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The people of Uganda have long had a deep cultural and social relationship with the “golden bean.” Robusta coffee (Coffea canephora) used to grow wild along the northern shores of Lake Vic- toria, and the Baganda people of the famous Buganda Kingdom began cul- tivating it in their household gardens. In their culture, robusta coffee was largely used for traditional and cultural func- tions like sealing blood brotherhood, initiating new people into the commu- nity or celebrating the birth of twins.from colonialiSmto corporationSIn pre-colonial times, coffee trees were grown behind the houses as a sacred crop until 1894, when the British colo- nial masters embarked on a plan to join and combine the region’s communities, chiefdoms and kingdoms into a single governable state, eventually leading to the creation of the nation of Uganda. Coffee was commoditized by the colo- nizers, who told the local people it was unhealthy to chew the beans and drink coffee. Over time coffee lost its cultural significance and became a cash crop. The colonial government facilitated the establishment of several large-scale ro- busta coffee estates in central Uganda, and introduced arabica coffee varieties from Ethiopia and Malawi. But in 1919, smallholder family farmers had to take over coffee production when the mainly British-owned estates collapsed due to a fall in world coffee prices.Today Uganda has over 1.3 million fam- ily coffee farms, providing livelihoods to 5.5 million Ugandans, and coffee is the economy’s leading foreign income earner. Thanks to these millions of fam- ily farmers, Uganda has emerged as Af- rica’s top robusta coffee producer and the second-largest coffee producer in Africa after Ethiopia.However, despite coffee’s social, cul- tural, economic and political signifi- cance, Ugandan coffee producers re- main the poorest and most exploited players along the value chain, facing many challenges. The producers are at the mercy of corporations who deter- mine the farm gate price. The business is dominated by a few exporters andThe African coffee PresidiaThe Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity has begun working to actively safeguard specific varieties of African coffee. Though outside the international circuits of global trade, they most likely representthe beverage’s future. Slow Foodhas already launched three coffee Presidia, in Uganda, Mozambique and Ethiopia, and mapping is being carried out to identify other wild and cultivated varieties. Watch the video on the Harenna Coffee Presidium in Ethiopia: bit.ly/1gtDlkRmarket giants, and a large number of middlemen who deal with the vulnera- ble small-scale coffee producers at the bottom of the chain, creating poverty and under-development.Today almost all the coffee produced in Uganda is destined for export, with only a negligible amount retained by a few small roasters and coffee shops for local consumption. To make mat- ters worse, some beans are imported back to the country as instant coffee, processed in Europe or elsewhere in Africa, further distancing people from their dearly loved crop. This problem is common to other African countries, where huge amounts of food are ex- ported and later imported back in un- healthy processed forms.a network for qualityIn a bid to save Uganda’s native variet- ies and coffee culture, and improve the circumstances of traditional robusta coffee producers, a group of family farmers came together in 2012 to start21