Kola nut: Seed of togetherness in our Culture.

Kola Nuts

By Prince Kelly Udebhulu.

“Kola nut presentation to a visitor  shows acceptance and welcome and so does it show friendship and love, in the same way that denial of kola nut denotes displeasure and disapproval"

Nature, however, has a way of taking care of its own contradictions, and this is what happens in Nigeria. Defying such logic of impossibility, this country of about a hundred and sixty million people with over 250 ethnic groups has demonstrated to the world that there is a possibility in impossibility. This beautiful country is blessed with diverse people, whose culture is as diverse as their climatic and weather conditions. It has successfully disproved the hypothesis by being united through one generous gift of nature.

What is this gift one may ask? It is a simple seed nut, grown in the western and central parts of Africa. It is the kola nut seed. It is the kola nut seed. Yes, the same kola nut popularly known by such botanical names like kola acuminate or atrophora, kola alba and kola nitida.  It is of course, this same kola nut that has given this country, called Nigeria, a unifying image. Journeying from the eastern part of the country through the north to the southern and western parts, one unforgettable experience that the visitor takes away with him is the tradition of kola nut presentation. However, the pattern, presentation of kola nut in all of these places when a visitor comes around, approves his welcome in the same way that denial of kola nut denotes displeasure and disapproval.

Grown and harvested abundantly in the western part of the country, the seed of kola nut, which is celebrated in a mythical manner by the Igbo of the South-East, is almost eaten like food in the North. The way and manner that kola nut is seen and appreciated by Nigerians makes it something bigger than the mere red and yellow seed nuts hawked around in trays by Hausa traders in small kiosks in the village markets and major cities or that large quantity of agricultural crops grown, harvested and stored in large hand-woven baskets by Yoruba farmers.

“Kola nut is regarded as a sacred nut used to communicate with the gods, being that it is chosen by the elders as the head or king of all seeds. As a seed nut, it is used in so many ways as a mediating factor. It is necessary to present it first on every occasion,”
...to be continued
By Prince Kelly Udebhulu