saveur, sapeur, savor
A little more than 1500 miles from Ethiopia, the country that is considered the birthplace of coffee, is the Democratic Republic of Congo. As the most populated, official Francophone country, its rich in material resources including coffee: more than 11,000 coffee farmers – many of which are women – work near the Great African Lake, Lake Kivu.
More than a hundred ethnic groups live within its 80 million and counting population. If one visits DR Congo they’ll see dancing to the music of Soukous, dressing in the tradition of ‘Le Sapeur’ popularized by the late Congolese musician, Papa Wemba. Viva Congo.
The culture – past and contemporary – of DR Congo can’t be discussed without turning attention to coffee which is a unifying factor despite the fact that country has the largest number of people fleeing it because of internal conflict. However, in the region of Bukavu, a four day celebration of the reemergence of specialty coffee in DR Congo is unifying people and allowing the country’s natural resource to be an agent of change.
Occurring as part of the now annual Saveur Du Kivu, May 22-26 learn about the celebration and coffee here: www.saveurdukivu.org + @kivucoffee |