Achai.
In Dinka, Achai means "the one who endures." It is a woman's name, a quality of character, and a description of the land itself.
Dinka Ngok
Abyei Area, South Sudan
Translation
She who endures · She who remains
A grandmother's knowledge, carried into the world.
Achai Deng Majok was born in Abyei in 1962. She is the third generation of her family to harvest shea from the same stand of trees on the southern edge of the Kiir River basin. She learned to grade raw shea butter by touch — a skill she says cannot be written down, only passed hand to hand.
When the brand was being named, there was no committee decision. The agroforest project coordinator asked the founding grower council: whose knowledge is the foundation of this? Every hand pointed in the same direction.
Achai did not want the brand named after her. She agreed only when it was explained that the name would carry an obligation — that the brand would have to live up to what her name means. Endurance. Honesty. Remaining.
"I did not make this forest. I only know how to listen to it."
— Achai Deng Majok, Abyei, 2021
62
Years of harvest knowledge
3rd
Generation shea grader
Acacia senegal · Abyei Area
Why your body
remembers.
Acacia fibre — harvested as dried gum from the bark of Acacia senegal — is one of the oldest prebiotic foods in the human diet. Archaeological evidence places it in the diets of East African populations for at least 4,000 years. The gut microbiome did not encounter it for the first time when supplement companies began selling it. It encountered it again.
The fibre is a complex polysaccharide. It passes through the stomach and small intestine intact, arriving in the colon where it becomes food for Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus — the bacteria most associated with gut lining integrity, immune regulation, and mood stability via the gut-brain axis.
Unlike inulin or chicory root, acacia fibre ferments slowly. This means no bloating, no cramping, no adjustment period. The body accepts it without protest because, at a cellular level, it recognises it.
4,000+
Years in the East African diet
Slow
Fermentation rate — no bloating
100%
Soluble dietary fibre
How it
is made.
No industrial extraction. No chemical solvents. The process has not changed in three generations — only the documentation has.
01
Tapping
Between November and February, harvesters make shallow incisions in the bark of mature acacia trees. The trees respond by producing gum — a natural defence mechanism that has been redirected, with the tree's cooperation, into a food source. No tree is tapped more than once every three years.
02
Collection
After two to four weeks, the gum has dried into amber nodules on the bark. Harvesters collect by hand, working in the early morning before the heat softens the resin. Each harvester knows her trees by name — not metaphorically. The trees have names.
03
Grading
Raw gum is graded by colour, clarity, and texture. The highest grade — Kordofan grade 1 — is pale amber, almost translucent. Grading is done by touch and sight, a skill that takes years to develop. Achai Deng Majok is the grading standard against which all others in the cooperative are measured.
04
Processing
Graded gum is cleaned, dried at low temperature, and milled to a fine powder. No additives. No carriers. No anti-caking agents. The powder is tested for moisture content, microbial load, and fibre percentage before packaging.
05
Packaging
Packed in Nairobi in amber glass jars with induction-sealed lids. Glass was chosen over plastic not for aesthetics but for inertness — acacia fibre is hygroscopic and will absorb odours from plastic over time. The jar is designed to be refilled.
How to use it.
Achai Collection is a single-ingredient powder. There is no protocol, no stack, no programme. These are suggestions from the people who have been using it longest.
01
Morning, fasted
Stir one level teaspoon into a glass of room-temperature water. Drink slowly before your first meal. The fibre begins working before food arrives.
02
With food
Add to porridge, yoghurt, or a smoothie. The flavour is mild and slightly earthy — it disappears into most foods without changing them.
03
Consistency over quantity
One teaspoon daily for four weeks is more effective than three teaspoons for one week. The microbiome responds to rhythm, not volume.
Starting dose: ½ teaspoon daily for the first two weeks, then increase to 1 teaspoon. Some people experience mild changes in digestion in the first week — this is the microbiome adjusting, not an adverse reaction.
Who makes it.
Achai Collection is produced by a cooperative of 34 women harvesters in the Abyei Area, working across three agroforest zones along the Kiir River basin. The cooperative was formed in 2018 with support from a regional land stewardship programme. It is entirely women-led.
Each harvester holds a documented stewardship agreement for her section of the agroforest. The trees she tends are not owned by the cooperative or the brand — they belong to the land, and the land belongs to the community. The agreements define rights of access, obligations of care, and a share of revenue that goes directly to the harvester, not through an intermediary.
A portion of every sale is held in a community stewardship fund, administered by the cooperative council. Current allocations: 40% to harvester livelihoods, 35% to agroforest maintenance and replanting, 25% to the community education fund.
"We are not suppliers. We are the reason this exists."
— Cooperative Council Statement, Abyei, 2023
34
Harvesters
3
Forest zones
100%
Women-led
The word in
three registers.
Dinka is a tonal language. The same root carries different weight depending on who speaks it, when, and to whom. Achai is not a fixed meaning — it is a living word.
See the Collection →Achai
She who endures
Personal name, Dinka Ngok dialect
Achai yïn
You who remain
Honorific address, elder women
Achai nhialic
Endurance of the sky
Poetic usage, land songs
Contact us
about ordering.
Achai Collection is currently available in limited quantities. Each batch is tied to a specific harvest season and a specific group of harvesters. We do not hold standing inventory.
If you would like to enquire about availability, wholesale, or partnership, send us a message. We respond to every enquiry personally.
Achai Gum · 500g Jar
Approximately 100 servings. Amber glass, induction-sealed. Designed to be refilled.
Achai Gum · Two-Pack (2 × 500g)
For consistent daily use over three to four months.
Wholesale & Institutional
Available for health practitioners, retailers, and mission-aligned partners.
The full ecosystem —
seven species
Achai is the first harvest. The Abyei agroforest holds six more. Explore the full collection and the stories behind each species.