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2.2 Yemen's Coffee Revolution with Faris Sheibani
181 Plays3 years ago
On episode 2, Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed speaks with Faris Sheibani about the history and culture of coffee in Yemen, and how the drink can be used to connect with, and sustainably support, Yemeni farmers.
Faris is a British Yemeni social entrepreneur and founder of Qima Coffee, a Yemeni social enterprise that uses coffee as a vehicle for livelihood generation in Yemen.
Learn more about Qima Coffee here: https://www.qimacoffee.com/.
Madawi is a Visiting Professor at LSE Middle East Centre and Fellow of the British Academy. Her research interests include history and politics of the Middle East with special reference to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf, gender and state, religious transnational connections, and Islamist movements. Learn more about Madawi’s work here: https://www.lse.ac.uk/middle-east-centre/people/madawi-al-rasheed.
All artwork by Rawand Issa: www.instagram.com/rawand.issa_
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Transcript
Yemen: The Overlooked Origin of Coffee
00:00:00
Speaker
So Yemen is really the birthplace of coffee culture. Everything that we see today, the cafe culture, baristas, roasters, everything that we see that we associate with coffee was born in Yemen. And yet in popular culture, people aren't aware of that at all. We've almost been wiped out of coffee history. A lot of complicated reasons for that.
00:00:19
Speaker
Partly, it's because when coffee moved out of Yemen in the 15th century, 16th century, it went into other countries in which really state-sponsored colonial capitalism was in place via the Dutch and the British East India Company, which meant that farmers in those countries were forced to produce coffee at very, very cheap rates, and farmers in Yemen were free. And so really, Yemeni coffee was outcompeted. It was outcompeted from the global scene.
00:00:49
Speaker
This is season two of Instant Coffee, where we explore everything related to food in the Middle East. I'm Nadine Almanasvi. And I'm Ruvalleiman Haydar. And together, we want to understand how food is shaping people's writing, thinking and organizing in the region. Every episode, we bring you a conversation between a guest and a colleague of ours at the center. This podcast is called Instant Coffee. So it's only right to have an episode about the birthplace of the rocket fuel, Yemen.
00:01:18
Speaker
So we spoke with Faris Shebani, a British Yemeni social entrepreneur and founder of Kimma Coffee, a Yemeni social enterprise that uses coffee as a vehicle for livelihood generation in Yemen. We invited our colleague Madawi Arashi to speak to Faris because of her deep understanding of and connection to the Gulf region. Madawi is visiting professor at the LSE Middle East Centre and fellow at the British Academy.
00:01:45
Speaker
Hello, Faris. I'm so excited to discuss with you coffee.
Reviving Yemen's Coffee Economy with Faris Shebani
00:01:51
Speaker
And through your work on coffee, we will get to talk about big issues. First, I'm really interested in your background as someone who was born in Britain and pursued education in the best institutions of the country, worked in oil and gas, but since
00:02:16
Speaker
2015, you've switched to coffee. Could you just tell me how that happened? Hi, Medallio. First of all, thank you for having me. I'm excited and honored to be a part of your show.
00:02:28
Speaker
So my background, I'm a Yemeni by heritage, of course, by origin, born in the UK. And since my very early kind of years, I would travel back and forth to Yemen. And I became very aware of the disparity in living standards, quality of life, just life in general, between Yemen and the UK, which is where I was growing up.
00:02:53
Speaker
And very early on that really inculcated, developed this very acute awareness of the injustice that exists in the world. And really from my early teens, really from my early teens, I started to develop this intention, this desire, this drive to do something that would help to somehow move towards rebalancing the injustices that exist, socio-economic injustices primarily.
00:03:22
Speaker
And it's a long story. I didn't start in coffee. I started in oil and gas. That was initially my vehicle of choice. I was dedicated and determined to really making the most of my very privileged experiences being in the UK, academic, professional opportunities that were not really my that were not a result of my own efforts. I would just
00:03:42
Speaker
I happened to be born in the UK in a very privileged environment. And that made me work very hard and make the most of it. And when the war in Yemen broke out, I saw coffee as a very good opportunity to deliver socioeconomic uplift for Yemen.
00:04:01
Speaker
And so I left my previous career and it was a very successful career in oil and gas and moved into coffee, really with the aim of using coffee as a vehicle to generate livelihoods in Yemen.
00:04:13
Speaker
Well, as you know, there is a surge in the consumption of coffee globally. And we know that Yemen was one of the most ancient producer of coffee. But it seems to me that today we hear about coffee coming from Colombia, coming from Brazil, coming from Indonesia. But why is Yemeni coffee overlooked in this sort of global market of coffee? Although it was one of the first ancient producer of coffee.
00:04:43
Speaker
Ethiopia is probably the origin of the coffee tree where the tree originated but Yemen is where the coffee drink was first made because coffee is a cherry on a tree and so someone had to take that cherry and turn it into a into what we know today is a coffee drink and that happened in Yemen that was the Sufis
00:05:00
Speaker
in West Yemen who first developed that, turned it from a cherry into a drink and they would drink it for night long meditations. So Yemen is really the birthplace of coffee culture. Everything that we see today, the cafe culture, baristas, roasters, everything that we see that we associate with coffee really was born in Yemen. And yet, as you said, in popular culture, people aren't aware of that at all. We've almost been wiped out of coffee history
00:05:30
Speaker
And people will talk about Colombia and Brazil. And when we sometimes speak of Yemeni coffee, people think it's a new thing. They say, oh, so people have started growing coffee in Yemen. It's a novel idea. And we say, well, it's been happening for almost a thousand years. And I think that's a lot of complicated reasons for that.
00:05:47
Speaker
Partly, it's because when coffee moved out of Yemen in the 15th century, 16th century, it went into other countries in which really state-sponsored colonial capitalism was in place via the Dutch and the British East India Company, which meant that farmers in those countries were forced to produce coffee at very, very cheap rates, and farmers in Yemen were free.
Challenges in Yemeni Coffee Cultivation
00:06:11
Speaker
And so really, Yemeni coffee was outcompeted. It was outcompeted from the global scene.
00:06:16
Speaker
This is really interesting because when we talk about, you know, agriculture in Yemen, everybody talks about khat, but never talks about coffee, which is so important. And what I want to ask you is, could you tell us a little bit about the area of Yemen where coffee is planted and what the, you know,
00:06:41
Speaker
the problems that farmers had since 2015 when the war started in Yemen. If you look at Yemen as a coffee growing country, first of all, I said that it was probably the birthplace of the coffee drink. It's also probably the first place in which coffee was grown by farmers, which is interesting. So you might just say, but wait, you told me that the tree came from Ethiopia.
00:07:06
Speaker
The tree was grown wild. It was just in the forest in Ethiopia. In Yemen, it was probably the first place in which farmers, human beings, came and tried to cultivate this, which is quite different. And so the areas that coffee grows in in Yemen, and it's really on the western side of Yemen, on the western mountain belt of Yemen that runs from Sada all the way in the north.
00:07:27
Speaker
down to Ebb, Thares, and Somme in Yaffe. That's really the mountain, kind of the mountain belt of Yemen. These places have been growing coffee for a very, very, very long time. And it's when we go on the ground and when we speak to farmers and when we ask them, how long have you been growing coffee, you, your family, they will talk about 10 generations. And you don't see that anywhere else in the world. You can travel, I've traveled to maybe 20 coffee growing countries. That's unheard of, you just do not see that. The war in general has
00:07:56
Speaker
destroyed the fundamental civic and socioeconomic infrastructure of Yemen. Really at its very core, the foundational basics of what you need for a functioning state have really disintegrated. And when you talk about specifically farmers, they are extremely remote. They're typically not where the NGOs will easily operate.
00:08:23
Speaker
And so they are quite often forgotten. They are really quite often on the peripherals of society. And that's why, you know, that's why really we established him. That was really the fundamental driver because there are these rural communities that have gold, really this beautiful, magical crop that can be used to transform their lives. That's been completely, completely overlooked. Well, this is really a very, very worrying situation.
00:08:49
Speaker
And, and it is worrying and we hope that the situation will change. Let me ask you something about, you know, coffee and society.
00:09:01
Speaker
And in particular, the relationship between the development of coffee as a drink in Yemen and the Sufi orders, who wanted to stay up all night reciting, you know, Quranic verses or chants. And coffee has always, always been associated with sociability. And so tell me about how this product, this grain,
00:09:28
Speaker
penetrated these religious orders in Yemen and then spread around the world. And even now, it's not just simply like having a drink or having an orange juice. If you want to meet someone, you say, let's go for a coffee. And if you want to discuss something, you always have to have a coffee. So it's really an integrated part of our social, emotional, and psychological life.
00:09:56
Speaker
The first person who discovered, who is said to have discovered coffee, or I should say the first person who was mentioned in historic literature for using or drinking the coffee drink is Ali ibn Amr al-Shaveli from the Shaveli Order, which still exists in some parts of West Yemen.
00:10:14
Speaker
Um, and, uh, and they really saw the drink as an aid because, you know, in, in the Sufi orders, night long, litany's night long remembrance, as you said, the prayers or Quran or whatever, uh, part of part of really fundamental part of the Sufi way, uh, of the devotion, the all night devotion. Uh, and, uh, and they really saw it as an eight as a very practical aid to keep them up at night and focused on meditations and prayers and litanies. And then interestingly,
00:10:44
Speaker
about 100 years later, it was forbidden. In Mecca, it's some edicts that came out that made it haram, that made it forbidden. So there was this really interesting dynamic, you know, with coffee where in the beginning it was discovered or used for almost spiritual purposes. And then there was almost a spiritual or religious, maybe a backlash against the drink. And the same thing occurred with coffee's connection with kind of social and political discussions
00:11:12
Speaker
in the beginning when, because the Ottomans were occupying parts of North Yemen in the 16th century. And so Kofi made its way to Istanbul. And there suddenly it was a social lubricant for discussions, discussions on social affairs, on politics. And so suddenly by political leaders, it was seen as a threat. Kofi was seen again as a threat to political order. And so Kofi has had this interesting journey where it's always kind of
00:11:41
Speaker
It's always been opposed by those who are against free thinking. Somehow it's still made its way throughout the centuries to where it is today. And now, as you said, today it's associated with discussion and thought and critical thinking and emotional, social, economic discussions that affect all parts of
Global Evolution of Coffee Preparation
00:11:59
Speaker
life. I happen to believe that it's really not the marketing of coffee as it happened in the 20th century.
00:12:07
Speaker
But this ancient tradition of associating coffee with social life, with political discourse is extremely important and it is an ancient tradition.
00:12:19
Speaker
And marketing today with the coffee brands is only a late comer to this game. So I just wanted to ask you about the consumption now of this important plant. In Yemen, you know, it is the same grain that is used and it comes in a cup.
00:12:39
Speaker
that is completely different as it travels beyond its original habitat. So, for example, you could have it very dark, sweet, unchanged by any additional substance like milk, or you could add spices to it such as cardamom, and then it travels to North America and we have it with
00:13:03
Speaker
sort of caramel and whipped cream and milk. So what do you make out of this sort of proliferation of the cup of coffee? And I would say it's distortion because for me, coffee is that black liquid without any sugar and it's just that smell and aroma. Yeah, very interesting question. So I think, so first of all,
00:13:30
Speaker
I think in line with the very diverse and inclusive nature of coffee, coffee has always been the central, this interesting drink that would allow for diversity. So in the spirit of that, we encourage people to experience coffee in different ways. It's nice that people, I get as part of the appeal of coffee that can be drank with milk or with spices or black. Now, if you ask me as a coffee professional, coffee is extremely expressive.
00:14:00
Speaker
And I think when you talk about specialty coffee, which is the market that we operate in, which is really high end premium coffee, we say that each particular coffee tree or product or farm will have a specific profile. And the only way you can experience that flavor profile is if you drink it pure.
00:14:17
Speaker
And so that's how we, of course, would encourage people to experience, you know, our coffees, chemo coffees, the farmer's coffees, because then you will really, you'll be shocked, you'll be amazed at the diversity in flavors that you can get in coffees. And it's not just black, bitter, you know, it's, you have one that has notes of fruits and strawberries, and you have another one that has notes of
00:14:42
Speaker
citrus fruits or maybe jasmine without adding any flavors. This is just the natural expression of the coffee from that tree. I guess more importantly, we also encourage to look beyond the drink and remember that there is a person behind that drink. And that's the beauty of what we try to do. We try to make this experience of consumption, drinking,
00:15:02
Speaker
to an experience of human connection. So that when you're drinking it, you're not only experiencing the beauty, the sensorial beauty of the drink, but you're also connecting at some level with the person, the farmer, the human behind that drink.
Yemen's Coffee: A Beacon for Sustainable Development?
00:15:15
Speaker
And that's what excites me about coffee.
00:15:17
Speaker
And let me just ask you about farming itself in Yemen. As you know, the whole of the Arab world is suffering water shortages because of climate change. So I understand that your farmers have small holdings of land. So it hasn't actually gone beyond that in terms of industrialization of coffee farming.
00:15:45
Speaker
So in what ways is this affected by climate change, by water shortages, and what impact increased coffee farming have on the soil? So this is one of the most fascinating things about Yemen, from a coffee perspective. Yemen is probably the world's driest coffee growing country, the world's driest by far.
00:16:10
Speaker
And if you look at the coffee books, they will say that coffee will need 1500 millimeters of rainwater a year of rainfall. In Yemen, you have one third of that. And yet you have coffee being grown across the country at very high quality levels.
00:16:28
Speaker
And so this is really something that's confusing. It's really something that's grabbing the attention now of coffee academics. What exactly is the secret? What's happening here in such a dry country where the coffee trees are able to thrive and survive against what science almost would say, or what we know from agronomics. If you look at the rest of the world, there are a few studies that have been published in the last year or two that say 60% of the Arabica species
00:16:56
Speaker
the coffee Arabic species is facing the threat of extinction because of climate change, because of partly water stress. And so what's interesting is that the trees in Yemen might hold the secrets
00:17:09
Speaker
for coffee trees that are able to resist dry environments. This will need a lot of investment in scientific research. And do you have any interested global actors who might take up this project? So I think this is one of the unfortunate things about what's happening in Yemen from an international development perspective. Most 99% of the development funds that are heading to Yemen are for immediate humanitarian assistance.
00:17:39
Speaker
So health care, life saving, food, malnutrition, children, immediate humanitarian emergencies. And that's necessary because tomorrow people will die if that's not done. But at the same time, in order to maintain or to ensure the sustainability of Yemen, long-term sustainability of Yemen, we need to start building the economy of Yemen. We need to start looking at development to work. And this is an example of it.
00:18:06
Speaker
And it's really simple. Coffee, if you give farmers income for coffee trees, they won't need humanitarian assistance in three years time. They won't need it. Otherwise, you will keep having to attribute significant funds to humanitarian assistance work forever, and that's not sustainable. And we can already see in the last UN pledge round, only I think a third or a quarter of the total amount that they wanted to raise was raised.
00:18:29
Speaker
So what I'm saying is the international community is tired. They are really facing serious donor fatigue. And so I would hope that there's a shift from, not a shift, but a bit of a focus on development work like the work that we are doing. Because, you know, to answer your question, no, there's nobody. So we are doing it ourselves.
00:18:48
Speaker
And we are not an international multinational organization, you know, we're a small startup that are doing our best to do what we can. Well, Faris, you have a rich experience. You are living, you know, you live between two cultures, the country, your homeland and the country where you were born. And then do you think coffee is a way for you personally to reconnect with the homeland, the homeland that you weren't born in?
00:19:16
Speaker
And I'm sure a lot of our second, third generation immigrants or people who are actually children of exiles and dissidents who had fled their homeland can relate to, is coffee a way for you to connect with the homeland?
00:19:34
Speaker
It's absolutely, I mean, I've said this a lot. It's one of the things I love about coffee and I guess there are lots of things that I love about coffee. It's a connective, not only for me and for sure. For me, I've gone back and forth from Yemen growing up, but really with this business, I established it five years ago now. It's really meant I've gone deep into Yemen and not just into Yemen, not into cities, into the most rural parts of Yemen where people maybe haven't seen a car in all their lives. We find 15 year olds who have never seen a car.
00:20:04
Speaker
And so that's been a very profoundly deep experience, impactful experience of what Yemen is and really connecting at a very deep level with my country of origin. But also with the people that we work with, it's a beautiful connector. John sitting in the States or whoever else sitting in the UK or China or Korea or Japan, we market our coffee to 35 countries. And it's really a way of these countries, the people in these countries connecting with Yemen
00:20:33
Speaker
and with the heritage, the culture, the history, the beauty of Yemen that they would otherwise never see. So as a successful entrepreneur with conscience, what's your message to people of your generation who are thinking about how we could help our countries, although we are probably geographically so far away from these homelands? What's your message to them? Roll up your sleeves.
00:21:04
Speaker
roll up your sleeves and start to understand what resources you have available, which typically, especially if you're a second or third generation immigrant outside of Yemen, you probably have plenty of resources that people in Yemen would not have and make use of them, really make use of them. And I think it's important for Yemen to stop relying on the international community to save it. Well, thank you, Faris. I really, really welcome your passion
00:21:32
Speaker
and your determination to do something in this very, very difficult moment in the history of Yemen. Well, thank you very much, Faris. It's been a pleasure talking to you and I'm going to get on the web and order my first coffee from Yemen. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. It's been a pleasure. Thank you for tuning in to Instant Coffee, a podcast brought to you by the LSE Middle East Center.
00:21:58
Speaker
Join us every other Tuesday for a new episode of instant coffee. To learn more about fattest and thermal coffee, follow the links in the podcast description. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram and subscribe to our channel wherever you get your podcasts. Please make sure to like, comment and give us five stars.