Seth Keki was a long way from his high school history class in Uganda as he told a small crowd at the Caspar Shul on March 18 about his visits to major U.S. cities with Ben Corey-Moran, his Thanksgiving Coffee host.
But despite the ocean divide it was clear Seth was a teacher. He patiently, in heavily accented but carefully enunciated English, described the mountains, rivers and farms in his native Uganda where he is part of a coffee cooperative that includes Jews, Christians and Muslims.
“In Uganda I am a farmer as well as a teacher, because in Uganda, you cannot survive only on teaching, you must also go and become a farmer,” Seth Keki told the crowd.
The unique story of interfaith unity has brought international interest and the trip sponsored by Thanksgiving Coffee in which Seth Keki, 30, and his politician brother Joab Jonabab “J.J.” Keki, 46, sought to make direct connections to consumers in communities of faith around America, seeking to get consumers to buy two bags per month.
Locally the brothers made stops at Fort Bragg High School, the Mendocino Community School, made an appearance on KZYX radio, visited Thanksgiving Coffee and even the Whale Festival.
J.J. Keki was on his second trip, having come to the Mendocino Coast shortly after shipping the cooperative”s first load of rich fair trade coffee to Thanksgiving.
After the 2006 Mirembe Kawomera “Delicious Peace” tour made stops in Orlando, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Richmond, and New York, they closed out the journey in the home of Thanksgiving Coffee, with an invitation for locals to come to Uganda and get the grand tour.
“We certainly connected deeply with a few dozen communities of faith, many of whom have already begun to enlist the support of their membership,” Corey-Moran said.
“We need to build a network of 4,500 people who buy two packages per month every month to build a market for the 112,000 pounds of coffee that the Mirembe Kawomera Cooperative produces. This tour represents the first steps of that process, and we”re off to a great start,” he said.
Thanksgiving Coffee co-founder Paul Katzeff said the new shipment of Ugandan coffee is due in April. The staff was abuzz with excitement after tasting samples.
While Americans visited by the tour loved the rich coffee from the cooperative, they didn”t all grasp Uganda as well. Seth Keki knew how much this class was likely to know about his country, spelling out some words as he spoke.
“Uganda is a landlocked country, which means it has no ocean and no seaport,” he explained.
Americans on the tour have been exposed not only to elementary Ugandan geography and unique religious harmony but were also given a lesson on how fair trade works from the Ugandans and the company whose slogan is “not just a cup but a just cup.”
Katzeff told the Caspar audience that a chance call had led to his discovery of what he calls the “greatest coffee story ever told.” He said he got a call from a Jewish coffee seller and at first thought she had googled Jewish coffee roasters and found Katzeff. Instead, Katzeff learned that she had called 39 other coffee companies and been rebuffed because she had no samples. When he heard the story of religious unity and the coffee cooperative, Katzeff committed to buy their entire shipment of 37,500 pounds. A week later he was praying in a Ugandan synagogue.
“Somebody said, ”you don”t look Jewish.” Everybody there was black,” he said.
Katzeff said the cooperative vision of the Mendocino Coast community helped create the seeming coincidence of a Ugandan interfaith fair trade coffee cooperative finding an American fair trade coffee company to partner with.
“It happened because of the values of this community. There is no way I could have received that phone call and been prepared for it without having lived here for 35 years and absorbing the values of this community,” he said.
“Through some miracle or providence, we connected. It took 39 coffee companies to say no for us to get to this spot. If that is not providence ….”
While J.J. Keki and Katzeff provided moments of humor as well as unique tales of religious unity, they both described how the flavor of the coffee is tied to fair trade prices and an important global movement.
“In order for coffee to taste good, those trees have to be loved by the farmers because they require a tremendous amount of care,” Katzeff said.
“Generally, there are about 25 steps between picking the cherry off the tree and bringing it to a boat for shipping … so caring for the product in all of those steps after harvest … if there isn”t any economic justice, if they aren”t making a living from those trees, they are not going to put the love into that coffee that you taste when you drink it.”
Katzeff explained that Thanksgiving was the second coffee company in the United States to join the fair trade movement which got started about 1999.
“The fair trade movement is all about cooperatives. A plantation owner cannot be part of fair trade,” he said.
Fair trade is a marketing methodology that guarantees that a farmers co-op will receive a minimum price of $1.26 per pound for coffee that is not organic and $1.41 for organic, so there is a price floor, Katzeff said.
Katzeff explained why direct connections to the farmers and educational efforts are necessary to keep the delicious coffee flowing from cooperatives.
“You get buyers coming in like Starbucks, I”m not a Starbucks basher, but that is an example. They offer more than the co-op can afford. You wind up with private enterprise competing against the co-op. A farmer who is poor may get 10 cents more per pound, $100 or half a year”s pay. What is the farmer going to do, hang with his co-op and leave that money on the table?”
Corey-Moran said the relationships being built are good for business now and in the long run.
Among those who inspired Corey-Moran was Frances Moore Lapp?, whose “Diet for a Small Planet” has been supplemented by a new book, “Democracy”s Edge,” which describes how fair trade is a key part of the rebuilding of cooperative democracy and local control around the world.
“It is not about charity. It is about justice. It is about building relationships,” Corey Moran said.
Duncan Rasmussen of Mendocino said the presentation had clarified his understanding of fair trade.
“It”s inspiring, it”s fantastic, the fact that Mendocino is involved is a testament to Paul”s global concept, which the rest of us are just beginning to pick up on.”
J.J. Keki was elected mayor of his town, then lost his bid for re-election during the time he has been promoting fair trade coffee. He is a leader of the eastern Uganda Abayudaya, a community of Jews. He is head of a coffee cooperative set up two years ago in Uganda that has brought together 400 Jewish, Christian and Muslim farmers. It is said to be unique in Africa for the cooperation among religious groups.
The Ugandan Jews trace their history to 1919 when a tribal leader was given a Bible as part of a British Christian missionary effort. The leader read the Old Testament and declared himself a Jew.
A delegation of rabbis came to Uganda in recent times to bless the Abayudaya so they could officially be part of the world-wide Jewish community.
An Abayudaya choir led by Rachel Keki, daughter of J.J., recorded a Smithsonian Folkways album two years ago, which earned a Grammy nomination. J.J. and Seth Keki gave the audience a taste of their music along with great coffee. A new album is forthcoming.
