Black Gold Details

Wake up and smell the coffee

Although a documentary, Black Gold is as gripping as a thriller. It lifts the lid on something that we take for granted – a cup of coffee. It’s not just the journey of the coffee bean from the farm, through the middlemen, to the roasters and then on to the big buyers and eventually to the shops and coffee houses of Europe and the US – as interesting as that is. What catches the throat is the vast disparity between those who toil the land to grow the beans that we enjoy, and the handful of major corporates that get the bean to the market. While the one cannot exist with the other, the economic gulf between the two is no less than criminal. The coffee growers can barely feed themselves and their families, let alone educate their children, and earn less in a week than the cost of a cappuccino in Starbucks.

It is hard not to be thoroughly moved by this film, which describes the ugly economics of the coffee trade in human terms through the eyes of the Ethiopian co-operative leader, who works tirelessly and selflessly to improve the lot of his community of farmers.

There is brilliant use of juxtaposition. One moment we are amidst the most desperate poverty of the Ethiopian farmers, the next we are taking a frivolous tour around the coffee houses of Seattle. Here we find staff congratulating themselves on how well they look after their customers. As genuine and well meaning as they may be, one is left feeling that they are totally oblivious to the gross unfairness of the trade of which they are a part. Then we move to the world barista competition where making coffee is taken as seriously as tasting fine wine, and yet those who work the 12 hour shifts to ensure the quality of the beans are paid less than a $ a day.

This is not just a matter of economics, it is exploitation. And yet, at the time the film debuts in the UK, the G8 conference talks self-righteously of Aid to Africa. What Black Gold highlights is the false economy of providing aid when what is needed is trade. Africa needs aid now, but what it really needs is to be independent and benefit from its own rich resources.

One is also struck by the beauty and majesty of the Ethiopian people. As poor as they are, they have no interest in material goods and put education of their children at the top of their priorities. They do not ask for much, but the difference between receiving virtually nothing for their produce, and receiving a little for it, could make the world of difference to them.

The genius of the film is that it does not merely highlight the problem, it could actually be part of the solution. As consumers become aware of this issue, it will affect their choices towards fair trade items. And then the businesses that control the market will have no choice but to wake up and smell the coffee.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Factual, superb documentary...must see

Informative, moving and thought proviking. What a shocking contrast shown between the nobs drinking and selling their coffee and the ethiopian workers slaving to get about 2p from each cup of coffee we buy and women hand picking beans 8 hours a days for about 25p!! Either of them totally oblivious to the other. Most definately makes you think and problably will sway you to buy fair trade if you don't already.