Marcelline Budza runs a women’s coffee cooperative in the eastern part of Congo, on Lake Kivu — one of the African Great Lakes, as they’re often called. She says the island she lives on, called Idjwi Island, is beautiful and mountainous.
But right now, the region is engulfed in violence and instability. A rebel group called M23 recently took control of her region's biggest city. All the banks nearby are closed, and that poses a problem for her.
She said coffee buyers used to come to South Kivu before the war. These days, they can’t get there. Though coffee is still being grown and bought, the trade is slower and more difficult.
But the escalating war in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo hasn’t stopped the relationship between her co-operative, called Rebuild Women's Hope, and Higher Grounds Coffee Co., based here in Traverse City.
Earlier this month, Budza visited Traverse City. It was her second time in northern Michigan. She spoke to a small crowd at Oryana, a grocery store that sells her co-op’s coffee, distributed by Higher Grounds.
IPR spoke with her after the event to learn more about the situation in Congo and her relationship to northern Michigan.
The freshwater lake region in Africa where she lives is agriculturally rich, known for its crop farms.
To Budza, it’s like paradise.
“You should all come visit, everyone listening,” she said through translation from French. “Once peace returns… you can try fresh fish from the lake that you’ll love.”
Coffee and rare earth minerals
Though Budza visited Michigan to talk about eastern Congo's coffee, the region gets more attention for a different natural resource.
It has large troves of key minerals, especially for the tech sector.
There’s global competition for its reserves of gold, tin, and tantalum, used in electronic components. And it’s estimated to have around 70% of the world’s supply of Cobalt, used in batteries.
Chris Treter, the owner and co-founder of Higher Grounds, has been to the DRC many times, and he’s imported coffee from Congo for over 10 years.
He’s worked with the U.S. State Department and Congo’s Ministry of Agriculture, and he says Americans get a lot from Congo, whether they realize it or not.
“The reality is, if you’re listening to this on your phone, you should thank Congo,” he said. “If you have an EV car, you should thank Congo.”
According to reports last month, from NPR and the BBC, the U.S. is working on a minerals-for-security deal in Congo, that would help their government defeat rebel groups AND secure U.S. mineral deals in a country that usually trades more with China.
Treter hopes they’ll look at coffee, too, while they’re negotiating a deal, because he thinks the economic benefits for locals could be a path to peace.
“Coffee overlaps where the conflict is and where the minerals are,” he explained. “Until our leaders understand the fact that if they want access to minerals, they need to care for people, they will continue to waste our taxpayer money and hurt humans.”
The White House senior advisor for Africa has said a deal is in the works. IPR reached out to the U.S. State Department about the role of coffee, and agriculture in general, in the U.S.'s trade relationship with Congo, but did not hear back in time for publication.
Unless coffee is part of the deal, U.S. tariffs will be another challenge, beyond the war, for Budza’s coffee co-op to navigate.
For now, she hopes northern Michigan residents try out her coffee to support the women in her cooperative and their families.
She said the coffee has a significant impact on life in her community.
After Budza's visit to Traverse City, she headed to Washington D.C. to meet with officials about the war in eastern Congo.
Looking ahead to that visit, she said the only thing she plans to ask for is peace in her community.
