FOUNDER’S DESK | 005
By Deola Abela Inyang
Founder & CEO, Abela® World Limited & Abela Centre for Olfactory Arts, Pioneer, Afro-Baroque Perfumery®
Reading Time: 4–5 minutes
Categories: Founder’s Desk • Identity • Culture
Every time I think about my culture, I reckon the honor system that is inherent in it. As you may know, the African culture as with many other culture systems is imbued with symbolism that represents different systems inherent within them.
One such symbol is the kola nut, a rather unassuming fruit produced by trees of the genus Cola, particularly Cola nitida and Cola acuminata. Its leathery outer husk protects several rounded seeds, or cotyledons, whose colour may range from pale cream to deep red. Beneath its modest appearance lies a material carrying immense meaning and weight for many West African peoples.
Yet kola traditions are not a single, continent-wide system. Their meanings vary among communities, languages and ceremonial settings.
In Yoruba contexts, the kola nut commonly referred to as obi, especially obi abata, the fresh kola nut used in formal presentation, may be offered in greetings, prayer, hospitality, consultation and other acts of respect.
Bitter kola, or Garcinia kola, is a different botanical material, valued for its sharp, bitter taste and used in some communities in greetings, traditional medicine, social rituals and ceremonial exchanges.
These materials and practices should not be treated as interchangeable, nor should Yoruba usage be taken as a universal model for all West African kola traditions.
Kola’s History of Exchange and Recognition
The history of kola’s use in Africa, particularly in West Africa, is inseparable from systems of trade, diplomacy, kinship and spiritual practice. Long before kola became a commodity in colonial and global markets, it moved through regional networks linking forest communities with savannah cities and trading centres.
Kola nuts were exchanged across long distances, offered to guests, presented during negotiations, carried in marriage rites and used to open important conversations.
In many communities, the kola nut is not simply eaten. It is prayed over, broken according to local custom, shared among those present and interpreted within a sacred social order.
The details of these practices differ: the words spoken, the order of presentation, the manner of breaking and the meanings assigned to the pieces belong to particular communities. Its presentation can acknowledge ancestors, invoke blessing, establish peace or affirm the seriousness of an occasion.
To receive kola is to enter a relationship of recognition and responsibility.
Kola Nut in the Olfactory Language of Perfumery
Why should kola nut have a place in the olfactory language of perfumery?
Because this carries more than an aroma. It carries a way of recognising another person.
In Yoruba culture, the offering of kola nut has long been a gesture of welcome and honour, expressed through specific forms of prayer, presentation and sharing.
In the igbo culture, it is a common adage that says, he who brings kola, brings good tidings.
Across other West African communities, kola carries its own distinct histories, names, protocols and ceremonial meanings. Its presence can mark a moment of arrival, but the significance of that moment is shaped by the people and tradition involved.
Its presence says You are seen. You are received. You have a place here.
Archiving Memory Through BÀLÁGÀ
That memory and honor system deserves to be archived in perfumery. Yet it must be approached with care. Naming kola nut as a note is only the beginning; the deeper artistic question is whether a fragrance can express the relationships and values surrounding it without flattening the traditions from which those meanings arise.
This question laid the foundation for BÀLÁGÀ. I wanted kola nut to be its protagonist: a presence through which we could explore recognition, honour and welcome as lived cultural experiences, while remaining attentive to Nigerian cultural reference that anchors the work and to the wider diversity of West African kola practices.
The ÀBÉLÀ Aromatic Canon
Through the ÀBÉLÀ Aromatic Canon, I am building a language for materials whose stories have too often been absent from global perfume discourse. Kolanut as the protagonist in BÀLÁGÀ is one expression of that work.
Here, we let perfumery play an integral role in the preservation of culture, heritage and artistic expression; permitting it to hold memory close enough for another generation to encounter it.
References
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Cola nitida and Garcinia kola.
- Paul E. Lovejoy, “Kola in the History of West Africa”.
- Igbo Studies Review, “The Sanctity of the Kola Nut Ritual as a Symbol of Communion of Saints in Igbo Tradition”.
About the Author
Deola Abela Inyang is the Founder & CEO of Abela® World Limited and the Abela Centre for Olfactory Arts. She is the originator of Afro-Baroque Perfumery® and writes on culture, identity, leadership, entrepreneurship, and the inner life of building. Through Founder’s Desk, she explores the intersection of identity, human behaviour, cultural memory, leadership, and institution building.
