WHERE THE JEBENA CROSSES BORDERS

We can't talk about Habesha without honoring Sudan.

Eritreans have always found refuge across the border — in Kassala, Khartoum, in homes that held us when we had nowhere else to go. One of my closest cousins was born there. Like so many Eritrean families, part of our story lives in Sudan.

We share more than borders — culture, language, food, rhythm. We share the jebena. Eritrean and Sudanese jebenas are nearly identical, while Ethiopian designs differ, showing how geography and history shape even our most sacred rituals.

More than ceremony, coffee binds communities across time and place. Boon in Tigrinya, buna in Amharic: one syllable difference, yet a reminder of how language can both unite and divide. In English, 'coffee' is neutral — a single word that dissolves difference, where identity finds common ground. As the primary color of this project, coffee grounds us in the truth that even what divides can bring us back together.

In the Middle East, Habesha often describes not just Eritreans and Ethiopians, but Sudanese and Somali people too. That naming creates quiet connections — not always fully understood, but often deeply felt.

Today, Sudan faces the world's largest humanitarian crisis — millions displaced, families torn apart, a people abandoned by the international community.

This project holds space for that grief too. We see you. We remember what you've given us. We're not looking away.