Smayah Uwajeneza is a barista, or what one may call a ‘coffee artist’, with a widespread understanding of coffee. She loves preparing and adorning it to suit the taste of customers.  

She currently works as a Gorillas Coffee (an Arabica Bourbon-roasted coffee brand by Rwanda Farmers Coffee Company made from the highest quality coffee beans) ambassador in Egypt and is a coffee consultant on her own. Her role is to help promote Rwandan coffee in Egypt. Her job entails starting up coffee shops, knowing what the coffee shop requires to start-up, equipment needed, menu development, website development, and so forth.

Uwajeneza also offers her expertise to other private companies, assists people around the world to start coffee shops and provides coffee business trainings as well.

Love for coffee

Since childhood, Uwajeneza was a tea person, she recalls her first sip of coffee being bitter, but after spending time learning about how to handle, prepare, serve and taste coffee, all that is behind her. She literally can’t go a day without coffee, and has grown to love its flavoursome and aromatic taste.

For her, good coffee has a natural freshness that is supplemented by stimulating acidity.

Smayah Uwajeneza in a cafe as a barista

"Having completed high school in 2015, I yearned to take on any job that allowed me to save some money for university, and luckily, I found coffee. Being raised by a single mother made me responsible at a young age, and I am living a total transformation,” Uwajeneza says.

She recalls watching a lady painting a cafe latte in town and was intrigued by her talent and work, that she asked her to teach her how to draw but she (the artist) knew that she wouldn’t do it well if she didn’t connect with coffee first.

Uwajeneza was linked to Question Coffee by this artist, through a programme where she helped women coffee farmers grow coffee, and so forth. She was later hired at Question Coffee as a barista. 

She says that she practiced skills on the job at the same coffee shop and trained other baristas at the shop.

With the skills she attained, she continued building her career for some years, by partaking in more trainings in the US, in roasting, breaking the coffee, and more hands-on skills that she had to practice back home. 

Uwajeneza picking coffee beans Photos/ Courtesy

Being a coffee expert, Uwajeneza says, requires having an understanding of what happens at the washing station, for instance; knowing what happens if coffee is roasted badly, how to taste and sell it, and much more. 

Being a coffee expert, she has credentials and expertise from the farm level, to the selling point. Uwajeneza is disappointed that very few Rwandans get the opportunity to attend coffee trainings, since they are expensive, and access to them is very hard. 

She has had frequent interactions with coffee farmers in Rwanda, mostly women, for the past seven years of her career.

"Sharing some of my work on social media has impelled me to acquire clients from different parts of the world. I work directly with companies to source for potential farmers who are doing a great job locally,” she states. 

The status of coffee in Rwanda

The barista points out that Rwanda exports more coffee than it consumes, however, Rwandans are starting to adapt to drinking coffee, a thing that excites her.

"Seven years ago, there were few coffee shops in Kigali operated mainly by foreigners, but this has changed, more coffee shops are founded and run by Rwandans.

Uwajeneza indicates that promoting domestic consumption should continue, through education, but it has to start from the grassroots level, for example; farmers themselves have to enjoy the coffee, and locals also have to understand the beauty of coffee and why they need it.

She further notes that there is a problem with accessibility and affordability. If a person can’t afford two meals a day, they can’t be able to buy a cup of coffee for about Rwf 2,500. 

The coffee expert adds that globally, coffee farmers do not earn a lot, which isn’t fair. "Farmers ought to be taught to have prospective in what they are doing, however, there are still limitations that a farmer doesn’t know how to read and write, lacks access to information, because they don’t have smartphones.” 

She emphasises that there are so many studies going on, that people are coming together to curb the substantiality issues, allow farmers to earn more money, and teach them to produce high-quality products, that would be profitable to them and the market.

The barista says that there is still a need for every stakeholder to contribute to creating awareness, for instance, the government and media, among others. 

She anticipates that in 10 years, there will be a significant outcome out of the efforts put together at the moment. 

Other challenges encountered by coffee farmers are environmental changes, and lack of access to tools to use to improve the quality of their products, she adds. 

She says that baristas in the country require training, unfortunately, there are only two schools in the country that offer such training. 

Change of perception 

Uwajeneza had no idea of the situation of coffee farmers until she went to the field. "What I saw is what really made me who I am today, seeing farmers walk barefoot, with torn clothes, having one meal a day, and living a poor life, made me speechless, yet they were the reason I had my job.”

She says, emotionally, that seeing farmers with smiles on their faces is what transformed her to look at coffee differently. She knew that she wanted to help them have a better life, though she didn’t have money. The only way to help them was to understand the craft of coffee, by learning how to make it. 

The barista wants to use the skills acquired to help farmers better their lives. She notes that one of the reasons she came back to Rwanda was to start up her own project dubbed ‘Elevate through Coffee’ which is still in the pipeline. 

The coffee expert looks forward to starting a foundation that will allow vulnerable people to have access to skills to unlock their potential, and discover themselves, for example in coffee production, art, sports, among other abilities.

She is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Laws. She saved up to 2018 and applied for an opening at the University of Kigali, where she hopes to graduate this year.