KUMBO KOLA
An At Film from the West African Highlands
50 minutes
"You cannot just cut down a kola nut tree..."
To the Nso people, the kola nut is sacred. It holds great spiritual, economic, gastronomic, symbolic, and historic significance.
The esteem and importance given to kola brought about myths, narratives, and rituals to protect it.
The rituals involved in cutting down a kola nut tree not only speak to the essence of Nso culture, but also to what the Nso can teach the rest of us (particularly the West) about the creation and upholding of value and meaning.
"Kumbo Kola" meanders through Kumbo and Nso culture, focusing on kola nuts and palm wine, death and jujus. It also visits the highlands for a comparison of the Nso and kola to the Mbororo (a local Fulani tribe) and their cattle culture, and ventures to Oku to see how they saved not only their kola nut trees but their native forest.
Filmed in Kumbo and Oku, Cameroon
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