Saturday, February 6th, 2010
by Teddy Fikre
EA4C Guest Blogger

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Based on the title, I know what you are thinking.  Here he goes again on his “soap box” talking about Ethiopians who sip buna right?  Well today, I am going to throw you a curve ball.  In this article, I will do no such thing; I write today not out of frustration, I write today out of a place of hope.

So now you are asking yourself, “OK, so what’s up with the title of the article”.  Well I speak of Buna today because I have done my fair share of criticizing some in our community of being “buna sippers”.  And this statement has been taken out of context and perceived by some as defaming people who enjoy a cup of buna.  So first and foremost, let me admit, I am a big “buna sipper” myself.  There is nothing more I enjoy in the morning than a cup of steaming hot coffee and enjoying it as I read the Washington Post, and no not the dot com the real live newspaper.

So lest you think I am blasting people for enjoying a beverage that was discovered in Ethiopia—and happens to be the number one commodity that we export—I am here to say that is the furthest thing from my mind.  But the defense of my past articles will be left for another day, or maybe no need to defend it at all.  Today, as I am currently sipping some buna at my laptop as I write this article, I am writing about buna precisely because that is one way for our community to be empowered.

At this point you are probably thinking “Yo Teddy, maybe switch to Decaf or some green tea, clearly the coffee has gone to your head”.  Well let me explain how buna can lead to the economic development of Ethiopia and empower our community in the United States.  As I stated before, buna is the number one commodity that Ethiopia exports—although there are dubious claims that some other “commodity’ is actually the number one export.   So for the sake of this argument, let us say that buna is Ethiopia’s number one export.  In fact, 46.3% of Ethiopia’s economy is based on export of agricultural products—coffee being the leading commodity.

Good news right?  Not really.  How so?  Well Ethiopia exports coffee beans as a raw product.  Thus, Ethiopia gets pennies on the dollar for every mega ton of raw coffee beans that she exports.  By the time the coffee beans hits the markets around the world and becomes a finished product, the value of that coffee is increased a thousand fold.  Thus, corporations around the world are benefiting from Ethiopia being an exporter of unfinished goods.

Now imagine if an Ethiopian company, owned by an Ethiopian woman, was instead to own a coffee farm in Ethiopia.  Imagine if this person paid her workers handsomely, and then exported the coffee beans not as an unfinished good, but to her warehouse in the United States, France, Italy, Japan, etc.  She brands and markets this coffee as let’s say “Sidamo Coffee”.  She gets commercials on TV stations in the west, instead of good to the last drop, the motto is “good to the last cini”.  The coffee is organic, and the label says “made in Ethiopia by Ethiopians” and targets conscience driven consumers in the west as her customers.  So instead of buying Folgers coffee for $4.99, she is able to sell this coffee for a dollar more.

Imagine on top of that the over 400,000 Ethiopians who live in the United States buying this coffee instead of Sanka.  Imagine she sells this coffee to Starbucks not as raw product but a finished good.  This business woman would be a millionaire, and her coffee company could be listed on Forbes 500.  And as the company grows, more and more Ethiopians would be employed, lifting Ethiopia’s GDP from 73^rd to 45^th in the world.  Ethiopia undergoes an economic transformation, and this influx of capital leads other companies to invest money in Ethiopia, and inspires more Ethiopians to follow the same model.  An Ethiopian man in Wollo decides to emulate the same model and starts to export finished sugar canes.  Eventually, Ethiopia becomes the Japan of Africa, which leads to the transformation of Ethiopia from a donor state to a economic powerhouse.  And you thought the buna you were sipping was strong aydel?

It is with this in mind that I will mention a coffee shop that was recently opened in Washington DC.  The name of the establishment is Sidamo Coffee and Tea, they are located 417 H St. NE Washington DC.  They opened up to a lot of fan fare, and business is doing great, but what business could not use more customers.  Now as a buna sipper myself, I have been guilty of not once going there to support my own brothers and sisters.  I always go to Starbucks to purchase my buna, well recently more like 7-11—this economy is though on all of us.  But what if I, as a buna aficionado, decided to purchase my coffee at least once a week from Sidamo Coffee and Tea instead?  What if the thousands of Ethiopians who live in the DC Metro area followed suit, thus Sidamo Coffee and Tea would literally be packed every week.

What would that mean?  Sidamo Coffee and Tea would have to expand to keep up with demand.  They open up another location in DC, one in Maryland, one in Virginia.  Because of this expansion, I would now be able to go 2 miles up the street to purchase my coffee, so I increase my patronage from once a week to once a day.  This continued reinvestment enables Sidamo Coffee and Tea to keep expanding, they hire more Ethiopians, maybe they open up another café in Ethiopia.  Maybe Sidamo Coffee and Tea becomes the exporter of finished coffee beans.  Maybe Sidamo Coffee decides to start selling Sidamo coffee in Safeway and Giant.  Maybe, just maybe, Sidamo becomes the hypothetical coffee company that leads to the transformation of Ethiopia.  All this from a sip of buna, I’ll drink to that.

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Show your support, if the weather clears up by Sunday and the roads are driveable, I plan on going to Sidamo Coffee and Tea tomorrow, Sunday, February 7th, to get my morning cup of coffee.  Let’s pack the place and show our Hebret by enjoying a cup of buna together.  Meet me there tomorrow at 10:00 AM for buna or tea.

Sidamo Coffee and Tea

Location:  417 H St. NE, Washington DC

Buna Date:  Sunday, February 6th
Buna Time:  10:00 AM EST

Disclaimer, I do not know the owners of Sidamo Coffee and Tea.  I write this article without their knowledge nor am I being compensated finically for doing so.

This blog submission was written by Teddy Fikre.  The views of guest bloggers are not the views of Ethiopian-Americans for Change.  Guest bloggers represent the broad dissection of views and outlooks within our community.

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