Deep inside the Nebilyer Valley in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea sits a famed coffee plantation, Kilima. It lies on the traditional land of the Ganiga people, steeped in colonial history, wealth and bloodshed.
The plantation was purchased from the Ganiga in the early 1970s by a then young Johannes “Joe” Leahy, an enterprise he spent years building up and then decades mourning its drawn-out destruction. Leahy was part of one of Papua New Guinea’s leading family dynasties who made their fortune in the Highlands. Earlier this month Leahy died, aged 85, inside the house he lived in most of his life, surrounded by his beloved coffee trees, the “green gold” that his life – its highs and lows – was built on.
