When I learned that Ami Colé would be shutting down, it felt like more than the loss of a beauty brand. It felt like an elegy for the baobab, the so-called “tree of life” that has long stood at the center of memory, nourishment, and care in much of Africa, especially in Senegal.
In this episode of nāfolo, we trace the baobab (Adansonia digitata) across landscape and lineage — from the fruit (bouye) and the leaves (lalo) to soap, bark, and oil — and consider how its meanings shift when translated into global skincare. What happens when tradition enters commerce? What does it mean to center African botanicals in a market that often wants the culture without the people?
This is a meditation on trees, beauty, memory, and the space where heritage meets industry.
