“I was raised in Kenya on my grandfather’s coffee farm. Although we are quite proud of the coffee that grows on our soil, growers sometimes do not make enough money to support the delicious coffee they produce. In actuality, 90% of the labour and coffee are provided by women, but a significant portion of them are not paid because they do not own the land.”
Those were the words of Margaret Nyamumbo, the founder and CEO of Kahawa 1893, a company that exports African coffee to America. Margaret won 350,000 USD (KES 44 million) funding, for 5 % of the company.
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While appearing on ‘Shark Tank’ Reality TV Show, Emma Grede, a panellist and investor, convinced Ms Nyamumbo to take the $350,000 she was seeking but for an 8 % stake in the business.
Shark Tank is an American reality show where aspiring entrepreneurs from around the world pitch their business models to a panel of investors and persuade them to invest money in their idea.
Nyamumbo, who was born and raised in the Gusii highlands of South-West Kenya, said she wanted to use Kahawa 1893, a coffee company she created in 2018, to share the experiences of women at her home place and prioritize compensating Kenyan woman coffee farmers.
“‘Kahawa’ means ‘coffee’ in Swahili, in 1893 that’s when our story begins. While coffee’s origins can be traced to ancient forests in Ethiopia, coffee had to travel around the world before it made its way back to Africa in 1893. This is how I came up with the company’s name.,” she said.
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She explained that she wanted to draw attention to the fact that while women perform the majority of the labour on the small farms that produce one of the most precious crops in the world, their husbands and other landowners receive the majority of the income.
“While working as a driver for the colonial government, my grandfather was able to acquire some seedlings for his own coffee farm. Growing up in a community of coffee farmers, I saw the discrimination that exists in the sector. Although women made up 90% of the labour force, they are not allowed to own land,” she narrated.
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After studying abroad in the USA, she returned home with some ideas on how to showcase Kenyan coffee to the world in a way that benefits women farmers the most.
In 2021, Kahawa 1893 became the first Black-owned and black woman-owned coffee brand in Trader Joe’s.
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