In 1910, the Antarctic Nimrod Expedition was in trouble. Led by Ernest Shackleton, the team had set the record for the southernmost point ever reached. But after miscalculating how long it would take to return to the nearest supply depot, the crew had run out of food.
Fatigued and desperate, they turned to their medical kit. It contained a drug called “Forced March tablets,” which promised to mitigate hunger and prolong endurance, thanks to the powerful combination of its two ingredients: cocaine, and the extract of the African kola nut. After taking the pills, the team was able to push through and reach safety.
So how did the kola nut, a sacred ingredient from West Africa, end up in Shackleton's emergency kit? And how did this same combination of kola nut and cocaine make its way into the original recipe of a drink that billions of people consume every day? The kola nut is the seed of the kola tree, a small evergreen native to the tropical forests of West Africa, where it has long been integral to the cultural fabric of many communities.
Among the Igbo, the bitter nut is known as the food of the gods. In Igbo homes, its custom to greet and honor guests by breaking a seed and sharing the lobes. Within Yoruba communities, kola plays a central role in many religious ceremonies, such as weddings, funerals, and divination.
Kola nuts can contain up to 2. 5% caffeine, or about twice the concentration found in coffee beans, along with trace amounts of theobromine, a structurally similar compound. Both molecules stimulate the central nervous system, causing effects like alertness and increased blood flow to the muscles and lungs.
And it’s these properties that likely led to kola’s long-standing use in traditional West African medicine. But there’s also a bitter side to the kola nut’s history. As early as the 10th century, it was used by various groups in West Africa as currency to purchase captives across the Sahara.
And in the 16th century, Portuguese and Afro-Portuguese traders in the region similarly exchanged the seeds for people, whom they then sold into transatlantic slavery. By the 17th century, the kola nut had made its way to the Americas. Brazilian oral narratives tell of enslaved peoples smuggling the seeds across the Atlantic in their clothing and hair.
Enslavers who learned of the nut’s energizing properties often weaponized it, supplying it to subjugated workers to induce more back-breaking labor. However, in places like Jamaica, Cuba, and Brazil, many enslaved communities managed to cultivate kola on their own, allowing them to preserve and continue practicing their cultural and religious traditions. In the late 19th century, the kola nut gained the attention of pharmacists in Europe and North America.
Many claimed, without much evidence, that the nut contained countless medicinal and even mind-altering properties. Soon, kola-containing tonics, chocolates, and lozenges lined pharmacy shelves. It was combined with extracts from the coca leaf, the source of cocaine, to create Shackleton’s Forced March tablets, which were also supplied to British soldiers during World War I.
In 1886, Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton used this same potent combo to create the original recipe for Coca-Cola, which he claimed could treat ailments like headaches, indigestion, and impotence. By the 1920s, African export of the kola nut slowed, thanks in part to the introduction of another energizing seed from the region: the cocoa bean. Around this time, the Coca-Cola company is also said to have significantly reduced the kola nut in its recipe, but no one knows for sure— the exact ingredients remain a closely guarded trade secret.
However, we do know that the company removed all traces of cocaine by 1903. Today, the kola nut can still be found in various drinks and supplements, like Bissy tea, a staple in many Jamaican homes. Believed to have been first brought to the region on slave ships in the 17th century, this tea is just one example of how the kola nut, despite its bitter past, continues to serve as a powerful symbol of cultural preservation and remembrance.
