“In Ghana, selling kola is women’s work.”

For 30 years, Adama Salifu and her two sisters have been selling kola, a bitter-tasting nut with an honored place in West African cultures. Adama’s parents were in the kola business, and large family farms still supply produce.

As kola queen, Adama collects money from the other sellers and uses it to buy the nut wholesale, which the sellers then retail to customers from near and far. “Because of kola, I meet people from all over Africa,” says Adama’s sister and business partner Mariama.