Mr. Coffee

Out in the lush highlands of the Mbozi district of the southwestern Tanzania region whose coffee is praised the world over, Robinson has built a life, raised a family and seen his goals begin to flower.

Among African Americans who move to Africa, Robinson is relatively unusual for plunging deep into the African wilderness. His 280-acre farm, called Sweet Unity, includes 60 acres that he and one of his sons cleared. Robinson enlists up to 50 relatives and neighbors from other farms to harvest his coffee; similarly he helps with neighboring harvests.

It is part of the Mshikamano Farmers Group, a 10-year-old cooperative whose product, Sweet Unity Farms coffee, is featured at the Folklife Festival's Food Culture USA program.

Robinson, as the group's marketing manager, is seeking new retail and corporate clients. To earn better prices for the crops of Mshikamano's 300 coffee farms, Robinson is swimming against the currents of the global coffee trade by trying to market their product directly to buyers. (Sweet Unity Farms coffee can be found in markets in Atlanta and New York, but not yet in the District.)

And Robinson and the cooperative are battling Mbozi's unforgiving environment, filled with malaria, backbreaking work, a history of poverty and farming failures.

As a driving force in starting Mshikamano, Robinson found his presence duly noted by grant makers at the African Development Foundation, a U.S.-government organization, which awarded the cooperative $210,000 this year for such supports as tools and fertilizers.

"The fact that he would move there, start a family there, live in the village with no electricity, no running water: It's quite a commitment," says Tom Coogan, ADF's representative for eastern and southern Africa. "And I think he really understood at the local level both what the farmers needed and how he could help."

In Tanzania, Robinson is affectionately known, in Kiswahili, as M negro (the Negro). His life takes the appellation "African American" to a whole new level, for Robinson is living an African life, not just acknowledging Africa with a name.

In 1990, he petitioned local authorities in Mbozi for land, which meant explaining why he, a non-Tanzanian, should be granted such a privilege. Despite letters of introduction from government contacts on the coast, his first couple of pitches were rejected. The third village, Bara, seemed more open to the idea.

Robinson presented himself to the village authorities as a descendant of Africa, once separated from the continent and its tribes by slavery, who had returned to claim a place.

"Traditionally in an African society, a social member, a tribal member, has a village and all villagers look out for and will allocate land to their members," he explains.

So he told them, "By history, I lost my location. But I am choosing this location and I want you, based on that principle, to give me some consideration."