Portfolio

The Geography of Coffee

By Jamie Wilkinson

Introduction

Coffee as a primary product originated from Eastern Africa and has had incredible influence on

the entire world. Coffee is the second-most-traded commodity in the world and is the second

most consumed beverage subsequent only to water. Coffee has proven to be a very interesting

geographical theme because of its dark historical past and current popularity. This portfolio

introduces students to not only international trade and historical global patterns of colonization,

but also to coffee’s long history of oppression as a world commodity as producing nations

continue to experience oppression through colonial legacy and modern capitalism.

Many coffee drinkers are completely unaware of the suffering and injustices that are

caused by the production and trade of coffee. Traditionally developed as a colonial cash crop,

coffee was planted and harvested mostly by African slaves who were forcibly brought to the

America’s between the years of 1650-1860 in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The historical

repercussions of the trade continue to impact societies today in various ways.

In the following portfolio, topics such as the history of coffee, coffee production, slavery,

fair trade, and coffee culture will be explored with the goal of reaching a deeper understanding of

the many ways in which coffee has affected and continues to affect our world.

History of Coffee

1) Youtube Video clip- The Story of Coffee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWeaNncFrcM

This video reveals the magnitude of coffee consumption around the world by explaining how coffee is the second most widely consumed beverage second only to water. What is important about this video is that it includes the legend of how people believe coffee was first discovered in Ethiopia by a goat farmer who noticed his goats becoming energetic after consuming the coffee cherries from a shrub. The video explains how coffee was first used by Monks to stay awake during religious ceremonies that would last through the night. Students should gain a basic understanding of how, why and when the popularity of coffee spread around the world.

Activity: While watching the video, have students answer worksheet question:

-How was coffee discovered and what were its main uses?

2) Radio interview

http://www.openculture.com/2013/04/the_history_of_coffee_and_how_it_transformed_our_world.html

This short radio interview (05:03) with the Mark Pendergrast author of “Uncommon Grounds: The history of coffee and how it transformed our world” will be used as a resource to show how the colonial powers spread coffee through trade all around the world.

Activity #1: While listening to the radio interview in class, have students answer questions

1) To which region did the Dutch initially transport coffee plants? (Answer: East Indies)

2) To which country did the French first transport coffee plants and to where did they spread? (Martinique, spreading to most countries in the Western Hemisphere)

3) In which setting were the French Revolution and American Revolutions planned? (In coffee houses)

Activity #2- Have students create a world map depicting the connections of their findings between each country mentioned in their answers.

Coffee Production

1) Documentary

BLACK COFFEE - THE PERFECT CUP - Discovery/History/Science

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Oup37FsAW4

This documentary will be used to teach students how coffee is harvested and the process of cultivation all the way to consumption. It is also meant to make the students aware of the lives of both the plantation laborers and plantation owners and how they can be affected by the coffee market in a negative way. This video not only explains the steps of production (production, distribution, and consumption) but the science that goes into growing coffee. Also, this documentary sheds light on how fair trade works. After watching this video, students should have a better understanding of the emergence of today’s modern coffee house culture that revolves around specialty coffee.

Assignment: Students will be asked to write a five-page paper answering the following question: What are the effects of coffee on the lives of both the coffee producing countries and the coffee consuming countries?

2) Documentary

BLACK COFFEE - GOLD IN YOUR CUP - Discovery/History/Science

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpgAjwfxa9s

This documentary asks the important question: “where is our coffee coming from and at what price?” Students should receive a better understanding of how coffee is a primary resource that leaves some people rich and powerful while leaving others poor and oppressed. Students should be able to better understand the implications that the coffee market has on people of producing countries and how their livelihoods depend on the demand/prices yielded for coffee in the developed world.

This documentary focuses on Brazil as one of the leading producers of coffee with a long history of coffee and sugar production which their society and economy were initially built on. It explains Brazil’s economic, social and political ties to coffee and how it has influenced culture and Brazil’s image in a major way. It then extends these concepts by linking the environmental costs of Brazil’s coffee cultivation that causes degradation by the removal of the rainforest.

In addition, students should develop a sense of the reasons for why slave labor was historically exploited in Brazil after the government forced native Indians to labor once coffee cash crops were introduced. This completely changed the native’s way of living and many died. African slaves were then transported across the Atlantic for the purpose of coffee production in Brazil because as the demand for coffee exports grew, so did the need for slave labor. The colonial aspects in the documentary should give students a better understanding of why Brazil was the last country on earth to abolish slavery. This documentary also goes into details about a day in the life of a slave which will help students understand the extreme human rights abuses involved in the slave trade.

Students should also develop a better understanding of the coffee controlled markets boom and bust cycles and crashes of the early 20th century. The resource looks at how coffee has evolved throughout the years from cheap low-quality beans to instant coffee that was invented out of necessity during the Second World War to the high-quality beans that are now served in coffee shops.

This documentary will also introduce students to The International Coffee Agreement, an agreement signed by the both the coffee consuming and producing countries to ensure better prices for coffee producers around the world. It explains how this agreement brought market stability by creating a price control scheme where producing countries are limited to the amount of coffee they can export and developed countries are limited the amount of coffee they can import.

Activity: Students will be given a worksheet with questions that are to be answered while watching the documentary in class.

WORKSHEET QUESTIONS

1) Where does coffee come from? How is it grown? Who grows it?

2) What are some of the problems that coffee producers face?

3) Define the ‘International Coffee Agreement’.

4) Who is most affected by the increase and decrease in flows of coffee market prices?

5) How have coffee farmers in Brazil changed their modes of production in recent years? Is this new method good or bad for coffee plantation laborers?

Slavery

1)YouTube video

PBS- Black Coffee, Part1of3 - The Irresistible Bean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTDy-L0NKIg

This resource will give students a deeper understanding of how coffee has brought incredible change to Europe’s pleasure and immeasurable turmoil to Africans through enslavement.

After watching this video, students should understand the importance of the former French colony previously known as Saint-Domingue because in 1790’s Saint-Domingue was responsible for producing over forty percent of France’s export economy, generated by its 7,000 tropical plantations. The colony was responsible for growing ½ of the world’s coffee and 2/5 of the world’s sugar. Students should understand that Haiti is not only known for its historical economic success but more importantly for the Haitian Revolution that ceased it. In 1804, Haiti became the first colonized region of the New World to be taken over by its population of slaves and the first non-European state to become independent in the Americas

This video is meant to show how wherever coffee has been produced, it has brought change and even revolution.

Assignment: Students will be asked to write a 5-page paper answering the following question:

Do you think the black slaves of Haiti in the 17th century were responsible for influencing the end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the worldwide abolition of slavery itself? If so, why?

2) Documentary

Transatlantic Slavery Documentary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY-5Hq2B4rM

This resource will be used to explain the beginning of the history of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Concepts such as “Triangular Trade” and “The Middle Passage” will be introduced. This resource looks at how slaves were not captured by European slave traders; rather they were captured by Africans who sold them to Europeans for goods.

Students should gain an understanding of the history of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade which began with the Portuguese who were exploiting African slaves before the Trans-Atlantic slave trade began. When the Portuguese settled in the Americas, they continued their traditions and took slaves to labor on sugar and coffee plantations in what is now known as South America.

Students should understand how slaves were traded for goods like rum and steel weapons in a process referred to as “Triangular Trade”. Historically, Europeans brought goods to African

coast to trade for slaves who would then be transported across the Atlantic to the Americas. While in the Americas, slave traders would sell the slaves for tropical goods such as sugar, tobacco, cotton and textiles which would then be transported back to Europe, continuing the cycle of the triangular trade.

“The Middle Passage” was a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to the Americas which took approximately 6-8 weeks. Another objective of this resource is to shed light on the horrific experience African slaves went through during and after the Middle Passage where many slaves died from starvation, disease and slave trader brutality. This resource also rejects the widely accepted notion that African slaves passively accepted their plight during the Middle Passage. On the contrary, this video explains how Africans were constantly fighting to get free to the point where 1/10 voyages saw revolt.

This resource will also be used to explain the dehumanization of slaves through the removal of their names, the implementation of branding on their bodies by owners, the torture tactics used to break the will of slaves making them more controllable, and of course the intense slave labour where over 30% of slaves died during “seasoning” period when they first arrive because they were literally worked to death on coffee and sugar plantations.

Activity: Class discussion on what were the justifications for the slave trade? Why did Africans undergo such dehumanization for the production of luxury products? What must life have been like for African slaves? How did the slave trade end?

3) Article

National Geographic- Geography in the News: Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Remembered

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2014/02/03/geography-in-the-news-trans-atlantic-slave-trade-remembered/

This article outlines a brief history on the African slave trade. Students should develop a sense of why and where slavery occurred, who facilitated slavery and how many victims were involved.

Assignment: Students will read the article and write a paragraph long summary outlining the most important information in the article. In a second paragraph, students will explain their thoughts on the article, what surprised them, what affected them etc…

4) Data Table

http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/assessment/estimates.faces

This data table shows the number of slaves that were sold to the countries listed at the top of the table and when they were sold. This table should give students an understanding of the magnitude of the slave trade over the course of 365 years.

Activity: Students will be put into groups each representing a designated country found on the data table. Each group will research their country to find out which area of the America’s was colonized by their country if applicable and for what use were African slaves bought.

5) MAPS

David Eltis and David Richardson, Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (New Haven, 2010), reproduced with the permission of Yale University Press.

http://www.slavevoyages.org/tast/assessment/intro-maps.faces

This activity is meant to encourage students to begin to think about the impact that forced migration of approximately 12 million African slaves has had on the populations of Earth. Students should also develop a sense of how coffee has impacted the development of the world and the distribution of wealth.

Map 1: Overview of the slave trade out of Africa, 1500-1900

Map 2: Major regions and ports involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, all years

Map 3: Major coastal regions from which captives left Africa, all years

Map 4: Major regions where captives disembarked, all years

Activity: Students will be given all four maps and asked to write a paragraph for each map outlining the information depicted in each map and the links each map has to coffee production or coffee economy.

Fair Trade Coffee

1) Article- Justice and Java: Coffee in a Fair Trade Market

James, Deborah (2000) NACLA

http://www.globalexchange.org/fairtrade/coffee/starbucks

This resource looks at how farmers in coffee cultivating countries have almost no control over the world's coffee market. All over the world coffee producers and laborers are being exploited by large corporations who become rich while the producers often receive less than what it costs to produce coffee which forces a continuation of poverty and debt. Students should understand how coffee has impacted the formation of the world by the unequal distribution of wealth.

Activity: Students will be asked to answer the following questions after reading the article.

1- Who is responsible for initiating the Fair Trade Movement?2- Why did Fair Trade come to be?

3- How does the world price for coffee set on the New York “C Market” on Wallstreet affect farmers in coffee producing countries?

4- Why is it important to educate consumers on Fair Trade coffee products?

2)Youtube video clip

"Combating Global Poverty with a Cup of Coffee" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zvSO43SOtk

This short clip explains the effectiveness of Fair Trade as a brand and how it has noble goals; they are not the most effective way to help the poor. The student will understand that fair trade prices to trickle down the landowner but not to the workers. The professor in the clip suggests buying premium, high-quality coffee because the process, in order to produce high-quality beans, requires more time and care than regular coffee beans. Seasonal workers are thus paid higher wages. This short video clip is meant to help students to think critically about fair trade and how further resolutions must be made in order to make coffee production more fair for producers.

Activity: Students will be given an assignment where they will have to visit the grocery store or local coffee shop to find a brand of coffee with the Fair Trade label. Students will then go online to research the brand of coffee to explain in a three-page essay how the company with the Fair Trade label adheres to fair trade promises. Also, if possible, the student will explain how much the farmers are paid for their coffee in comparison to how much the product is being sold for to consumers. Students will be asked to give their thoughts on the information they have acquired.

Coffee Culture

1)YouTube clip: The History of Starbucks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XX4gqRq1wY

This resource will demonstrate the global expansion of Starbucks, the most popular coffee shop chain in the world. This video provides insight on how Starbucks was a pioneer of coffee shop culture through providing a comfortable atmosphere that fosters connectedness where consumers have many options of high-quality coffee beverages to choose from.

Assignment: Students will be asked to write a five-page essay on how coffee has influenced society and modern pop culture.

2) Coffee Maps

Assignment: Students will be put into groups of 5 and will be assigned a popular coffee distributor such as Starbucks, Tim Horton’s, Second Cup, or McCafe. One group will be assigned independent coffee shops. In this activity, the student will search the internet to create a map of their coffee shops to show where they are located in Halifax. This map is meant to show students just how embedded coffee culture is in our society by a number of coffee shops we have in our city. Students will present their work to the class and a class discussion will follow.

Class discussion: How have popular coffee chains such as Starbucks, Tim Horton’s, Second Cup and McCafe influenced coffee culture in Canada?