Amani Kiflemariam
Founder of Amatte Coffee
Amani Kiflemariam / Photography by Andrei Boros
“What we’re trying to do is tell the story of the continent’s delicious coffee,” explains founder Amani Kiflemariam, who set up Amatte Coffee in 2019. After nine years working in banking, Amani began asking deeper questions of herself and what she wanted to achieve in life. Her thoughts turned to her birthplace of Eritrea, where her earliest memories were made.
“Something that was obvious was that I needed to give back to my continent and its women,” she explains. Having come to the UK at the age of nine, with her mother and siblings, as political refugees, Amani comes from a line of resilient, hard-working women. She was raised by her grandma while her mum went out as the breadwinner for the family.
“That’s quite typical in Africa,” she says. “The women get things done. My mum’s a single mum with five children, and my grandma was this incredible African woman who lost her eyesight at a very young age after she gave birth to my uncle. So essentially it was both of them running the household after my father passed away. I grew up with these two strong women, and I felt I can’t just work in finance – there’s a bigger purpose for me. I have to be able to make things better for these women.” Her brand is built on these core values.
Named after her grandma, Amatte means “to lead by example”, and the company aims to celebrate and reward female farmers. As Amani points out, 70 per cent of the work in Africa’s coffee industry is done by women, and the industry itself comes just after oil in terms of the continent’s biggest commodities. Despite this, much of the business of buying and selling is still conducted by White men.
“The majority of the good Arabica coffee comes from the African continent,” she explains. “Coffee was discovered in Ethiopia as early as the 9th century but was only written about in the 15th century, nobody really talks about that. So the storytelling is really at the forefront of our mission. We have everything we need to do this, all this rich culture, the green coffee and the stories of these amazing women doing the hard work.”
This is the narrative Amani wants to share, with Amatte’s coffee, which is named after African queens and packaged in bags that resemble the traditional Eritrean dress, with its patterned border at the bottom. Five per cent of Amatte’s sales go towards supporting women in Eritrea, helping to train weavers in villages and fund orphanages. And although Amani set up the business in her spare time, it’s already showing its potential.
Interview by Emma Tucker
