Coffee in the Eyes of the First Coffee Drinkers – the Oromo People

I wish to note that intellectual property theft… represents the very essence of organized crime. Howard Berman

The above statement is the words of Honorable Howard Berman – a US law maker. The statement makes clear that intellectual property theft is one of the essences of organized crimes.  Coffee is indigenous to Oromia and the Oromo people are collectively entitled to the intellectual property rights to coffee. As I have discussed in part one, denying that coffee is not indigenous to Oromia is equivalent to taking something from someone unlawfully. In this paper, when I use the term intellectual property right, I am referring to the assets that the Oromo people acquired using their own curies and creative minds. Any deliberate attempts made by individuals and groups to deny the Oromo people their entitlement to their intellectual property rights to coffee should be seen as property theft. At the same time, institutions that are not willing to learn from past mistakes, and continue to reproduce the old racist assumptions should be seen as organized criminals.  Having said this let me directly take you to the Oromo story about coffee.

There are many Oromo oral stories that support the view that coffee is indigenous to Oromia. As I elaborated in part I, in Oromo perspective coffee is seen as the flesh of a man named Bunno and the tear of almighty God. The Oromo oral story also suggests that Bunno is the father of an Oromo sub-clan known as Bunno — one of the sons of Meecha.  He lived around the town Bunno-Badale. Most of the Bunno sub-clans are settled in the area believed to be the place where coffee plants were first discovered, the area where coffee is still found naturally in the forest.  The oral story suggests that long after the coffee plant grew on Bunno’s grave and it spread into many parts of Oromia. It grows in low-land (Gamoji) and semi-highlands (Bada Dare) regions of Oromia. However, for many years no one knew of the stimulating effects of coffee. Then a wise and an observant Oromo woman named Taliilee noticed it.

Although several literatures mentioned the story about coffee in the relation to goat and goat breeder, Akko Taliilee was wrongfully referred to by an Arabic name – Kaldi. 

The discovery of Akko (grandmother) Taliilee is very similar to that of the famous ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes who said “Eureka, Eureka” i.e. I found it; I found it, when he came out of the bath he accidentally stepped into. Archimedes proclaimed “Eureka” I found it, when he noticed that the water level rose—suddenly realized that the volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he had submerged. He then realized that the volume of irregular objects could be measured with precision, a previously intractable problem. Archimedes accidentally discovered the problem he and others had been trying to solve for a long time. The discovery of grandmother Taliilee was analogous to the Archimedes “Eureka”.

In her childhood Akko Taliile was a very smart girl and as she grew to adulthood she became a wise and observant woman. Like most Oromo people, Akko Taliilee was a professional cattle breeder a job which includes goat breeding.  Her husband was believed to be suffering from depression- something the Oromos referred to as “irra ciisa = suppressing down”. Before, during and after the life time of Akko Taliilee, every morning when the Oromos wash their hand they pray as they say:

Guraacha Garaa Garbaa,                        The Almighty Black God
Leemo Garaa Taliila                                 The Holy and forgiving power
Nagaa fi fayyan na’olchi                          Make my day peaceful and healthy.

Nagargaari Yawaaqi                                Help me God:
Akka ijiiko gaari argu                               My eyes to see the good things
Akka gurriko odu gaari dhagahuu           My ears to listen to good news
Akka harkikoo  nagaa qabaatu               My hands to hold peaceful objects
Akka arrabniko haan ijaaru dubaatu       My tongue to speak constructively
Akka sammuno gaari yaadu                    My brain to think positively

Nagargaari Yawaaqi                                          Help me God:
Akka atti natiksiitee, akkan umamma tiksu       As you cared for me, to care for natural world
Akka ani namaati hindabaree                           Not to transgress against others
Akka namniis naat hindabaree                         Not to allow others to transgress against me.

After her usual prayers Akko Taliilee would go to her daily activities i.e. making food for the family, cleaning the house, preparing the children for their daily events and milking the cows. Sometimes, if her husband was busy with farming, she would care for the cattle.  One day, when Akko Taliilee was looking after her goats one of her long time prayer—“help me God, my eyes to see what others missed” answered. She noticed that the goats became stimulated after they ate the leaves of the coffee tree.  Akko Taliilee made repeated observations of different goats. She observed that the father goats, the mother goats, the young goats, the old goats were all getting stimulated after they ate the leaves of the coffee tree. She also noticed the unwanted effects were not significant.  As a result, Akko Taliilee hypothesized that if coffees leave stimulated goats it should do the same to her husband and help him to overcome his depression. At one point, Akko Taliilee collected coffee leaves, boiled them and gave them to her husband to drink.  Then she carefully observed the effects on her husband. As she hypothesized, Akko Taliilee noticed that after her husband had drunk a cup of the boiled coffee leaves, he also was stimulated (iira ka’e = the suppression has lifted) and he felt happy. Not only that, the legend suggests that the soak of coffee leaves made Akko Taliilee to enjoy her happy husband.  Given that she found the solution to one of the communities’ outstanding social problems, she must have said something like “Eureka”.

We now know that the leaves of the coffee tree contain a high concentration of caffeine. However, the soak of coffee leaves are bitter than coffee seeds. Akko Taliilee tried to see if she could roast and fry coffee seeds and feed the family members. Indeed, even today, frying coffee in butter is widely practiced for the Buna Qala ceremony. For that, she collected the coffee seeds, and partly roasted it and then fried it in butter and she joined her husband in eating it.  Later on, the idea of grinding and brewing and drinking emerged. As a result, she joined her husband in eating the fried coffee seeds and drinking the brewed coffee. Ever since, coffee has been used for drinking and chewing. Given that coffee is seen as the flesh of a holy man and God’s tear, the Oromo people use coffee for prayer for peace, stability, fertility, in the community and for romance.  Akko Taliilee set the norm of drinking coffee and coffee ceremony. Even today, when coffee is roasted, the person who is roasting it makes sure that the husband and wife and other guests smell the aroma of the coffee.

As the colonizers took coffee from Oromia and introduced it in their colonial lands, they also brought corn, potatoes and tobacco from South and North America to Oromia.  For example, the word tobacco (timbo=in Oromo) is coming from the name Tobago Island -in Caribbean.

Most coffee seeds contain a chemical known as caffeine. Caffeine is known to be a central nervous system and metabolic stimulant. It is widely used both recreationally and medically to reduce physical fatigue and to restore alertness when drowsiness occurs. It generates increased wakefulness, a faster and clearer flow of thought, increased focus, and better general body coordination. In the medieval times, in Middle East and Europe, coffee houses were seen as the center for the exchange of ideas or the place where new ideas surface and stimulating conversation takes place and it was often referred to as ‘Schools of the Wise. These all factors popularized coffee drink.

For two different and opposite reasons, coffee became far more popular in the Middle East and Europe than it was in Africa. In the Middle East, where Islam is the dominant religion, the teaching of Islam prohibits drinking alcohol.   The people needed a stimulant drink that was not prohibited in the Holy Koran. For this reason when the coffee drink was introduced it quickly became popular in the Middle East. Later on the Arabs and the Turkish farmers and merchants who benefitted from the coffee introduced it to the Europe. In Europe, coffee was introduced in 16^th century and it became popular during Industrial Revolution. In Europe, coffee was popularly used to moderate the level of their alcohol consumption. During the Industrial Revolution, the consumption of alcohol during the working hours was seen as a risky and unproductive social practice. Given that coffee was known to restore alertness when drowsiness occurs, generated increased wakefulness, a faster and clearer flow of thought, and promoted better general body coordination it became attractive for both workers and employers. In addition, the demands for the long hours of work necessitated workers having to be alert all the time in factories and the need for critical and fast thinkers’ helped to popularize coffee. Coffee became a lucrative business.  This all contributed to popularizing the coffee drink in the Middle East and Europe.

In Middle East, coffee has practically replaced the want for alcohol.  In Europe, coffee helped people reduce their alcohol dependency. In Africa, Islamic dietary restrictions such as the prohibition of alcohol were not wide spread. In addition, the social conditions that attracted Europeans to coffee were not there. This made the adoption of the culture of coffee drinking slow process in Africa.   Drinking coffee and farming became more popular after Europeans colonized Africa.

The rapid increase in consumption of coffee in Europe and the Middle East necessitated further increasing the production of coffee. The European colonial forces, missionaries and traders carried coffee seeds to new lands and planted them in their colonial lands, Asia and the Caribbean and South America i.e. worldwide. In only 100 years, coffee established itself as a valuable commodity crop throughout the world. Although the European colonizers, missionaries and traders effectively introduced coffee plants and drinks into their colonial lands, the Ethiopian government banned it. The Ethiopian government categorized coffee farming and coffee drinking with the practice of Islam and Waqefaata and profaned it. Indeed, in the 1880s when Oromia was invaded by Abyssinia, their king Menelik condemned coffee drinking and prohibited the farming of coffee. The Ethiopian Coptic/Orthodox Church banned members from coffee farming and coffee drinking.  Until recently, no commercial coffee productions were recorded in the Abyssinian heart lands i.e. Amahara and Tigray regions.  Even though the Abyssinian church and their kings officially banned growing coffee, several literatures give credit to Abyssinians for introducing coffee to the world.

The Origin of the term Coffee

It is generally agreed that the term coffee found its way into European languages sometime in the 1600′s.  Some literature hypothesize that most probably the English word coffee comes from the Italian term “caffe”. These sources indicate that the Italian word caffe was derived from the Turkish pronunciation “kahveh” of the Arabic word ‘Qahwah’. Interestingly, in medieval Arab literature the term “qahwa” was used interchangeably to denote wine or dark stuffed drinks. As the anti-colonial scholars charge the Eurocentric discourses, they did not name coffee its Indigenous name or the way it was first named- Buna. They did not acknowledge the intellectual property rights of the Oromo people to coffee. Although they admit that these languages borrowed terms from each other, they did not admit the term from which the Arabs took the word and appropriated it to their language.

For individuals who read the three influential holy books (Toran, Bible and Koran) when they learn that the Oromo religious teaching promotes sacrificing a lamb for the forgiveness of sins, they might think that the Oromos adopted such practices from these religious teachings. Historical evidence shows that the Oromo people practiced a sacrificing lamb long before those religious teachings.

There are two major discourses that explain the origin of the word coffee. The first discourse suggests that the word coffee comes from the name Kafficho that represents the people who settled adjacent to the Oromo people – near the settlement of Bunno sub-clan. The Kafficho people are neighbors to the Oromo people- of Bunno sub-clan, and coffee plants have been growing in the wilderness on their lands as well.  The second discourse is that the word coffee comes from the Oromo word kofii – which means stimulant, overacting or fermentation. For example, when Oromo mothers bake bread, they allow the dough to ferment – when the dough is fermented it expands. The fermented and expanded dough is referred to as bukkoon kofii jedhe. When individuals exaggerate what they can do or what they have done, the Oromos call them kofi-kofi jedha.  In the Oromo language, the word kofii represents stimulant, stimulation, exaggeration and fermentation – expansion or overacting.  The major chemical component of coffee is caffeine and it is known to act as a central nervous system stimulant, temporarily warding off drowsiness and restoring alertness.  This suggests that the term coffee comes from the Oromo word kofii a word used to describe stimulant or stimulation, exaggeration and fermentation –expansion or overacting. Indeed, in the Western world we know that coffee drinkers rush to coffee shops, when they are tired and when they want get stimulated.

Buna Qala – Slaughtering Coffee

One of the Oromo religious ceremonies is Buna Qala. The literal meaning of Buna Qala is slaughtering coffee. However, the deep meaning of Buna Qala is sacrificing coffee in the prayer for peace, stability in the community, fertility and romance. The Oromo indigenous religion (Waqefaata) teaches that one has to sacrifice a lamb for forgiveness of major sins and coffee for minor sins. For example, if a conflict between two individuals or communities led to bloodshed, for the forgiveness of sin and to establish peace, they sacrifice a lamb. The reason for choosing a lamb is that it is the most peaceful animal. For the forgiveness of minor sins- and minor conflicts they sacrifice coffee. Coffee is also used to pray for peace and to make peace.

From the Oromo perspective, it seems that duties and responsibilities are categorized into three: Godly, Godly-humanly and entirely humanly. For example, peace, health, romance i.e. marriage is the duty and the responsibility of God and human beings, in correcting wrong doing or establishing relationships, the Oromos offer coffee for it. Life is Godly responsibility and to correct any wrong doing the Oromos offer lamb for it. Many others are considered human responsibilities and the Oromos teach their children the need to continuously learn and fulfill those ethics and moral obligations.

When Oromo farmers take a rest from their farming duties, you hear them saying “harra naaraa ciisa – maloo buna nudanfissa” = today I feel depressed, please, brew us coffee”.  It is well known that coffee is used as a means to overcome their depression. From the Oromo perspective, coffee drinking time is always prayer time. It is also the time when the neighbors come together and exchange new ideas, evaluate the past and present. These include prayers for peace, prosperity, good health, fertility and romance.  Some of the coffee prayers include:
Qajaabaa – Yawaaq siitu jabaa                                     You, the almighty God.
Jabaa beela nuura dabarsii                                            prevent us from extreme famine
Jaabaa waraana nurra ittis                                             avert us from extreme war
Jabaa dhukkuba nubaraari                                            prevent us from epidemic diseases

Qileensa nagaa nuuf keeni                                           Give us no stormy weather
Roobaa nagaa nuuf roobsi                                           Give us a peaceful rain
Haan ani jedhee waqayyo hajeedhu                            Let God accept my prayers.
Guraacha – garaa garbaa                                              the Holy Black God
Lemoon Garaa Taliila nudhagahi        the pure and forgiving power listen to us.
Haan hafeet Waqayyo haguutu            the prayer that I did not mention – let God fulfill it.

Certainly coffee is indigenous to Oromia. Thanks to Akko Taliilee, “if the Oromo people did not introduce coffee to the world, the world community remains sleepy”. The Oromo people are fully entitled to claim the intellectual property right to it. Any attempt made to deny the Oromo people their intellectual property rights to coffee should be seen as part of the long standing agenda of misappropriation.

In the next section, I will take a close look at the impacts of the most popular drink -coffee-that Akko Talilee had discovered and that the Oromo people introduced to the world.  I explore the facts and the assumed impacts of coffee on the well-being of people.

I am still collecting more information on coffee, if you have comments on the story or have more stories about it please send me at:begna.dugassa@gmail.com

Using this opportunity I would like to say thank you to those elders and other informants who provided me such valuable information.