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Cyangugu: Stanislas Kayitera
One Saturday afternoon in April 1994, having spent an entire night in the bush, Stanislas Kayitera and his family were forced to flee their home from the madness that marked the Rwanda Genocide. They went to a nearby Catholic parish where most people from Stanislas’ community had taken refuge. Within twenty-four hours, attackers arrived, killing most of the refugees with machetes, guns and crude, improvised weapons. Stanislas was shot in the hand and left to die. Miraculously, he survived, hiding between dead bodies for a further day before escaping to find a friend from the business community.
This friend, Anicet Sempundu, sheltered Stanislas for a few days, then arranged a boat under cover of night to ship him to the Island of Idjwi, on the Congolese side of Lake Kivu, accompanying him to ensure a safe exit.
In October, seven months after the genocide and his unexpected survival, Stanislas returned to Rwanda.
“I did not go home right away but stayed at the government supported refugee camp in Kamembe, while the situation was still being monitored.”
The Government gave the go ahead to return in January, 1995.
Return to Destruction
Stanislas did not know what awaited him, but the excitement of finally returning home gave him courage enough to go back. On arrival, he could not believe the magnitude and amount of destruction on his family’s farm. As the sole surviving son, he had not yet learned that two of his sisters also lived. Out of a family of thirteen members, only these three had survived. His sisters, however, had not returned home and Stanislas started the task of reviving the farm alone. The houses had been burned down - the coffee trees slashed, or burned.
Coffee Revival After the Genocide
Stanislas, now 42, was brought up in a coffee growing household in the Nyamasheke District of Rwanda. By age 18, as tradition dictated, he had inherited 150 coffee trees from his father, who had over 1000 in total. Two years later, the genocide occurred.
His immediate post-war task, Stanislas explains, would be “to revive the 150 coffee trees which I had inherited from my father”. Asked why, he continues “I believed that the revival of these trees would bring us good income in the years to come.” He pruned and weeded the surviving coffee plants. Thirteen years later, he owned 4600 trees.
“I knew coffee was a good crop, but initially my intention was only to revive my own 150 trees and the 600 left of my father’s. This was going to be possible by selling a cow my late father had lent a neighbor; a common practice at the time.” As his first step, he retrieved that cow in order to augment the household income with milk sales. He later sold it for enough money to resuscitate his father’s trees.
Five years on, and coffee was not Stanislas’ first revenue source. But having practiced both coffee cultivation and dairy farming, he recognised that coffee offered a better, more sustainable income than all other activities. Accordingly, in 2003 he sold all his cattle, using the proceeds to buy 800 coffee seedlings and additional land.
By 2007, Stanislas’ harvest was over 6000 kilos cherry coffee and cherry buying was being introduced by the newly-formed cooperative.
Coffee Income and Asset Ownership
Despite the earthquake, 2008 was the best year yet for Stanislas. He harvested and delivered his cherry coffee to the Kobakanya Cooperative. Thanks to the help of the TechnoServe Coffee Initiative, his coffee fetched a higher price than in any previous year. His production today is 2 and a half times what it originally was, whilst his income has trebled. In addition, the sale of cherry has reduced the amount of labour he personally spends on the processing of his coffee.
“The Coffee Initiative support of the start and operation of this cooperative has been of great value. I can now sell my coffee at value and at the same time track records on my earnings. The prices are more stable when we sell through the cooperative. I would like to thank the TechnoServe Team for supporting us”.
Peet’s Uzuri African Blend and Rwanda Lake Kivu coffees are part of the Rwanda Initiative.
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