By Tai Olaniyi
Kolanut is one interesting chewable nut; bitter in taste, eaten as a stimulant, and variegated in color: from reddish purple, red, brown, light yellow, and sometimes very light green.
It has a symmetry dividing it into lobes and in specie. The Yorubas name ” Abata” as one with multiple lobes, “Gbanja” and a few other ones that possess slight variation in sizes and usage.
In Nigeria, Kolanut is mostly grown in the South-West, traded in the North, and well dignified in South- East in particular. I am not a Botanist, so I am not concerned about its botanical name. Neither am I a nutritionist nor medical personnel, so can’t determine the degree of its caffeine content.
However, I know that the chewing of Kolanut carries different significance to different people at different times. Hmmm, the Son of Man first got inducted to the eating or chewing of Kolanut during our childhood days in Offa when our parents were Kolanut eaters, and for the sake of long throats we could not but partake in the parental and societal holy communion.
Later in life, still as children and secondary school students and as members of the Church Choir, Pa Olateju of Ile Esso, Offa in Kwara State alias ” Baba Doburu” must ensure we were all given a lobe of Kolanut before we filed into the Church for Service.
He was so renowned and popular in this area of Traditional cum Christian kindheartedness. The three main stages of human life viz, Birth, Marriage, and Death entail the offering of Kolanut as one of the most symbolic traditional gifts that should be demanded and shared, especially among the Elders in many communities of old.
The Kolanut is usually an object with which Invocation and prayers were made for the Divine presence, intervention, and blessings galore. Other ceremonies like house warming and special traditional rituals have Kolanut as an object of supplication adoration and blessings.
In the pedestrian use of Kolanut, it is used as a stimulant and to prevent one from sleeping especially during the exam period. Many are so addicted to the extent they mutilate their teeth and later get their teeth so brownish thus making even their wives and girlfriends violate the ” For Better for Worse” marriage oath when the embargo is laid on kissing.
The advent of Pentecostalism in Christianity in Nigeria greatly repudiates the use of Kolanut in cultural rites of Birth, Marriage, and Death ceremonies to such an extent that a previous innocent kind of offering and mode of sharing is now tantamount to Satanism and the power of Principalities and Forces.
The Holy Bible has replaced the Yoruba ideation that the use of Kolanur in prayer could help ward off death and diseases, ” Obi ni nbi Iku Obi ni nbi Arun”. Cake, mantles, and anointing oils are in religious bigotry considered replacements for Kolanuts.
For many and to them, cake and sweetness can never be used to poison, but only our Kolanut is an object of Satan. Doctrinal imperialism daily shatters our African brotherhood, brotherliness, and rites of communalism.
I cannot deny the fact that excessive intake of caffeinated substances like Kolanut could be debilitating to one’s body chemistry or even the poisoned one offered to one by those with sinister motives.
Hmmm, my bone of contention is should every sharing of Kolanut be termed as Evil? O am most convinced as Chinua Achebe puts it in Things Fall Apart that, “He who brings Kolanut brings LIFE”.
I also concur with the Yoruba when, in proverbs, they pronounce that; “Oro pele ni mu ni yo Obi ni apo, oro lile ni mu ni yo Ida ni apo”. (A soothing word can elicit the offering of Kolanut from the pocket, a harsh word can enrage one into a forceful withdrawal of sword from its scabbard.)
Lastly, why did God in His infinite grace create the KOLANUT for our use, to serve as a SOUVENIR of Life or a means to the African’s Death? Hmmmmm, I humbly decamp and henceforth withdraw into my Cocoon.
