The Brand KOKOJOOO has been phased out.
Since 2017, I have been working as a Black African migrant founder to make the full joy of cocoa accessible to everyone under the brand KOKOJOO. KOKOJOO was a pioneering brand for healthy food and drink innovations made from cocoa bean shells and cocoa juice by upcycling the Cacao fruit. However, the whole experience was anything but a joy for me.
In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, I experienced all kinds of hostility, sabotage and discrimination. In Switzerland in particular, which presents itself as open to all who work hard, I have experienced discrimination and racism of a hidden and structural nature on an unimaginable scale.
For example, kokojoo GmbH (International Headquarters of KOKOJOO), which I founded in Basel at the beginning of 2020, was ordered to be liquidated due to alleged organizational deficiencies.
But ultimately this is not surprising. The cocoa sector is of strategic importance to these countries. So there is no place for Black African innovators in this sector, which is controlled and dominated by white people, especially Europeans. Due to the associated health consequences and above all, the associated loss of trust in the Swiss legal system, I feel compelled as the founder to phase out KOKOJOO.
To all those who have always believed in me and in the brand KOKOJOO, I say thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will pursue and implement the approaches to the comprehensive use of African raw materials through upcycling and the valorization of African innovation, which I have painstakingly built up in recent years, elsewhere – stay tuned. Get in touch or stay up to date here. Yours, Dayog.
It always seems impossible until it’s done.__N. Mandela