Coffee Ceremonies, Gender and Food Security in Two Ethiopian VillagesJoAnn Jaffe, University of ReginaAmy Kaler, University of Alberta

Improving Nutrition in Ethiopia through Plant Breeding and Soil Management IDRC Project 106927-001/2

Outline

1. From chickpeas to coffee2. Theoretical framing: bargaining and moral

economies3. The sites4. The methods5. The coffee ceremony6. Findings: Coffee ceremonies and

1. Household reputation2. Labour mobilization3. “Complex gender”

7. Conclusion: coffee ceremonies and social change

Theoretical framing• Relations within and between households are • Contested• Emergent• Unstable

• Men, women, rich, poor, workers, landowners ….

“Bargaining”• People offer labour,

time, social status in exchange for present or future benefits

“Economy of affection”

• Collective understanding of who owes what to whom• Reciprocity• Patronage• Mutual assistance

• Not only about money

Sites• 2 x (n=20) households in southern Ethiopia• Increasing need for cash• Rising food prices• Paying for labour and land access

• Survival depends on positive social relations• Loans, food, animals, “hunger season”, credit, grazing

space, seeds, plants, firewood …

Two communities• C1: Highly differentiated• C2: Less differentiation

% Households exercising effective control over arable land

Methods• 40 household interviews• Purposive stratified sample

• 8 focus groups analyzing scenarios• 2 Photovoice sessions

The coffee ceremony

Coffee ceremonies in daily life• 90% of households hold at least one CC per day• Modal number of CCs is 2

• Mean number of guests: 10.4 (ranging from 5 to 20)• C1: 8.9• C2:12.0

Findings: CCs and household reputation

It is a must to make [coffee] it is a duty, even if it means stopping other jobs. Coffee must be given priority. Two coffee ceremonies are common for our household. … For the third, if guests come, I’ll help her with the fire and washing the cups,

so she can prepare coffee with me.

We can’t decrease the coffee ceremony … Neighbours will increase the amount of gossip, the neighbours will think badly

of us, and they may not do coffee with us [invite us to their coffee ceremonies]. (Rich and medium men, C2).

W1: Based on our economy, if we have the coffee ceremony three times a day the crops will run out. It [the ceremony] takes much time without working in the field.

[But] if there is no more [ceremonies], the neighbours talk, they say “she has no crops in the house, she is poor”.

 W2: I have the coffee ceremony three times a day. If I stop doing it, neighbours think I am poor.

W3: If I have no more coffee ceremony, neighbours think “she has no crops for her coffee ceremony”. But if I prepare nice coffee, people say “you are skilled, like

baalamuya [a gracious woman]. If I don’t prepare nice coffee, I’m not a skilled woman. (Wives of male heads of

households, C2)

Findings: CC and labour mobilization• CCs appear to be connected to collective labour

groups• The larger and more frequent the ceremonies, the

more likely the household is to take part

Family-only ceremonies (n=11) Neighbours and kin coffee ceremonies (n=29)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

27

79

Percentage participating in col-lective work groups

Findings: Complex gender• Not just male appropriate of female time and

labour• Dado: Women’s ceremonies• Baalmuya: Display of gendered competence and skill

• Women’s resistance to reducing ceremonies

W1: My husband tells me that dado is killing timeW2: There’s more time [for other work] now that we’ve stopped doing dado, but still no advantage

for us. (Wives of household heads, C1)

Conclusions• What’s this got to do with food security? • Beyond nutrition: building social relations that create food• Food is social currency as well as “body fuel”

• The future?• Reductions of ceremonies in C1• Economy of affection losing ground to mobilization

through money?