The Satemwa Tea and Coffee estate in the highlands of Malawi in southern Africa looks like the sort of Utopian working environment pioneered by the social reformer Robert Owen more than two centuries ago. A Welsh textile manufacturer, Owen sought to improve the working conditions of the men and women whose lives were being upended by the industrial revolution.
At his textile mill outside Glasgow, which Owen purchased in 1799, he put his employment philosophy into practice. He paid his workers a decent wage, not the common tokens usable only in the company store. He offered employees and their immediate family dignified housing, free healthcare, child education and even an on-site nursery, thought to be the first in the world.
In 2019, Satemwa is aiming for something similar. A beautiful estate where neatly clipped tea bushes range over the majestic hills of southern Malawi, Satemwa offers an eight-hour day — something pioneered by Owen — an antenatal clinic, a school for 900 children and 12 weeks of maternity leave.