In the early days of his presidency, Adeze Kanza took a trip that would ultimately alter the trajectory of the Afrikanzan economy. Masindi District, nestled in the lush hills of western Uganda, was not on the itinerary of most heads of state. But Kanza was no ordinary president. His mission was unconventional: to explore Uganda’s tobacco farms in search of the ultimate vice for export.
To Kanza, tobacco was the perfect product—morally questionable, perennially in demand, and with a profit margin fat enough to fund the dreams of a growing nation. He imagined Afrikanza branded cartons in humid corners of convenience stores from Marseille to Manila. He imagined ashtrays with national crests and export reports that smelled faintly of tar.
But dreams meet reality quickly in the hills of Masindi. The tobacco fields were plentiful, but so were the problems. Most of the land was worked by smallholders—stoic, sunburned families operating on razor-thin margins. They sold their leaves to a cartel of powerful multinational buyers who operated with quiet efficiency and an open disdain for new entrants. Any attempt by Kanza to secure supply was met with cordial indifference at best and legal threats at worst.
Kanza, never one to linger where he wasn’t wanted, withdrew. But not before he noticed something else.
In the higher altitudes, shaded beneath old-growth trees, coffee plants thrived. Coffee wasn’t an afterthought here—it was a legacy. And unlike tobacco, it didn’t carry the same political baggage. The farmers were more cooperative, the buyers less consolidated, and the global thirst for high-quality beans was growing by the hour. Even more appealing to Kanza was the narrative: coffee was vice with virtue. An addictive export that came with fewer lawsuits and better public relations.
Masindi Vice, then, became a turning point—not because of what Kanza bought, but because of what he didn’t. From the failed foray into tobacco emerged a vision of Afrikanza as a premium coffee origin. What began as a mission to traffic in sin pivoted to one of aroma, craft, and commerce.
In the years to come, Afrikanza’s coffee would fetch top prices at auction. But it all started with a dusty visit to Masindi, a few cold stares from tobacco barons, and a stubborn leader with a taste for opportunity.