Mr. Coffee

The village's "political science committee" unanimously approved his petition and gave him a piece of remote forest land a 45-minute walk from the nearest farm.

Robinson then began his search for a bride. A family of the Wanyamwezi tribe adopted him to assist in the process (one can't just show up in rural Africa and ask a young woman for a date). They sent a delegation out in the Mbozi region to prospect for marriage-aged women.

Robinson knew he wanted to meet a Nyamwezi woman because he thought they would share a similar consciousness as descendants of enslaved people. (The Wanyamwezi were heavily raided in the 19th century by Arab slave traders along Africa's east coast.) He also admits that he had his eye on the Wanyamwezi because its women are reputed to be beautiful.

Out of the search process emerged Ruti Mpunda, then 18. They have been married for 15 years, have grown to love one another, says Robinson, and have had seven children. One, named Jack, died from malaria at the age of 4 more than a decade ago.

The family lived in the remote village of Bara until three years ago. Robinson moved them to the capital, to be closer to proper schools. But he spends most of his time at the farm, at Sweet Unity.

From his land he can see Lake Rukwa, among the smaller lakes of the Great Rift Valley of Africa, just south of Lake Tanganyika. He can survey coffee lands, as far as the eye can see, that he will pass on to his children.

His father, after baseball, was an executive for the Chock Full O'Nuts coffee empire in New York. But Robinson doesn't think that influenced his choice of vocation. His workplace is deep in the African bush, a place his father would never have gone. (His mother has visited Tanzania several times, though the rough trek to the farm from the capital, about 16 hours by car, became too rigorous as her age advanced.)

Robinson is a celebrated figure in the region. A man who has committed himself to helping the farmers better their lives. An African American who has come back. Mnegro.

"They have no idea who Jackie Robinson is," says Coogan, who has traveled in the region. "They don't know what baseball is. But they're in awe of what David has done."

Robinson chuckles fondly as he uses the term that is archaic in America, saying, "The Negroes will always be remembered in Mbozi."