3601136

African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
The Introduction of Nitida Kola into Nigerian Agriculture, 1880-1920

Author(s): Babatunde Agiri
Source: African Economic History, No. 3 (Spring, 1977), pp. 1-14
Published by: African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3601136
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The Introduction of Nitida Kola
into Nigerian Agriculture,1880-1920
Babatunde Agiri
University of Lagos
It is a well-known fact that the imposition of colonial rule in

many parts
of tropical Africa from the 1880's was generally accompanied
by the introduction,
adoption and cultivation of new crops by African farmers to meet new demands in
overseas markets. It is only recently, however, that this process of agricul-
tural change has begun to be examined to determine whether or not a causal
relationship existed between the two historical events and the relative impor-
tance of external factors and the innovative capabilities of African farmers.1
The case of cola nitida in Nigerian agriculture falls into this category.
Frequently referred to in the literature as kola or the kola nut, coZa nitida
is about the size of a chestnut, and contains roughly as much caffeine
per hundred
grams as coffee plus about as much theobromine per hundred grams as tea. It is
usually chewed raw. Today, this crop competes with cocoa for primacy in the
agricultural economy of southwestern Nigeria. Unlike cocoa, it is not an export
crop. It is cultivated to meet the ever-growing demand for its nuts in northern
Nigeria. Contrariwise, it has not been fully accepted for cultivation in eastern
Nigeria and, therefore, the production of its nuts there for the markets in the
north probably has not been very significant, contrary to the estimates by Dr.
Pius Okigbo.2 The crop is also cultivated among the Nupe and the people of Kabba
along the banks of the river Niger and up to Zungeru.
This demand for cola nitida (or gbanja3 kola, as it is known
among the
Yoruba) in northern Nigeria has existed for many centuries and is ultimately
responsible in varying degrees for the adoption and cultivation of the crop in
Nigeria. The other commodity which can be implied by the term kola4 is cola
acuminata, another species of kola which has much the same chemical characteris-
tics as c. nitida, although a different flavor. Acuminata kola was already
present in southern Nigeria when nitida was introduced in the 19th
century but
today is of relatively slight importance economically. As early as the 16th
century A.D., nitida kola nuts had been imported overland into Hausaland from
the Futa Jallon and Guinean Highlands of West Africa
through the trading acti-
vities of Soninke and Mali traders. After 1700, the nuts were obtained from
the Asante forests through the important market town,
Salaga, in the
district north-east of the Asante Kingdom. The main purveyors of the Gonja commodity
were the Hausa traders.5 From the 1860's however, the sea link between the pro-
ducing areas in West Africa and Hausaland through Lagos and the river Niger
gradually came into prominence.6 Available official records indicate that imports
into Lagos from Sierra Leone, and probably the forests of the modern
Republic of
Guinea, began in 1863, although it may have started ten years earlier with the
settlement in Lagos of some 200 to 300 Yoruba Saro (liberated Africans of Yoruba
extraction from Sierra Leone) who were the pioneers of the trade. From 1870,
imports reached Lagos from the Windward Coast of West Africa, that is, the areas
of Liberia and Ivory Coast, and had surpassed by far those from Sierra
Leone in
1880. Similarly, the first documented imports into Lagos from the Gold Coast
occurred in 1879. By 1885, that country had become the leading
exporter of the
commodity to Lagos, accounting for more than 85 per cent of the total imports
for any one year through to the late 1920's.
African Economic History, No. 3,

Spring, 1977
2
SOME OF THE MAINKOLANUTPRODUCINGAREAS IN NIGERIA
Introduction of Nitida Cola to Nupe

According to available oral evidence7 nitida kola was introduced into the
Nupe Kingdom sometime during the 18th century. A Hausa trader coming from Borgu
gave a Nupe woman some nitida kola nuts in return for a porridge meal. But she
forgot the nuts in the field where she had been busy threshing grain for beer.
The nuts later germinated, producing the nitida kola trees that have made the
Labozi district, located roughly between Jebba and Bete, famous for its produc-
tion of high quality nuts. Although this story may appear legendary, it agrees
in details with aspects of our present knowledge of the trade between Hausaland
and the Asante Kingdom from about 1700. Firstly, the trade was dominated by
Hausa traders and secondly, the route went through the Borgu country.8
Although it is true that the Nupe kingdom was not located on the major
route, this does not imply that it was economically isolated from its neighbours.
For example, Rakah was a market centre, located close to its western frontier, on
one of the alternative routes. Furthermore, the Nupe kingdom was famous as a
centre of cloth production and rivalled Kano even in the period before the 19th
century,9 while its neighbours, the riverain Igala and some Igbirra, traded salt
from the Benue river to other communities along the banks of the Niger river to
the west.10 Since Hausa traders are known to have travelled overland from Kano
and Katsina to the Benue river basin, too, to participate in the salt trade,ll
it could be true that the ubiquitous Hausa traders, not necessarily the kola nut
traders, in their commercial peregrinations may have accidentally introduced the
3
nitida kola nuts to the Nupe kingdom for cultivation. The details of how it
happened may have been forgotten.
The cultivation of the crop was, however, ritualised. The etsu (ruler)
of Nupe gave annually a slave to be sacrificed at the groves to ensure a good
harvest, and also assisted the production in a more practical and economic way
by supplying slaves who worked in the groves. As a result, he enjoyed a direct
control of the produce.12
In the absence of any information, it is impossible now to estimate the
volume of the nuts that went to the markets in Hausaland. The quantity, however,
must have been small considering the restricted area devoted to the cultivation
of the crop.13
The adoption of the crop was probably made easier because other species
of cola are known to have been growing in the Nupe area. One of these is cola
acuminata, mentioned earlier, whose nuts formed a trade commodity among the
Ekiti (a Yoruba subgroup to the southeast), on the one hand, and the Nupe,
Igbirra, Igala, and the people of Kabba, on the other. Generally, these people
chew cola acuminata nuts the same way as the nitida. Moreover, acuminata nuts
form an important ingredient in traditional ceremonies and divination. The
trade in the acuminata nuts survived well into the colonial period and until re-
cently this type of kola was an important commodity in the domestic economy of
these communities.14 Furthermore, Islam had become entrenched in the Nupe com-
munities by the 1720's when a Muslim etsu acceded to the throne,15 and it is
known that this religion favoured the chewing of nitida kola by Muslims to the
exclusion of the use of alcoholic beverages. 6
The political chaos unleashed by the Nupe civil wars from the 1790's
during which groves were left unattended, followed by the stringent control of
kola production by the Fulani etsu of Bida and their agents during the 19th
century inhibited the rapid development of the nitida kola economy before the
colonial period. Upon their accession to power after 1850, the Fulani etsu not
only claimed the entire produce of the groves, but subjected the cultivators to
severe punishment for failure to meet production targets. In reaction, some of
the cultivators were said to have either fled the groves or cut down the trees.17
Judged from the few old trees found in 1907 in the Labozi district, no fresh
cultivation appears to have occurred there during the 19th century.18 In the
Bete district, however, new trees were cultivated after 1875 through the efforts
of a Hausa agent of the etsu who improved his own political status in relation
to that of the indigenous Nupe village chief by sending increased quantities of
kola nuts to the etsu at every harvest.9 He was probably in charge of some of
the slave villages that had been established by successive etsu to provide labour
for the production of economic crops.20
The production of the Labozi nuts in Bida during the 19th century was
supplemented by the importation of nitida nuts (as the following tabulation
suggests):21
Windward Coasts
Sierra Leone (Liberia and Ivory Coast) Gold Coast
1873 63 baskets a 59 baskets not available

1875 166 packages 1404 packages not available
1876 118 packages 295? packages not available
1879 30 packages 149 packages 110 packagesa
1881 3 packages 146 packages 53 packages to Lagos
3 packages to Bonny
1882 28 packages 187 packages 14 long tons
1883~~-~~~
18 packages
r c>-- 149 packaees not available
-v- r -
4
Windward Coasts
Sierra Leone (Liberia and Ivory Coast) Gold Coast
1884 not available 205 packages not available

1885 16 packages not available 201 packages to Lagos
52 packages to Oil
Rivers
1886 46 packages not available 26 packages
1887 93 packages not available 352 packages
1888 8 long tons not available 133 long tons
aThe sizes of the baskets and packages mentioned

in this table are not yet known but the present
author is continuing investigation into this
aspect of the statistics.
Importations came from Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast, and latterly
the Gold Coast by the Yoruba Saro merchants who were based in Lagos but traded
up the river Niger.22 The impact of this trade on the local production is yet
to be determined. Since the etsu exercised a rigid control on the production
of the local species, it seems reasonable to suggest that he also controlled
the marketing of the imported nuts in his kingdom. In fact, the bulk of the
overseas nuts went to the hinterland markets in Hausaland.23
The Labozi nuts were luxury items consumed by the Nupe aristocracy. Till
1936, the etsu reserved them for the aristocracy and gave the imported nuts of
the same species to people of lesser rank.24 This was because as indicated
already, the nuts were very highly valued, far above the imported ones. As a
result of their quality, they are known to have fetched very high prices in
markets in Hausaland. In 1907, they were said to have cost thrice as much as
the imported nuts.25 And they also formed a part of the tribute paid by the
Bida etsu to his overlord, the Fulani emir of Gwanduduring the 19th century.
From 1901, the British Administration urged the introduction of the crop
to other districts in Bida emirate in order to maximise its economic potenti-
alities, but it faced a stiff resistance from the etsu and their agents who
stood to lose their economic and political control over the production of the
commodity.26 Despite this, as the available railway figures indicate the
innovation was a success until after 1927:27
RAILWAYEXPORTS OF LABOZI NUTS (COLA NITIDA)

FROMNUPE AREA,28 1915 - 1932/33
(long tons)
1915 166 1924/25 168
1918 217 1926/27 161
1919 275 1927/28 88
1921/22 334 1928/29 98
1922/23 -219 1931/32 19
1923/24 164 1932/33 29
It is important to note here that the production of the nuts began gradually
before 1915, the year for which there is at present available railway figures.
5
The decline in the production after 1927 may be traced to reasons other
than the initial opposition of the old aristocracy or the unwillingness of the
Nupe farmer to try any innovation that "would involve any difficult adjustment
of (his)...productive organization."29 While the soil conditions in many of
the districts are not suitable for the growth of the crop,30 staple crops such
as rice and onions, competed for the good soil in the few areas where it was to
be found. These crops are annuals, form a major part of the people's diet, and
are, therefore, ever in great demand.31 The kola tree, on the other hand, is a
perennial bearing its first fruit between the fifth and seventh year after its
cultivation.32 More importantly, the rapid expansion of the cultivation of the
nitida crop in southwestern Nigeria and the resultant high production between
1900 and 193333 introduced cheaper nuts to the market that outcompeted not only
the Labozi nuts, but also those imported from the Gold Coast.
Introduction of Nitida Kola to Southwestern Nigeria

As indicated above, the Yoruba Saro pioneered the introduction of the
nitida nuts into southwestern Nigeria as a commodity of trade in transit to
Bida and the markets in Hausaland. But it was not until 1882 that the crop was
first planted by one of them, Captain James Pinson Labulo Davies (who had
received his training in steamship in the British navy) on his private farm at
Itele, some twenty miles northeast of Lagos.34
The Yoruba Saro formed a distinct and economically important group in 19th
century Lagos.35 Trained by Christian missions in Sierra Leone whose purpose
it was to inaugurate socio-economic changes in Yorubaland, many of them had
become Christians and were imbued with the ideas of their Christian masters.
The few Muslims among them were also affected with similar ideas. And on their
return to Lagos and other parts of Yorubaland, they had tried to fulfill these
expectations. While some such as Captain J.P.L. Davies became merchants export-
ing palm produce from Lagos to Britain, others such as Shita Bey dominated the
nitida kola trade from Sierra Leone and other producing areas in West Africa to
Bida.36 The sea trade in nitida kola was, however, open to turns and twists.
In 1874, consequent upon the British defeat, the Asantehene abandoned his trade
policy which had excluded Hausa traders from the heartlands of his kingdom.37
Kola nuts were now taken to the coast for shipment by sea to Lagos.
Indigenous Muslim traders in Lagos (including Sunmonu Animashaun, Alapafuja,
and Esibi Arowosegbe) and some manumitted Hausa slaves (such as Degbari and Ajiya
Dogo) together with Benjamin Lewis (a Yoruba Saro), all of whomhad established
contacts with Bida, Kano, Sokoto, and Keffi, became agents for the new trade with
the Gold Coast.38 The commodity was imported into Lagos and taken by overland
routes, i.e., Lagos-Abeokuta-Iseyin-Saki to Ilorin and Lagos-Ikorodu-Sagamu-
Ibadan-Ilorin. From Ilorin it went to Hausaland. The land routes became very
important after 1886 when the Royal Niger Company excluded all noncompany offi-
cials from trade on the river Niger.39 Even then, they were not without their
vicissitudes. From 1888 to 1890, the Lagos-Abeokuta-Iseyin route was constantly
raided by a war party from Ibadan in an effort by the Ibadan authorities to
close that route to Hausa traders who ran a gun trade on it up to Ilorin.40
Seven years later, the Royal Niger Company imposed heavy taxes on Hausa traders
going through Ilorin or Bida to Lagos, an act which also adversely affected the
volume of trade.41
Meanwhile, overseas commerce in Lagos was not as profitable as it had been
and many of the Yoruba Saro were being forced out of the export trade. In 1860,
there were twelve Yoruba Saro and two Amaro (liberated African slaves of Yoruba
descent from Brazil) merchants in Lagos.42 Eleven years later, they were out-
numbered by local-born Yoruba and gun traders who entered into the competition
for a share in the export produce trade.43 The gradual decline in the overseas
price of palm produce in Liverpool caused by the introduction of petroleum pro-
ducts44 into the world market while the price in the local markets in Lagos
remained fairly constant, reduced the profit margins of the exporters45 and
forced many of them out of the trade. By 1886, of the African merchants only
two, including Captain Davies trading under the name of G.W. Christie and Co.,
had survived through the previous two decades while nine new men from the Gold
Coast and Sierra Leone had arrived in the town.46 The wars among the Yoruba
6
PARTOF KOLANUT
PRODUCING
AREAS OF
FORMERWESTERNNIGERIA
states in the hinterland from 1877 to 1892 also complicated the situation as
they reduced palm produce production and trade.47
The 1880's, therefore, witnessed a general decline in trade in Lagos and
the Yoruba Saro were seriously affected. The economic adversity had its counter-
part in the growing opposition of the British clergy and administrators to the
achievements of other Yoruba Saro elements in the local protestant churches and
the public service. Some, such as Augustus Otunba Payne who became the Registrar
of the High Court, had advanced from the lower cadre of the public service and
had achieved high posts. Others had formed the bulk of the clergy and laity in
the local protestant churches and had looked forward to achieving greater control
in their administration. This group had been strongly affected by the Ethio-
painism doctrines of the 1890's - a call for the establishment of indigenous
churches by the Africans.48
In addition, the Amaro (the Brazilian counterpart of the Yoruba Saro), too,
suffered from the economic problems as the trade between Lagos and Brazil which
they had pioneered from the 1840's showed a progressive decline after 1880.49
The main exports from Lagos were acwminata nuts, first from the Yoruba hinter-
land and later from eastern Nigeria, country cloths woven from indigenous yarns,
and a variety of other local products.50 The main imports were tobacco and rum
which despite the general decline in trade continued to fetch high prices in
Lagos and from which few Amaro merchants were able to make their wealth after
the 1890's.51
7
The frustration caused by the economic and political situation was perhaps
the most important single factor that pushed some of the Yoruba Saro to turn to
agriculture to recoup their losses. They looked for farmland in the sparsely
populated Ikeja and Agege areas in the northern vicinity of Lagos. Although the
land there belonged to the Awori people in Ota, a town twenty-three miles north
of Lagos, the Lagos Government had since 1874, exercised some authority there,
imposing the English law upon the traditional land tenure system.52 Furthermore,
some of the villages had severed their political links from Ota but looked for
guidance from Chief Taiwo Olowo, a native and a prominent Lagos merchant.53
The incidence of succession disputes and struggle for land ownership among
the inhabitants gave both the Yoruba Saro and the Amaro the opportunity to own
large tracts of land there. A case in point is that of Ayobo village belonging
to one Olalore of Ota whose land was contiguous to the Itele farms of Captain
J.P.L. Davies.54 In 1872, Olalore had abandoned the village and fled to Lagos
due to unsafe times. By 1880, Captain Davies had acquired the Itele farms after
giving the traditional gifts to the Onikosi, a prominent pro-Lagos Chief in Ota.55
Later, however, Captain Davies claimed all the land in the village and that be-
longing to Orufu, another Ota man. The matter went to court. Olalore and
Orufu were financed by two wealthy Lagos merchants, Cardoso an Amaro56 and
Baruwa. After Olalore and Orufu had won the suit, they found they could not
pay back the litigation costs whereby they lost their lands to their financiers.
Baruwa and Cardoso divided the land between themselves and became great land-
lords with many tenant farmers.
At first many of the Yoruba Saro as well as the Amaro cultivated food crops
destined for Lagos markets. After Captain Davies had planted both cocoa and
nitida kola nuts, others adopted the innovation. He had obtained the cocoa and
kola seedlings from the Gold Coast.57
Although the innovator was a Yoruba Saro, many of the early planters (second
generation planters) were Yoruba who had lived in Lagos and taken on English
names. Many of them had entered into export produce trade in 1892 while at the
same time they interested themselves in maintaining their own private farms on
the outskirts of Lagos. The most prominent figure among the early planters was
Jacob Kehinde Coker, an Ebga man who was related to Captain Davies by marriage.
Coker had obtained in 1888 land grants in Ifako area through his friend Mr. Daniel
J.A. Oguntolu an Awori from Ota who in 1895 cultivated the first nitida trees in
Ota. Coker, Oguntolu and some of their friends then formed the Agege Planters
Union and eventually turned their traditional land grants into freehold tenure.
When Coker and his associates broke away from the local Church Missionary Society
in 1901 in protest against the frustration by the British clergy to found the
African Church (Bethel), the farms at Agege became the centre of the new reli-
gious organisation. 58
These private efforts were complemented by a deliberate government policy
of economic development introduced under Captain Alfred C. Moloney who was
administrator and then governor of Lagos almost continuously from 1877 to 1889.59
In 1887, he established the Botanical Garden at Ebute Meta to provide seedlings
to local farmers in the hope that "the inhabitants will take readily to the
cultivation of the economic products which is the object of the Government to
diffuse throughout the country."60 The botanical garden was also intended to
give an industrial education to the sons of the chiefs who were regarded as
"opinion leaders" in the traditional communities capable of effecting socio-
economic changes and to young ex-slaves to resettle them.61
In 1897 an experimental station was opened in Ikorodu, followed in 1900
by model farms set up at Olokemeji (on Egba territory) and at Mamu(a village
located on the boundary between Ibadan and Ijebu territories for manumitted
slaves). Ten years later, experimental stations had been established
at Agege and Ibadan. At first, the experimental farms bred many seedlings and
sold them at half a penny each or distributed them free to local farmers. In
addition, some chiefs on the payroll of the Government were given seedlings as
part of their stipends.62 The following tabulation shows part of the achieve-
ments of the Lagos Botanical Garden: 63
8
SEEDLINGSSOLDAT THE LAGOSBOTANICAL

GARDEN
1888-1904
1888 1897 1898 1904

100(a)
Nitida Kola n.a. 1102 1900 1025
Cocoa 3638 n.a. 263 n.a.
Coffee 21915 n.a. 8405 n.a.
Caesarea Rubber n.a. n.a. 1182 n.a.
Ire Rubber (Funtumia EZastica) n.a. n.a. 1965 n.a.
Seedlings sent to Ibadan

The Olokemeji model and experimental farms were essentially devoted to the
breeding of cotton seedlings. Notwithstanding, in 1903, some nitida kola seed-
lings obtained from the Aburi Gardens on the Gold Coast were planted. In 1904,
about 50,000 seedlings of the crop and 2,400 of acwninata kola were reported
to have been distributed to farmers; another 14,750 nitida and 250 acuminata
seedlings were ready for distribution in 1905. Over 40,000 seedlings of cocoa
and about 15,000 young plants of Ire rubber (Funtwmia Elastica) were also dis-
tributed to farmers in 1904.64
In Ibadan in 1904, the British Resident distributed 6,500 nitida kola
seedlings to the chiefs. Another 127 were distributed to "educated persons".
The Wesleyan Mission obtained 120 and another 140 were transplanted in the
gardens surrounding the houses of government officers and along some of the
main roads to serve as shade trees.65
Cocoa and nitida seedlings were first sold in Ikorodu in 1904. The District
Commissioner reported a great demand by the people for the seedlings.66
While the Ikorodu station may have influenced innovation in new crops, the
achievements of the Lagos Botanical Garden was not unaccompanied by difficulties
and failures. In 1898 the annual report complained of the immense difficulties
faced in affecting a meaningful contact with the local farmers, which ended in
a series of failures by the farmers while planting the new crops:67
When these new plants are placed in their [i.e. the farmers']
hands they naturally would ask how should they be cultivated.
So as to be as remunerative as possible we then give them oral
tuition, as this is the only help the scope of our department
can afford, which on the whole might not last more than an hour,
after this tuition the planters leave the station with their
plants to go and make a practical application of what has been
taught them.
The result of such application whether applied rightly or
wrongly always ends in failure.
We have had several failures of this kind after rendering
such assistance,...
By 1892, two European plantations, the Ilaro Estate and Plantation Company
Limited and the Ajilete Plantation Company, had been established in Ilaro
Division west of Ota district. By 1895 the Ilaro Companyhad established a
150 acre plantation of coffee and cocoa in Oke Odan area on the banks of river
Ado. The Ajilete Companyhad also a large plantation of coffee, thirty miles
away, north of Oke Odan but was turning to cocoa and nitida kola cultivation.
In 1899, the ownership of both firms changed hands. The Societe Belge au
Lagos
took over the Ilaro Companyand converted its Oke Odan farm into a rubber plan-
tation. The Ajilete Companypassed to a French Company. After 1900, G.L.
Gaiser, a German firm, took up the management of the Ilaro Companyunder a new
name "The Ilaro Rubber and Produce Estate Limited". It was a flourishing plan-
tation until it fell a victim to the expropriation of German-owned property by
9
the British Administration in Nigeria during World War I. For a long time,
it was left untended and farmers later entered into it, cut down the rubber
trees and planted cocoa and nitida trees.68
It was from these various primary centres that the nitida kola crop was
introduced into Yoruba agriculture. Its ready acceptance by the local farmers
was partly because of their knowledge of the existing indigenous species, cola
acuminata. In fact, many of the early planters had obtained information and
knowledge about the new crop during their stay on these farms as hired labourers
or through their kinship ties with the farm owners. Furthermore, the increasing
number of Hausa kola traders who began to settle in Lagos after 1880 and who
passed through other Yoruba settlements on their way to and from northern Nigeria
brought a great awareness of the trade in nitida kola to the local farmers.
Between 1900 and 1905, the innovation had spread from Ota and Agege areas
to Abeokuta Province. A man named Oguntoyinbo in Egba-Owode district of the
Province is remembered as having cultivated the trees about 1900, eighteen years
before the Egba Native Administration established a small demonstration farm in
Abeokuta to distribute the new crop to Egba farmers.69
Stimulated by the sale of the seedlings at the Ikorodu experimental station,
many farmers in Ijebu-Remo towns had begun to cultivate the new crop between
1905 and 1910. Apart from this source, the innovation had reached Ijebu-Remo
direct from the Gold Coast through one of the returning soldiers from the Anglo-
Asante War of 1900. He had come back in 1906 with some nitida kola seedlings
that he cultivated in his village, Irolu.70 Thus by 1910, the cultivation of
the crop was becoming widespread in Abeokuta and Ijebu areas that are con-
tiguous to Agege and Ikorodu.
Between 1910 and 1920, the innovation had reached Ibadan and beyond. Rail
exports of the crop from the Agege/Ota, Abeokuta and Ibadan areas expanded
rapidly during the 1920's:71
RAILWAY
EXPORTS
OF NITIDA KOLAFROMAGEGE/OTA
ABEOKUTA
ANDIBADAN,1909-1932/33
Agege/Ota Abeokuta Ibadan

(long tons)
1909 19 - -
1915 76 - -
1918 72 5 1
1919 26 1 1
1921/22 70 6 2
1922/23 100 8 2
1923/24 342 5 4
1924/25 456 20 12
1926/27 822 39 77
1927/28 1,238 94 118
1928/29 1,486 199 156
1931/32 4,227 2,523 791
1932/33 5,307 1,546 1,088
Introduction of Nitida Kola to Eastern Nigeria
Although, as described above, there had existed after 1860 an export trade
in cola acuminata nuts from eastern Nigeria West, to Lagos (for reshipment to
Brazil), and some nitida nuts East, to Bonny and other ports in eastern Nigeria
from the Windward coasts of West Africa and the Gold Coast by the Amaro and
10
Yoruba Saro merchants from Lagos, some communities in eastern Nigeria, such as
those in Aba district, which were in the colonial period to become important
producing centres of nitida nuts, were, in 1899, not yet aware of the economic
importance of kola nuts.72 In 1896, the British Administration established a
botanical garden in Calabar to distribute economic crops, including nitida seed-
lings, to local farmers. In 1913 and 1924, experimental stations for the cul-
tivation of nitida kola were begun in Onitsha and Umuahia.73 The acceptance of
the innovation by the local farmers was, however, slow and proved unsuccessful
as the following railway export figures suggest:74
RAILWAY
EXPORT
OF NITIDA KOLAFROMEASTERN
NIGERIA
1918-1932/33
(long tons)
1918 42 1926/27 96
1919 29 1927/28 63
1921/22 100 1928/29 90
1922/23 80 1931/32 63
1923/24 79 1932/33 50
1924/25 68
It is important to note, however, that production may have begun well

before 1918, the earliest date for which we have data. The failure of the
innovation may be traced to the crucial position of the palm oil industry in
the economy of the eastern Nigerian communities.75
Conclusion
Thus the introduction of nitida kola, the type of kola that is currently a
major item of commerce in many West African economies, into Nigerian agriculture
varied from one part of the country to another. Long before the introduction of
any cash crop by Europeans into Nigeria, the Nupe and the Yoruba had begun to
cultivate the crop. The evidence also suggests its adoption in both eastern and
western Nigeria was determined largely by economic factors.
Resume
L'INTRODUCTION
DU COLANITIDA DANSL'AGRICULTURE
DU NIGERIA, 1880-1920
Les moyens dl'introduire le cola nitida (noix de cola) dans
variaient d'une partie du pays a l'autre. l'agriculture
Longtemps avant l'introduction
d'aucune plante vivriere par les Europeens au Nigeria, les Nupes et les
avalent commence a cultiver cette culture vivriere. Yorubas
I1 suggere aussi que son
adoption au Nigeria de l'Est commneau Nigeria de l'Ouest
etait determinee
largement par des facteurs economiques.
NOTES
'See C.M. Elliott, "Agriculture and economic development in Africa: Theory and
experience 1880-1914" in E.L. Jones and S.J. Woolf Agrarian
(eds.), Change and
Economic Development: The Historical Problems, London, 1969; and Edwin Dean,
The Supply Responses of African Farmers: Theory and Measurement in
Malawi,
Amsterdam, 1966.
2Dr. Okigbo erroneously based the production figures of kolanuts (cola nitida)
in Western and Eastern Nigeria on the proportion of their estimated
P.N.C. Okigbo, Nigerian
populations.
National Accounts, Government Printer, Nigeria
1962, pp. 167 and 47. Enugu,
11
3The word gbanja is Yoruba. It is derived from the Hausa word "Gwanja" for
Gonja, the district north-east of Asante from where the nuts are purchased.
The Yoruba have no "gw-" consonant; the nearest to "gw-" is "gb-". For
arguments on this linguistic evidence, see B.A. Agiri, "The Yoruba and the
Pre-Colonial Kola Trade", ODU, Journal of West African Studies, University of
Ife, Nigeria, July 1975 (forthcoming). The Hausa, however, call the nuts
"goro" which, it has been shown, is derived from the Mande and Western Atlantic
linguistic groups between Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast. For details, see Paul
E. Lovejoy, "The Hausa Kola Trade (1700-1900), a Commercial System in the
Continental Exchange of West Africa," Ph.D. thesis, University of Wisconsin,
Madison, 1973, pp. 7-13.
4The kola tree (genus cola) is indigenous to tropical Africa and has its centre
of greatest diversity in West Africa where at least forty species have been
identified by botanists. Of these cola nitida, the one with two lobes, is
indigenous to the forests of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast and
Ghana while the cola acuminata, the one with more than two lobes, is found
from Togo eastward -- J. Hutchinson and J.M. Dalziel, Flora of West Africa
(2nd ed. revised by R.W.J. Keay), Vol. I, Part 2, London 1958, pp. 326 and
328-330; J.W. Purseglove, Tropical Crops, London, 1968, pp. 565-566, and A.
Chevalier and E. Perrot, Les Kolatiers and Les Noix de Kola (Les Vegetaux
Utiles de L'Afrique Tropicale Frangaise), Fascicule vi (ed. A. Challamel),
Paris, 1911, Chapter ix, pp. 145-201.
5Lovejoy, "The Hausa Kola Trade...", pp. 13-16.
6The rest of this paragraph is based on details in Agiri, "The Yoruba and the
Pre-Colonial Kola Trade" (forthcoming).
7C.C. Yates, "A Report on the Kola Plantations in Nupe, 1907" in CSO 26 File
No. 35298 "Kola Plantations in Northern Provinces", Nigeria National Archives,
Ibadan. This same story is repeated in S.F. Nadel, A Black Byzantium, London,
1961, pp. 231-232.
8Lovejoy, "The Hausa Kola Trade...", pp. 13-16.
9H. Barth, Travels and Discoveries, Vol. 3, New York, 1857, p. 121 and Marion
Johnson, "Cloth on the banks of the Niger", Journal of the Historical Society
of Nigeria, Vol. vi, No. 4, June, 1973.
'lM. Mason, "Trade and the State in Nineteenth Century Nupe," (read at the Seminar
on Economic History of the Central Savanna of West Africa, Kano, Nigeria,
January, 1976).
11A. Adefuye, "Keana: a Gift of Salt" (read at the Seminar on Economic History
of the Central Savanna of West Africa, Kano, Nigeria, January, 1976).
12Yates, "A Report on the Kola Plantations in Nupe 1907", op. cit., and Nadel,
A Black Byzantium, pp. 90 and 232.
13Yates, "A Report on the Kola Plantations...", op.cit.
14The author is indebted to Dr. 0. Ajolore, Department of English, School of
Basic Studies, Kwara State College of Technology, Ilorin, for this information.
As a boy late in the 1930's, Dr. Ajolore participated in this trade.
5Mason, "Trade and State in Nineteenth Century Nupe", op.cit.
16I. Wilks, "Asante Policy towards the Hausa trade in the nineteenth century"
in Claude Meillassoux, Ced.), The Development of Indigenous Trade and Markets
in West Africa, London, 1971, p. 130.
7Yates, "A Report on Kola Plantations...", op.cit.
1Yates, Ibid.
19Yates, Ibid.
20Mason, "Trade and the State..." op.cit., Nadel, A Black Byzantium, p. 90.
12
21The figures for the Gold Coast from 1879-1885 are obtained from the Gold
Coast Blue Books; other figures are from Lagos Blue Books for the years
enumerated.
22A.G. Hopkins, "An Economic History of Lagos, 1880-1914" Ph.D. thesis, London,
1964, pp. 41-42.
23
Ibid.
24Nadel, A Black Byzantium, pp. 129 and 90. For a discussion of the social
classes in Nupe, see Nadel, pp. 127-135.
25Yates, "A Report on Kola Plantations...", op.cit.
26Yates, Ibid.
27Annual Reports of the Nigeria Railway 1915-1929. Reports for 1916, 1917, 1920,
1925/26, 1929/30 are not available.
28The railway figures for the railway stations from Jebba to Zungeru have been
taken roughly to represent the production for Nupe area.
29Nadel, A Black Byzantium, p. 237 n.l. Nadel also found that one of the reasons
the Nupe farmer was not interested in cultivating the Labozi nuts is because
the trees took a long time to mature and bear fruit. "If I planted a tree I
should never see its fruit, only my grand-children would profit by it. Our
grandfathers have not planted trees for us, why should we plant for our grand-
children?" Nadel regarded this as an example of a tradition-bound society
(Nadel, p. 236).
30Nadel, A Black Byzantium, pp. 232-233.
31For the most recent study on the cultivation and marketing of some of these
crops see I.A. Adalemo, The Marketing of Major Cash Crops in the Kainji Lake
Basin, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research, Ibadan, 1972.
32C.L.M. Eijnatten, Distribution of Various Cola Species and Location of Culti-
vated Kola of Research Importance (A review of literature), Memo No. 5, Cocoa
Research Institute of Nigeria, Ibadan, December, 1964, p. 19.
33See tabulation "Railway Exports of Nitida Kola from Agege/Ota, Abeokuta and
Ibadan, 1909-1932/33" below.
34Colonial Annual Report for Lagos, 1898 and J.H. Kopytoff, A Preface to Modern
Nigeria: The Sierra Leoneans in Yoruba 1830-1890, Madison, 1965, p. 287.
35See Kopytoff, A Preface to Modern Nigeria...; J.B. Webster, The African Churches
Among the Yoruba, 1888-1922, Oxford, 1964; also "Agege Plantations and the
African Church 1901-1920", Conference Nigerian Institute
Proceedings, of
Social and Economic Research, Ibadan, March, 1962; E.A. Ayandele, The Mission-
ary Impact on Modern Nigeria, 1842-1914, A Political and Social Analysis,
London, 1966; and A.G. Hopkins, "An Economic History of Lagos 1880-1914",
Ph.D. thesis, London, 1964.
36L.C. Gwam, Great Ni&erians (1lst series), Daily Times, Nigeria, 1967, p. 39,
Hopkins, "An Economic History...", pp. 41-42.
37Wilks, "Asante policy towards Hausa trade...", op.cit. pp. 135-138.
3eCSO 1/9, Vol. 15 "Petition from the native traders in Lagos" encl. in Governor
Egerton,Lagos to Earl Crewe, Secretary of State, London, 25 November 1908;
Nigerian National Archives, Ibadan; and CO 147/133 Conf. Governor George C.
Denton, Lagos to Joseph Chamberlain, London, 4 June 1898, Public Records
Office, London.
39J.E. Flint, Sir George Goldie and the Making of Nigeria, London, 1960, p. 198.
40S. Johnson, The History of the Yorubas from the earliest times to the begin-
ning of the British Protectorate, Lagos, 1957, pp. 576-583.
41CO 147/133 Conf. George C. Denton to Joseph Chamberlain, 4 June 1898, Public
Records Office, London.
13
42C.W. Newbury, The Western Slave Coast and Its Rulers, Oxford, 1961, p. 57.
"3Newbury, The Western Slave Coast..., p. 81.
See A. McPhee, The Economic Revolution in British West Africa, 1926, p. 33
for further details on the impact of patroleum products on palm oil prices.
4 5Newbury, The Western Slave Coast..., pp. 86-87.
46Newbury, Ibid. Many European traders, too, were forced out of the trade.
47W.N.M. Geary, Nigeria Under British
Rule, London, 1927, p. 54.
48Kopytoff, A Preface to Modern Nigeria..., pp. 163-175; Webster, The African
Churches Among the Yoruba, pp. 109-120, and Ayandele, The Missionary Impact
on Modern Nigeria..., pp. 177-237.
49Hopkins, "An Economic History...", pp. 32-34.
50Colony of Lagos Blue Books 1862-1890; also CO 147/60 Dispatch No. 260 and
enclosure 9 in Governor A.C. Moloney, Lagos to Secretary of State, London, 4
August 1889, Public Records Office, London.
51Three of the Amaro merchants survived the depression. They were Manoel J. de
St. Anna, Branco,and da Rocha (see A.B. Laotan, "Brazilian Influence on Lagos",
Nigerian Magazine, No. 69, August, 1961, pp. 157-165).
52CO 147/60 Encl. No. 2 to Conf. "Exercise of Jurisdiction by the Court and
District Commissioners over the Protectorate of Lagos", Gov. A.C. Moloney to
Secretary of State, London, 17 August 1887.
53R.L. Wilkes, "Intelligence Report on Ikeja District of the Colony, 1934"
Nigerian National Archives, Ibadan.
54Wilkes, Ibid.
55Interview, Chief C. Awojeku, The Olosi, Osi quarters, Ota, 13 November 1970.
56A village is named after him close to Ayobo village.
57Interview, Prince Ismael Oyede, Ota, 19 March 1970.
58Ibid. and Webster, "Agege Plantations...", op.cit.
"For a detailed analysis of Governor Moloney's policy of economic development,
see A.B. Aderibigbe, "The Expansion of the Lagos Protectorate, 1861-1900"
Ph.D. thesis, London, 1959, Chapter III.
6?Colonial Annual Reports, Lagos 1887, p. 69, and R.E. Dennett, "Agricultural
Progress in Nigeria", Journal of the African Society, Vol. XVIII, No. LXXII,
July, 1919, pp. 266-289.
61Dennett, "Agricultural Progress in Nigeria", op.cit. and Colonial Annual Reports
for Lagos 1888, p. 9.
62Colonial Annual Reports for Lagos,1897 and 1900; also Dennett, "Agricultural
Progress in Nigeria", op.cit.
63Annual Reports for Lagos Colony, 1888, 1897, 1898 and 1904.
64Colonial Annual Reports, Lagos, 1903 and 1904.
6SColonial Annual Reports, Lagos, 1904.
66Ibid.
67Colonial Annual Reports, Lagos, 1897 and 1898.
68Colonial Annual Reports, Lagos, 1892, 1895, 1899 and A.I. Asiwaju, "The
Impact of French and British Administrations on Western Yorubaland, 1889-
1945", Ph.D. thesis, University of Ibadan, 1971, pp. 278-280.
69 Interview, Mr. Salami Adekunle, Baale, Orile Imo
village, Egba-Owode,
Abeokuta Province, October, 1970.
70Interview, Chief Alase Ogundipe, Irolu village, Ijebu-Remo, March, 1970.
14
7'Annual Reports of the Nigeria Railway, 1909, 1915, 1918, 1919, 1921/22,
1922/23, 1923/24, 1924/25, 1926/27, 1927/28, 1928/29, 1931/32, 1932/33.
72Calprof 8/2, Vol. 1, "Harcourt's Report on the Aquetta (Akweta)," cited in
A.E. Afigbo, "Sir Ralph Moor and the Economic Development of Southern Nigeria,
1896-1903", Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, Vol. V., No. 3,
December 1970, p. 387.
73Calprof 8/2, Vol. II, Reports on New Calabar District for quarters Ended
31-3-96 and 31-3-97 and Eijnatten, "Distribution of various cola species...",
op.cit., p. 22.
74Nigerian Railway, Annual Reports, 1918, 1919, 1921/22-1924/25, 1926/27-1928/29,
1931/32 and 1932/33. The figures represent the sum of exports for all stations
from Port Harcourt to Enugu.
75For a description of the importance of the palm oil industry in the Igbo
economy, see P. Okigbo, "Social Consequences of the Economic Development in
West Africa" in Pierre van den Berge (ed.), Africa, Social Problems of Con-
flict and Change, Chandler Publishing Company, San Francisco, California,
1965, pp. 415-426.

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African Studies Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Regents of the University of Wisconsin System

The Introduction of Nitida Kola into Nigerian Agriculture, 1880-1920

It is a well-known fact that the imposition of colonial rule in

African Economic History, No. 3,

SOME OF THE MAINKOLANUTPRODUCINGAREAS IN NIGERIA

Introduction of Nitida Cola to Nupe

1873 63 baskets a 59 baskets not available

1884 not available 205 packages not available

aThe sizes of the baskets and packages mentioned

RAILWAYEXPORTS OF LABOZI NUTS (COLA NITIDA)

Introduction of Nitida Kola to Southwestern Nigeria

SEEDLINGSSOLDAT THE LAGOSBOTANICAL

1888 1897 1898 1904

Seedlings sent to Ibadan

Agege/Ota Abeokuta Ibadan

Introduction of Nitida Kola to Eastern Nigeria

It is important to note, however, that production may have begun well

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