The Shade Promises
Nespresso & PUR Projet
In January 2019, we had an assignment from agroforestry company called PUR Projet and his main partner in Ethiopia Nespresso who helped coffee farmers to plant 530 000 trees in Sidama district. By bringing back trees in the land, they already reduced landslides and created shades to protect fragile coffee from the intense sunshine. During this time spent in small villages with farmers, we discovered a forgotten Ethiopia. A rural land inhabited by coffee farmers. Coffee is everything for them, it’s way more than just an economic activity, it’s the main part of their culture. But it could not last forever because of a worldwide scourge. If you ask a farmer, there is nothing more real than climate change for him. The global warming affects soil and flowering of his coffee trees. Each year, coffee production decreases a little bit more and if the coffee is in danger, the whole people is in danger too.
Facing such a promised dark future, some decided to leave their land and move where international investments are more active. At the opposite, others decided to stand together and fight. They bring back ancient practices and also collaborate with agroforestry experts, searching for solutions to save coffee.
This documentary invites you to discover another Ethiopia, far from cliches and stereotypes. From the primary forest of Bale Mountain to the small villages of Sidama, we propose a visual immersion in the intimacy and the day to day life of this forgotten Ethiopia. An old kingdom where the coffee is born and where it might die.
Harenna forest located near the Bale Mountains is one of the last natural forests in Ethiopia. The forest density, with century-old trees as far as you can see, contrasts with the arid plateau only 5km at the north.
It’s a wild coffee forest that has been discovered by traveling shepherds a long time ago. Since this discovery, so many gene- rations lived there thanks to coffee culture. If you ask them, they are just like coffee, both need trees. Without forest protection, they would not survive
“Me and coffee, we have this thing in common, if we are not living in the forest, we gona die”
Deforestation is one of the main challenges in the rural area. With population growth, trees consumption dramatically increased, to answer their income shortage, they started to cut the trees within forest, as well as in their own farms.
“Now we are working harder and try our best but the climate change is affecting our production”
Coffee in Ethiopia is a longstanding tradition which dates back to dozens of centuries. Ethiopia is a multilingual nation with around 80 ethnolinguistic groups, multiple religions and habits, but the whole country shares their love for coffee. Women have such a central position in this coffee tradition you can’t imagine coffee advertising without them.
Reality sweeps away fantasy. Women are the coffee industry’s small workers. Thin and agile hands are mandatory to clean coffee cherries and beans in cooperatives.
To face these deforestation issues, state and international organizations created tree nurseries to help people to bring back valuable agroforestry trees in mountains and coffee farms. Each tree is planted seed after seed in small soil bags and will wait there till they will be big enough to be planted.
“If we plant new trees, we can restore the past harmony”
Ethiopia is a land of natural contrasts, with its vast fertile west, its forests, numerous rivers and the world’s hottest settlement in the north. The country is also known as the roof of Africa. The Ethiopian Highlands cover most of the country and have a cooler climate than other regions near the Equator. It is approximately elevated between 2000 and 4600 m above sea level.
Religion is not a private affair. People commonly and naturally display their beliefs. When you are traveling, it’s not rare to see a church and a mosque side by side across the same road. Still, each village has its main religion. Except for big cities, religious mixing is rare. But somehow they all living in something we can call a harmonious split community.
Women got a central position in the family, but they rarely move far away from their home and community. Mobility is a man privilege. Even if Ethiopia is moving to modern life, it doesn’t erase and forget things from the past. One of the most striking examples is houses in rural areas. Thanks to community help, families are buil- ding modern square houses with a metallic roof and windows. Still, the traditional rounded house is kept but no more used for sleep but only for cooking and to protecting animals.
““Coffee is not only matter of economy,
coffee is the Ethiopian identity””
Running water at home is exceptional in the rural area. The luckiest people go there thanks to a donkey plus a cart, or a horse, or even a motorbike, but most of them have to walk long dis- tances to bring back home the precious liquid. And if you ask them how do they water coffee trees, they will probably smile at you and reply that coffee trees get no water at all, it’s already so difficult to get water for themselves.
“Now there is increasing temperature and heat is coming from my soil”
Sami comes from Harar, a place where is farmed one of the best coffee in Ethiopia. Because of climate change, experts predicted it will be impossible to maintain this production in approximately less than ten years. The situation is so extreme, that international specialists decided to focus on other areas because it might be too late for this one. These big changes sent Sami far away from his home, working for Chinese companies or tourists.
There are two options facing this big climate change, staying and fighting or leaving. Abdu, a wild coffee farmer told us he can’t imagine himself leaving his homeland. But he wants his children to be instructed enough to have the choice to stay or leave for another life.
When women are not working, they traditionally taking care of family life. There is a ritualized form of making and drinking coffee. It happens three times a day mainly for the purpose of getting together with relatives, neighbors, or other visitors. This coffee ceremony is typically performed by the woman of the household and is considered an honor. Coffee is not only important for economic aspects, but also for people social life.
“Drinking coffee with neighbors is good to share and discuss about our day to day life and to keep a good social connection within the community”
When you leave Addis Abeba areas, only roads you can find are dirt or forever in construction roads. It’s not rare to see a road constructed by Indians companies to be destroyed and recons- tructed by Chinese companies, like in a never-ending story.
“During my childhood, I have been observing the importance of shade trees”
