Interview with Stella Njagi

Founder: Spills of Eden, Kenya

We visited Spills of Eden in Ngong’ Town where we spoke to its founder, Stella Njagi who has one of the most exciting stories about natural health, natural remedies and things that you can use in your everyday life to boost your immunity and your well-being on this journey. Welcome Stella.

Welcome to Spills of Eden, this is where we have love and wholeness and wellness.

Before we get to your products, let’s talk about you. Tell us about Stella and how you got onto this journey of living naturally.

I’m called Stella Njagi, the Founder of Spills of Eden, I’m very happy to own this place and the idea. I grew up in a humble family. My father was a peasant, he was a great farmer, but he farmed herbs which had come with the European who founded Chogoria hospital. He was the one who was found to plant the rosemary, the thyme, the grapefruit, the tangerine. So, I grew up knowing the indigenous fruits and herbs. As I grew up, I was allergic to medicine and so my father concentrated on giving me these herbs and that’s how I came to know about herbs. So, I grew up using these herbs and I had a happy life.

But, my major thing, I relocated to Uganda 16 years ago and I found a world of herbs and plants. The only thing they buy from the shop is salt and oil. I was curious and I found they had a healthier life than us and I became very concerned and that’s where my journey started and that’s where Spills of Eden was born.

So, you wanted to extend the journey of natural health and living to Kenyans back home. How did you start?

When I was in Uganda, I saw they had massive land and then I said, let me buy land. What do I plant? Natural products. But, how do I get the knowledge about natural products? I visited every elderly person, every lady, every Jaja, we normally call the elderly Jaja. They gave me knowledge so I translated their vernacular herbal use to English. I took online classes, I went to Makerere and I studied the English version of their natural and vernacular words and I met Mrs. Nambatia who heads the Natural Medicine department. She was amazed I wanted to learn the English part of what the Ugandans are doing. She took me over; I did 3 small courses, and since I had the interest, I got a lot of knowledge. I attended seminars…  because in Uganda, natural products are different from Kenya. I think it’s because of the way we were colonized, they were not colonized they have the king, who still enriches their culture. The king has the knowledge of the first people, so the mzungu did not come to colonize them and remove what they knew, telling them herbs is witchcraft, he didn’t succeed because still we have the Kabaka (king), who upholds the natural values of the Baganda.

I engraved myself to be a Muganda to learn the culture and it’s amazing, I got a lot of knowledge and I vowed I will come back to Kenya and bring it back and here Spills of Eden was born.

You started by bringing some products and selling them in retail outlets that were not your own. How was that going?

I came and associated myself with Zucchini (a retail outlet) and I got so many customers in Zucchini and I would bring and display my products. Incidentally there are some people who know about natural products, so I had a lot of clienteles. But now the Covid came. I had attended a seminar at Subiaco, about natural products and it on 30th March the world closed me in Kenya and I got confused. But since I am a prayerful person and I believe in God, I called myself Jonah, because I was vomited in Kenya to do this. I embraced God and told God thank you and thank you again for putting me in the fish, vomiting me in Kenya. And I made up my mind this is what God wants me to do, to give this knowledge I had gotten in (Uganda to Kenya). The borders were locked up to October, so I did a lot of work, I moved from the malls and I created this shop.

Initially you didn’t have anything, you didn’t have a place to stay, you didn’t have an outlet to use. How did you get past that mentally and emotionally to come to the place where you have set up an entirely new operation?

When I had outlets in the other places, I had an office where I would pack my products and that is where I went to hide this time of corona, because we were not allowed to live with everybody. When I was there because there were no hospitals, people were fearing the infection, they would sneak in my home and tell me Stella give me this. And there is a doctor who actually came, who would come to get the natural products to give to his customers because everybody needed help. And he is the one who told me, “Stella, get out of here, go out!” And that is when I got this place, God gave me this place. The people who were coming to the house transferred here and our journey has been long. People who came they’ve referred us, we’ve gotten new customers every day, we’ve gotten kids coming here, we’ve gotten so many organizations and we are actually amazed.

That is so beautiful because for me it’s a story of overcoming, of staring down the one thing that would have been so destructive and making a beautiful thing out of it. So, what kind of products do you have available for people?

I have spices, spices are used in culinary, you cook with them, but they are medicine. For example, there is cardamom, there is chili, there is turmeric, there is ginger, there is clove, all this is medicine. So, when you go to buy spices, it’s not just for aroma, it is medicine and that is why we concentrate on herbs. We have both spices and herbs. How do I mix the herbs? I normally use the spices and mix with the herbs to make a combination. For instance, Skin Care, it has a mixture of spices and herbs. All of our components are mixed with herbs and spices.

So, that just comes from a basic understanding of how the body works and how plants work and how they meet each other. It reminds me of the scripture in Genesis that says that the leaves are for your medicine and the fruit is for your food. So, you’ve managed to find a way to infuse everything that the body needs into something that the people can use for their cooking and if they need a remedy, they can use that.

Yes. You know, for example, in Uganda, when a baby is born, we don’t use Johnson’s or Sunlight, here in Kenya we use all those. When a baby is born there are the parents who know the plants, the baby is dipped into the plants that is the first communication to nature. They believe the baby has to be connected to nature, it is actually spiritual and then the baby is bathed with certain herbs and then some of them are put here in Skin Nurse. Uganda is very hot, but you will never hear of skin rash, Kenya is cold, but babies have skin rashes. So, there is all that difference. And you know when the baby is born the skin is translucent, so those herbs enter into the baby and the baby will never develop a cough.

A baby is bathed once a week. The aunty or the mother bring the herbs so these herbs are boiled and then every week the new mother bathes the baby. And then babies are not bathed the way we bathe here. You know, there’s a way we bathe babies as if they are dying, as if they are so delicate. No. A baby is held up, pulled, the hands are held, pulled it is an exercise. Here we pamper the baby – no! A baby has to be stretched. I wish all those things can be transferred to our new mothers so that they can learn these things. And I believe this one works with the brain, because when I look in Ugandan culture, we don’t have so many autism children, it’s totally different. Here we have some babies who delay to talk. There, babies are never taken care of but they grow very naturally and they adapt to nature and they walk. When a baby starts walking, no carrying. We should have those cultures.

That’s very inspiring. Our Afrikan family is very large and many of them are living in Europe, in the US and some have become disconnected from some of these herbs and they really want them. Is it possible for them to buy from you?

Yes, we actually take them by DHL to anywhere in the world. We have a system whereby the transportation is very easy; we’ve dealt with those transports. We have a website, www.spillsofeden.com there they will find our contacts, the range of products, everything.

Do you also customize solutions for individuals with specific needs?

Yes.

What would you tell somebody who is struggling to cross the bridge from Covid happened to we must get on with life and living?

 Let me tell you, I would say, you must do it. You see, I was actually relocated here, I didn’t have somewhere to stay, I didn’t have a home, I didn’t have clothes, I didn’t have my comfort, I had left all my comfort in Uganda. But I made it. It’s just the will, your heart, the will of not giving up. I think even death we shouldn’t’ give up it should take us naturally. But you know some people die because they give up, they shouldn’t have died.

I believe there are so many opportunities in Kenya extremely so many, especially for natural products. Like we need so many distributors we would work with everybody and I believe it is the will of the people, if you are strong, there are so many opportunities in Kenya. But there is something in Kenya, I think the character, because there are so many opportunities, but people are not trustworthy all over the world. But if people now straighten their character there are so many opportunities.  Because like when I am working with natural products, I must be truthful with giving information, I must be truthful working with people, I should not shortcut, if I do not have a certain herb which someone needs, I should not just mix, I should be very truthful. That is how success comes because you’re connected to God when you’re working, and God watches what we’re doing

Now, Stella, let’s be honest, some of these things sometimes the price is a bit far for people to access, do you have a plan for making your products readily accessible to every level of society as it were?

Yes, actually, we want everybody to have a taste of what we’re doing. We want everybody to benefit, not only those people who can afford. We have come up with a formulation of millet and rice. There is a certain rice which only makes porridge so we have put the herbs here, these are able to be taken by people of all ages. We’ve used the simple herbs which can take away coughs, which can take away the stomach problem and also the digestion and it boosts the immunity. We produce a lot of moringa, which is a superfood, if a child takes two grams of moringa every day, the coughs will go away, the memory will be boosted, the skin will be boosted, everything will just shine. We have a mixture of millet and the herbs, a mixture of millet and the rice and the herbs, plain rice, this is good for all ages and is an immunity booster.

We are coming up also with a flour which is very fortified. We have chia seed in it, for ugali, and you know everybody wants to eat good ugali. When you eat this flour, you do not feel like your body has flopped, or you tired. It is amazing, the digestion is very good, it can be taken by blood sugar people, you know they are very sensitive form their diet.

And you have products for sensitive people like pregnant and lactating women.

Yes, we actually have only one plant which cannot be used by pregnant women and we actually avoid it. We only put it when we know you are not pregnant.

There are things that concern me, that I think about our communities on the ground and the young people who I find get themselves into activities that are not beneficial, and communities that don’t seem to be thriving. But you have a solution for this.

Actually, at Spills of Eden we have started talking to the MCAs, we have started in Tharaka Nithi, Meru and Embu. We want to empower the youth and women so that we introduce these plants to a constituency, so that we give the production to the constituency, to introduce the natural living to people, organic eating. These young people can be selling these products to secondary school teachers, to the locals because there are so many people in the local market who can take. On a market day there is a difference between the conventional vegetables and the organic vegetables. And it will happen because we want to create jobs for the young people, we want to create jobs for mothers. And then, as the children grow, the 4K club, we want to understand what is organic farming.

But this one we can only do on virgin land, because we have to be sure this land has no chemicals, because these things, if you want them to work, you must be free from the chemical we use on plants so we shall just go and then select people who have massive land even if it is a small land so long as it is a virgin land if we have in a constituency 50 boys, or 50 women, who are doing this we can change the society we just become a chemical-free society. We reduce diseases, we reduce bills to the hospital, we reduce our anger when we are living in natural environments and we will be empowered.

You also look like you can be available to consult for other countries in Afrika.

Yes, actually somebody carried my millet to Zambia, I’m waiting for a report. He has taken it to Zambia, and he says he wants to introduce it so that we can do it there. We start with Zambia and then we go to South Afrika he is ready to go everywhere and, you know, most of the countries embrace these things. I would actually want Kenya let’s go back to our roots let us go back to what our grandmothers were doing. It’s amazing, we never had skin diseases, they never used to wear glasses. We want to just live natural and be happy. Our mental health is very important, you know when you use natural products your brain is energized, your brain works differently, because there is no chemical, so we reduce a stressed society; angry husband, angry wife, angry children and it will be amazing.

It is completely holistic.

Any last words?

We should embrace natural products, natural living. If you are a natural person, I think you become happier, you live in a different world, you wear linen, you wear cotton, you do natural hair. I think we should do natural life. We have the cow skin we can do our shoes; we can do our bangles we don’t need to go to extra miles looking for chemicals to do our hair. We actually need to live naturally so that we reduce these diseases, cancers we don’t know where they came from, our mothers, our grandparents did not have these cancers, arthritis was not there. We need to embrace ourselves with natural products and Kenya is a beautiful country, it has beautiful people so we just clothe ourselves with nature and we are done.

So, there you have it, from the mouth and the heart of someone who has overcome hardship and struggles, it is possible. And not only that, the choices that we make each day: what we are going to consume, what we are going to wear, how we are going to interact with people, they can transform our societies, they can transform our families, our homes, our own mindsets, for the better. And Afrika can change just like that, step by step. This is a message of hope from people who love Afrika and who believe that our story can be different.