At the time when I began this journey called Entrepreneurship, one thing I was very sure about was getting the raw materials from the best source possible. I was very excited to finally get to one of the roots of Shea Butter Africa. My motivation was simple. I wanted to know everything relating to Shea Butter. I wanted to gain this knowledge first hand so that in x years, I will look back and say “Well done, girl! That was a great start.”

I made that trip over 500 kilometres away from home to find one of the sources of Shea Butter in Africa.

I had previously linked up with a native dweller through a friend. The Native -Mr. R was excited to see my team and I. lol. To be honest, I did not have any team at the time. I asked a friend to go with me and he helped take these beautiful images. Thank you, Sola Abiola.

We wore our regular ‘Lagos’ wears. Asides our skin colour, we spoke the same language as the natives except for their ” PhD intonations”. Nothing more. Sadly, we were not as welcomed as our Navigator, Mr. R had told us we would be.

On getting back to our base that night, we pondered on what we could do differently and we came up with a “dress” concept. We could not wait to see the workers again the following day. It was really a light bulb moment. We were 99.9% sure that we were right. We did not dress like them so, they could not identify with us.

With so much excitement, we had called Mr. R as early as 6:00am the following morning but Mr. R did not sound as excited. He arrived at 6:30am. And so, we set out in our ‘costumes’. It was a 45 minute long motorcycle ride from where we camped to the production site. Who sent us? You may ask. I really wanted this knowledge. It did not matter. On our way, passersby waved at us. I wondered to myself ”B…u…t… This is our first time here. How come you greet us so well?”

When we arrived at the same production site we visited the previous day, the women working at the site were like “Antí, Ekáàró, sé kò rera láànà?” which means “Aunty, Good morning. Hope you weren’t tired yesterday?” They warmed up to us so fast.

Wow! What a huge difference. The costume worked!!!

It was really a good day! I learnt a valuable lesson that day from the natives in this village. DRESS THE WAY YOU WANT TO BE ADDRESSED. This statement does not only apply to the corporate world. If we think critically, we will realize it applies to every aspect of our lives.

We spent some time with the natives learning about Shea Butter extraction/ production before we headed back to Lagos. 

Next time we visit, we would be sure to work on the intonation perhaps we could be invited to sleep in their houses. wink.

P.S.: How time flies!!! This happened and was documented 4+ years ago shortly after Tea’s Nature was founded. 4 years after, I am amazed at what this social enterprise has become.

I will be glad to connect with you even as I share more on my journey to social entrepreneurship.