Don’t Boycott that Coffee Shop

Portland’s Summer of Rage, coffee shop boycotts, and university campus protests are recent examples of Americans attempting to influence a particular outcome. But were they successful? Today I offer a recent practical example of a successful boycott.

"Our audacious, innovative, and patient actions, backed by USAID and the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, offered a twenty-first-century example of a successful, peaceful protest. I reaffirmed what history had taught me, that organized campaigns, grounded in economic impact, are more powerful than standalone protests." -Galeeb Kachra, 2021

What Do I Think?

Were recent protests as successful as the lunch room boycotts in the 1960s that led to the civil rights movement in the American south or Gandhi’s 1930s salt march in India that led to Indian independence?

In 2009, I had the opportunity to help apply the lunch room and salt march lessons to help Kenyan youth stop the illegal development of a public park.

The Illegal Grab

“Taifa Park, located within the Central Business District next to the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, is one of the oldest green spaces facilities in Kisumu town. Through 2009, the park, though largely unattended, with tall grass and uncollected refuse, remained accessible to the public. It had beautiful, though aging flamboyant trees and some bougainvillea flower hedges around it that provided shade for hundreds of the town residents who chose to relax there or eat food and drinks from the vendors around it.

This environment suddenly changed one early morning when residents woke up to find all of the trees cut down with power saws. Crowds of curious and outraged residents quickly gathered around the park. Information spread like wildfire; the Park had been taken over by “a private developer”, which without doubt meant that the place would soon see the construction of a strip mall or high-rise building.” (Janak, 2011).

The Response

Over the next few months, USAID funded a Kenyan youth group to think, plan, and act. The youth leaders wanted financial and technical support for protests. We asked them, what makes you think a day, week, or month of protests would get the park back? Protests are overrated. If one is a corrupt politician or businessman, what do they care if a bunch of unemployed youth are out protesting at their property? Eventually, they will bring in the heavy equipment and armed guards, build a wall, and start the development. The demonstrators will eventually disperse because they have to find something more productive to do to pay the rent and bring food to the table. 

The youth, however, were adamant and researched nonviolent protests, economic boycotts, and mass movements. We strung together Gandhi’s salt march, Rosa Parks and Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the Greensboro lunch room sit-ins of the 1960s. What did they all have in common? They caused direct economic hardship for people who had the power to bring about change. 

The youth group hired an investigator to secure evidence that identified the developer and the document illegal transaction. This developer also manufactured and sold basic food products. That is important because boycotts work better if the item being targeted was traded in large quantities and if there were alternatives available. The youth organized a massive campaign, beginning with public education. They also gave the developer a chance to prevent the boycotts and protests, but he declined. 

A large protest at the park marked the launch of the boycott (see the videos in the references). It began with bread but quickly expanded to flour, oil, and soap that the same company made. Competitors dropped their prices while increasing their market share. 

Protesters in Kisumu, Kenya. -- USAID Kenya 2011 Annual Report

The developer fought back. According to Janak, “They mounted both legal and political maneuvers complete with intimidation of [youth] leaders and other stakeholders in an effort to shake off the mounting public pressure.” They even wrote a cease and desist letter to the U.S. ambassador in Nairobi; the letter only reinforced the fact that the youth were doing the right thing.

The house of cards quickly crumbled. Politicians, worried about the protests, economic boycott, youth power, and their own corrupt practices, stopped backing the devloper. Even those outside Kisumu got involved: Minister of Lands, provincial commissioner, and the anticorruption commission weighed in as the media covered the story on the national television news. The title deed was eventually returned and transferred back to public trust. USAID supported the establishment of a park steering committee and landscaping. 

The Documentation

USAID Kenya’s 2011 Annual Report captured the story with a powerful picture of protesting youth: 

The community took action in 2009, when the public park was sold to Kenyan food manufacturing giant [x]. Throughout the legal and moral battle, USAID supported the [youth] to empower community members to monitor and use non violent means to demand transparency and accountability from government officials involved in the sale of the park. The youth group organized a wide spectrum of the residents of Kisumu through churches, mosques, boda boda taxi associations, matatu transport sub sector, piki piki transport subsector, councilors, and hawkers to demand return of Taifa Park to public ownership. 

The youth group organized rallies and a boycott of [x’s] products…The grassroots anti-corruption effort succeeded in 2011 when the title deed for the park was reissued to the Municipality of Kisumu and the park was again open to the people for public use.”

Why Should You Care?

The U.S. Constitution’s first amendment gives Americans “The right to gather peacefully to advocate for causes, beliefs, movements, or protests.” Clause 37 of Kenya’s Constitution states, “Every person has the right, peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket, and to present petitions to public authorities.” Many other countries have similar protections. 

But to use protests effectively, plan well, educate the public, incorporate an economic component, and target those that have the power to effect change or that can directly influence those with the power to effect change. Does the coffee shop you target meet those criteria?  Otherwise, your boycott may be just a blip in time.

References

This post is a summary of one chapter in my 2021 self-published book, How I Changed The World In My Own Unique Ways, available in e-book and audiobook format.

• USAID Kenya Annual Report, p. 8 https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/USAID-AR2011%252022ndJune2012.pdf 

• Oloo Janak, “Citizens Reclaim Park from Grabbers,” Reject newsletter, issue 047, September 16–30, 2011. Reject is a bimonthly newsletter by the Media Diversity Centre, a project of African Woman and Child Feature Service. Reproduced sections, with edits, with permission secured from the author in December 2020.
• Citizen TV News: News Round Up, April 23, 2010 (first 30 seconds) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr1Dh9cSxmk 
• K24 News: Land Grabbing Demonstration held in Kisumu, 2010 https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=odwBYqH77_Q&NR=1