Walk into a Sierra Leonean village and you may be welcomed with a cola nut This West African nut snaps in half, forming two sharable nuggets of bittersweet goodness. In Sierra Leonean culture, and indeed many other African nations, breaking the cola nut and sharing it with visitors is the supreme sign of respect and hospitality. In weddings, the cola nut is used to unite the bride and groom; in christenings and other significant ceremonies the cola nut is broken, shared and revered as the “peace nut”.
“The villagers believe when you chew cola and speak with others, you can resolve conflict because your words become more meaningful. It’s a mild stimulant so it makes you want to talk,” explains Simon Coley, co-founder of . By sourcing caffeine-containing cola nuts from the , this New Zealand-based company (the drinks are also sold in Australia and the UK) has brought succour to the people of nearby Boma village whose land and infrastructure have been ravaged by civil war and Ebola over recent decades.
Despite benefitting from a modest indigenous cola trade, where a tribe from the Sub-Sahara treks to Boma to purchase their yearly fix, it wasn’t until Karma Cola’s more robust interest arrived that the cola nut’s potential was fully realised for these villagers.
Children at Sahun School in Sierra Leone sing a welcome: the children are able to go to school with the support of the Karma Cola Foundation. Source: Simon Coley for Karma Cola
Uncovering the cola nut
Simon Coley and fellow founders Chris and Matt Morrison landed upon the cola nut in 2012 after trying to emulate their success in importing Fairtrade Ecuadorian bananas into New Zealand. Their umbrella company is a fierce champion of the Fairtrade movement – and it goes beyond the simplistic idea of trading with fair terms. For them, it embodies the vision that Fairtrade can make a long-term difference to the lives of the growers, their children and their land.
“Our [banana] success gave us the confidence to look for other products where consumers make a connection with producers in a more intimate way than sticking a label on a product,” says Simon. “We discovered there were about 1.9 billion colas consumed in the world daily, so there was enough demand to warrant trying something different. We also discovered cola was an actual ingredient and it came from West Africa.”
Simon Coley tries a cola nut. Source: Karma Cola
Their search led them to Albert Tucker, a native Sierra Leonean and Fairtrade advocate who put them in contact with farmers who harvest cola nuts from the Gola Rainforest. “Although perplexed by the request, they sent us 5 kg of cola nuts. We must have made 100 different concoctions before we developed our best recipe.”
Karma Cola, and its sisters Gingerella Ginger Ale and Lemmy Lemonade, are produced with Fairtrade organic ingredients and sold in 14 countries. Sip Karma Cola for a mildly spritzed, finely balanced and refreshing brew – the bitter cola is enhanced by cane sugar, vanilla extract, nutmeg, coriander oil, cinnamon, malted barley, and lemon, lime and orange oils.
The cola nut smells a bit like roses, tastes bitter at first bite, but eventually turns sweet after a good chew. The nut apparently featured in the original Coca-Cola recipe but most of the ingredients were synthesised into artificial ingredients many years ago.
A hand up, not a hand-out
Since bottling its first drinks in 2012, Karma Cola has donated a portion of the proceeds from every bottle to Boma villagers, and this is all legitimised through the establishment of the Karma Cola Foundation, now headed up by Albert Tucker. As director, he listens to the pitches from local chiefs who make a case for their own community’s needs for financing.
The foundation has contributed to the building of the Makenneh Bridge connecting two parts of the village separated by water, sent 45 children to school, sponsored an educational HIV/AIDS dance troupe, built a rice processing centre, supported farmers via a seed bank, rehabilitated forest farms and supported 2000 people through the Ebola Crisis.
“This is about trade and giving people a hand rather than a hand-out,” clarifies Simon. “We’d like to make sure the foundation helps the villagers establish economic independence and that we spread the benefit as considerately as we can. That was one of the reasons of this last trip – to understand how we can do better there.”
Karma cook-up
Simon took part in the world’s most isolated Burger Cook-up in the Gola Jungle late last year. Along with Phil Eeles and Tom Barton, owners of UK chain Honest Burgers, in which Karma Cola is sold, Simon spent 24 hours on two planes, a boat ride across the harbour to Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown, several days in a four-wheel drive and a solid walk to reach the village of Boma. They sent cases of Karma Cola in advance and lugged rudimentary equipment to cook burgers and cassava chips (potatoes don’t thrive in the jungle) and serve cola to the people of Boma and the surrounding villages with no electricity and barely-there cooking facilities. (The burger has been a win for Honest Burgers - when the stores featured a Karma Burger as a special on the menu, with a cola-based sauce, it was the most successful special they’ve ever run).
“We wanted to share our contrast in cultural experiences and thought it would be fantastic if we could share food, a practice we all have in common,” enthuses Simon. “After the customary ‘devil dance’ welcome, we began cooking and soon after we had an enormous crew waiting to be fed. It was like a rock concert.” The guys got a big thumbs up from the chiefs, the villagers and the kids.
Young women perform a traditional Bundo Society dance to welcome the karma Cola and Honest Burger vistitors to Boma. Source: Simon Coley for Karma Cola
Serving up burgers in Boma. Source: Simon Coley for Karma Cola
A closer look at the Jungle Burger cook-up:
It was a neat circle of life moment for Simon to see the benefits Karma Cola has provided, and for the villagers to taste the very product restoring their independence for future prosperity.
“There’s a beautifully large cotton tree in the middle of the Boma village,” tells Simon. “It’s one of the remnants of the rainforest, and has been there for 700-odd years, but that started with a seed. The villagers understand we’re trying to figure out small things we can do to enable them to grow in a similar way to that cotton tree.”
At the other end of the supply chain, the consumer picks up a Karma Cola bottle and is greeted by a psychedelic illustration of Mami Wata, the African water spirit who, according to Simon, is quite tempestuous – “She can bring good fortune and she can punish” – and a cool incarnation of the Karma Cola brand. The people of Boma may have been punished by the fury of civil war and Ebola, but their resilience has been rewarded with the good karma of the cola nut.
