil wars over the past 50 years, and Christianity is the dominant religion in the country 80-90%.

This in a nutshell is this small African country of 11+ million people. Next chance you get at a local shop, try a cup of Burundi, it’s quite the African cup. The product I have for example is an 87 Q-grade which is pretty solid, yet it’s reasonably priced compared to lesser coffees for higher rates. Most of all consider saying a prayer for this country today as they begin to figure out who they will become moving forward. Coffee everywhere truly has an impact in far greater ways we can imagine, but it seems from my research like Timor, it’s greatly appreciated in these micro economies.

I captured this image in the Kensington area of Philadelphia at Blessed Sarnelli soup kitchen. It is a black Madonna with baby Jesus and all the African flags in the background. I cropped it so you could easily see the flag of Burundi (top left) . I originally attached a poem I wrote, evoking “Our Lady of Hope”, today I pray for that hope.