Lost history · 20th century to present
No matching image yet, so this page uses a plain title card instead of a photo.
Before there were roads south, the kola merchants of Jega went by canoe down the Niger to Ondo, Ikirun and Abeokuta, and came home so heavily loaded it took seven men to unpack them. Their small Kebbi town became the North's great kola market, and a Yoruba woman now heads its Yoruba section.
Jega is an old town in Kebbi State, in the far north-west of Nigeria. Kola does not grow there. People have tried. One old merchant told the Daily Trust in 2018 that they had planted kola trees in different parts of Kebbi State, but every time, the young trees grew to a certain point and then died. And yet, for generations, Jega has been one of the great kola markets of the whole North.
The reason is a story of long, hard journeys. Jega's kola merchants were among the earliest northern traders to do business with towns in the South West. In those days there was no road from much of the North down to Yorubaland. The only way was by water. So the traders set off in canoes, joined the River Niger near Yauri, and spent many days on the river to reach towns such as Ifon, Ore, Ikirun, Abeokuta, Ondo and Kajola, in what are now Oyo, Ogun, Ondo and Osun States.
One of the oldest merchants in Jega, Alhaji Ahmadu Barmu Jega, spoke for the town's kola sellers' association. He had been in the trade for more than fifty years. It was his father's trade first, and as a boy he followed his father on those trips, to Ile-Ife, Abeokuta, Ondo and Ibadan, by canoe. When his father died, he took over, and in time he travelled even further, to Ghana and Abidjan, to buy kola as his father had done.
He described the route plainly. They went from Yauri along the Niger, and came back the same way. From Yauri they went by water into Kalgo, and from Kalgo on to Jega, carrying their loads of kola. It was long and it was difficult, he said, but there was no other choice. The trade had to go on.
The homecoming was the best part. The merchants came back with so much kola that it took six or seven strong men to carry the goods off each canoe. And they did not have to go looking for buyers. The buyers were already waiting.
Before the canoes even arrived, traders would have gathered in Jega from all around: from Birnin Kebbi, Argungu, Yauri and Ambursa, from Tambuwal in Sokoto, from Kamba and Kangiwa, from Zaria, Kano and Katsina, Beriberi traders, and traders from across the border in Niger Republic. The merchants would open up their kola in front of everyone, the buyers would bargain and pay, and then they would carry the nuts back to their own towns. From Jega, kola spread out across the North.
After a while, the trade began to flow the other way too. Yoruba traders from the South West started bringing kola up to Jega themselves. That is still true. In 2018 the market had a Yoruba section with its own head, a woman named Madam Aishatu, whom everyone called Mama Taofik. She had been in the trade for more than twenty years, travelling to Ile-Ife, Ondo, Ore, Ifon and Ikirun to bring kola north, and sending it on from Jega to Sokoto, Zaria, Kano and Maiduguri.
Kola also arrives from abroad. Alhaji Barmu pointed out loads in the shops that had come in from Ghana only the day before. Jega's traders, he explained, never take kola to Ghana or Cote d'Ivoire, because those countries have good kola of their own and send it here. But they do send kola out to Sudan, Mali, Niger and Benin Republic.
Ask a Jega trader about kola and you get a lesson. There are many kinds. The white and the red are the most wanted. There is goriya, the heavy kola, and minnu, the smaller ones. Mama Taofik also named gbanja and abata among the kinds she brings. Alhaji Barmu said the goriya type is the one people carry to Saudi Arabia. Its export there had been banned, he said, but buyers still came to Jega for it.
He had an opinion on quality too. Nigerian kola, he said, is the prettier nut, with the finer look. But for taste, the kola from Ghana is better.
Like any trade, kola has its good seasons and its bad ones. At its peak in 2018, a wrap of kola could fetch as much as N7,500, and white kola N6,500. In low seasons the price could fall to N3,000 or even N2,500. Another trader, Malam Ibrahim Inuwa, said the business had been good to him. His one complaint was credit. After all the trouble of bringing kola from so far away, the sellers often still had to give it to buyers on credit, and sometimes the money never came back.
Over the years kola has spread everywhere, and many people in many towns now deal in it. Yauri, Koko, Argungu and Birnin Kebbi all have their own kola trade. But, Alhaji Barmu said, many of those traders still come to Jega to buy. Every Friday people from Lolo in Bagudo, from Dole Kaina and from Kamba park their vehicles all over the town to trade. The sellers' association had more than 500 members, and he was proud to say they were disciplined.
For him, the trade had given him a whole life. Through kola he had gone on pilgrimage to Mecca, and after him his wife and other members of his family went too. He had bought a house. He had given his daughters away in marriage. All of it came from a nut that will not grow in his town, carried home by canoe.
