Content uploaded by Marlène Elias
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Marlène Elias on Sep 11, 2014
Content may be subject to copyright.
Africa 77 (1), 2007
AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED
SUBSIDY FROM NATURE
Marl`
ene Elias and
Judith Carney
Biodiversity preservation is an age-old phenomenon. For millennia,
peoples worldwide have selected for, managed and conserved species
that fulfil nutritional, medicinal, cultural and spiritual functions. Amid
the rapid global decline in fauna and flora, the urgency of preserving
natural resources has increased. Environmentalists are now placing
their hopes on traditional agro-forestry systems that can point the way
towards the sustainable use and management of forest resources (Berkes
1999; Depommier and Ramakrishnan 2002).
Agro-forestry systems comprise biophysical features as well as the
interrelated knowledges, meanings and social relations that mediate the
ways societies and individuals relate to the physical landscape. These
complex systems are an integral part of, and indeed reflect, the very
cultures with which they co-evolved (Berkes et al. 2000). The tangible
and immaterial features of agro-forestry systems represent a natural
heritage that is passed down and even developed, from one generation
to the next. In the African savanna the shea tree, as well as the expertise
and conventions that accompany its use, represent one such natural
heritage that is integral to cultural and biodiversity conservation.
African shea butter is becoming increasingly familiar in the West. This
vegetal oil has emerged from obscurity to prominence as a favourite
ingredient in natural lines of cosmetics. Over the past fifteen years,
shea – or karit´
eas it is known in French – has become the focus of
many development initiatives because it is one of the few economic
commodities in the region under the control of women. Part of a fili`
ere
feminine (a female commodity chain), shea has long been collected,
processed and traded by women. The current global market demand
extends the shea commodity chain, linking African women producers
to Western female consumers.
Africa’s shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa C.F. Gaertn.) grows natu-
rally in eighteen countries along a 5,000-kilometre expanse of the
MARL `
ENE ELIAS is a doctoral student in the Department of Geography at McGill University,
Canada. She has worked on agroforestry issues in Panama and Burkina Faso. Her research
focuses on the impacts of the burgeoning international shea butter market on female producers
in Burkina Faso.
JUDITH CARNEY is Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles.
She has conducted field research in West Africa, Brazil, Mexico and Central America. Her
research interests include gender and development, political ecology and cultural ecological
issues surrounding the African diaspora. She is the author of Black Rice: the African origins of
rice cultivation in the Americas (2001).
38 AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE
FIGURE 1 Shea tree distribution.
semi-arid Sahel and Guinean savanna woodlands (Figure 1).1Major
shea-producing countries are among the poorest in the world. As a
result of women-in-development (WID) projects supported by the UN,
bilateral aid agencies and NGOs, shea butter exports from Africa have
increased since the 1990s. Donors have sponsored fair-trade initiatives
that promise to offer higher prices to female producers through direct
contracts with firms promoting natural skin products. The current wave
of shea commercialization, however, is prompting changes in traditional
resource processing and management as well as agro-forestry practices
in countries like Burkina Faso, West Africa’s largest exporter.
Based on fieldwork in Burkina Faso’s provinces of Boulgou (2001)
and Sissili (2005), this article examines the role of shea as a female
heritage in Burkina Faso.2Emphasis is placed on the knowledge
systems that inform the transformation of nuts into butter and the
1The natural range of shea includes Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African
Republic, Chad, Cˆ
ote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan and
Togo. Over the past centuries, the tree has spread to Gambia (Maranz and Wiesman 2003),
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana and Uganda due to human influence (Hall
et al. 1996). The subspecies paradoxa dominates in the western Sudan while ssp. nilotica is
found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Uganda and the Sudan.
2Elias carried out primary data collection for the study over two months in each fieldwork
period. Interviews were conducted with male and female farmers, NGO personnel, academics
and government officials working in the shea sector. More in-depth participant observation
occurred with members of the Laafi women’s group and the Union des Productrices de
Produits Karit´
e de la Sissili et du Ziro. Primary and secondary sources obtained in Burkina
Faso supplemented the collected information.
AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE 39
tree’s management in farmed fields. The objective is to illuminate the
cultural and botanical heritage of shea as well as the tree’s role in
biodiversity protection, African natural heritages and female knowledge
systems.
Divided into four sections, the article begins with an overview of
the female knowledge informing the preparation of shea butter and
perceived product quality differences that affect its regional trade.
The next section considers the traditional land-use practices and local
agronomic knowledge shaping shea parklands and fostering the tree’s
conservation. The article then turns to contemporary markets for shea
products, identifying preliminary trends of shea commercialization on
female tenure rights and biodiversity conservation. Issues surrounding
the marketing of shea as a ‘heritage product’ are finally considered,
with emphasis on the ways standardized shea-processing techniques
are breaking from the specialized and diverse traditions related to the
resource.
TRADITIONAL SHEA BUTTER PRODUCTION AND TRADE
Preparation of shea butter
The shea belt crosses many sub-Saharan countries and ethnicities. Yet,
in areas where the tree is found, women have long been the ones to
collect and process shea nuts (Lewicki 1974). The process of rendering
butter from shea nuts represents an ancient knowledge system that has
been passed on generationally from mother to daughter. There are many
ways to process the butter, however, and female producers and buyers of
the product recognize the differences in quality that are associated with
distinctive methods in specific geographical regions. The preparation
of shea butter represents a cultural heritage of many different ethnic
groups in the sub-Saharan shea zone. The female shea commodity chain
thus reaches deep into the environmental knowledge systems of Africa
and the techniques developed by African women over the centuries. An
overview of the ways shea is collected and transformed into the product
now esteemed in Western skin care elucidates this point.
The collection and processing of shea nuts involves a great deal of
work. Shea trees come into production at the onset of the rainy season
and bear fruit throughout most of the agricultural period. At this time,
women are especially burdened with farm work. Butter making thus
produces an intensification of women’s workloads during the rains. The
preparation of shea butter requires large quantities of firewood and
water, which women collect. The production of a single kilogram of
shea butter demands between 8.5 to 10 kilograms of fuelwood (Hyman
1991: 1250).
Shea nut processing also occurs during the dry season, when women’s
workloads are lessened. In some areas of Burkina Faso, however, this
is not possible because village wells seasonally run dry. As seasonal
water shortages increase the distance to permanent water sources, Lobi
women in southwestern Burkina Faso produce shea butter during the
40 AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE
rainy season (Cr´
elerot 1995: 116). In recent decades, the steady fall
of farm commodity prices and deepening impoverishment of rural
society are increasing the need for money. The result is that many shea
producers now make butter year-round for sale.
Despite its importance to female incomes, there is little research to
date on the diversity of nut-processing techniques developed by rural
women. These techniques, however, represent a significant cultural
heritage passed down through generations of female producers. The
steps of the butter-making process and key techniques are summarized
below for Burkina Faso, the shea tree’s probable centre of domestication
(Maranz and Wiesman 2003).
The butter-making process begins when the shea tree bears its fruits.
This corresponds with the end of the dry season and continues for
several months into the rains. Women and children collect the fallen
fruits, canvassing an area within a radius that extends between one and
three kilometres from the household. The nuts are head-carried to the
homestead for processing. The initial stage of butter production involves
pulping the fruits to remove the nuts. In order to ferment the pulp and
extract the nuts, shea fruits are sometimes buried in underground pits
for at least twelve days. Nuts are then boiled (if it is raining) or left
to dry in the sun for approximately two days – a process that prevents
them from germinating. The de-pulping stage concludes with roasting
or smoking the nuts over a fire for three to four days (Hyman 1991).
Upon completion of these preliminary steps, nuts can be stored for up
to nine months, until a woman is ready to convert them into butter. The
specialized techniques women use for preservation and storage prolong
the product’s ‘shelf-life’ and ensure nut availability throughout the year
(Howard 2003: 13).
When the time for making shea butter arrives, shea nut shells are
cracked and removed. Nuts may then be roasted or smoked over a
stove for 24 hours prior to being crushed one by one with a stone on
the ground. They are thereafter warmed in a cauldron (Figure 2) and
pounded in a mortar with a pestle. This yields a coarse brown batter,
which is placed on a large stone and ground, with a smaller stone, into
a finer-grained paste.
The following stages typically involve several women sharing the
workload. Water is added to the paste and the mixture is kneaded. Two
or three women jointly reach into the thick shea batter to beat the paste
so the foam floats to the surface. Every few minutes, they relieve each
other of the work to reduce fatigue from the labour. As the kneading
motion is rhythmic, those waiting their turn raise the spirits of the ones
working by singing and clapping to the tempo of the kneading (Elias
2003). For women, the preparation of shea butter is a social process.
The foam is then transferred to a bucket of water, where it
is ‘washed’ by hand, with women spinning the mixture in basins
of water to eliminate unwanted residues (Figure 3). Subsequent
washings – repeated as many as four times – yield progressively whiter
foam, which is then boiled for many hours. The top layer is skimmed,
or clarified, and upon cooling becomes the white butter so desired in
AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE 41
FIGURE 2 Woman stirring shea nuts as they are warmed over a fire. Source:
Marl`
ene Elias 2003.
international markets. The conversion of ten kilograms of shea nuts into
butter typically demands eight to ten hours of an individual woman’s
labour (Faucon et al. 2001; Cr´
elerot 1995; Elias 2003).
Differences in methods of butter making were recorded as early as
the eighteenth century by Scottish explorer Mungo Park, as he searched
for the source of the River Niger. On his journey through the Bambara
landscape, Park witnessed shea nut collection, processing and trade.
He observed the drying and roasting of nuts during the wet season.
Park’s village hosts informed him that the nut transformation method
he witnessed produced the best shea butter:
In one corner ... was constructed a kiln for drying the fruit of the Shea trees:
it contained about half a cart-load of fruit, under which was kept up a clear
wood fire. I was informed, that in three days the fruit would be ready for
pounding and boiling; and that the butter thus manufactured, is preferable
to that which is prepared from fruit dried in the sun; especially in the rainy
season; when the process by insolation is always tedious, and oftentimes
ineffectual (Park 2000: 215).
Park commended the taste of shea butter, writing that the product
had the ‘advantage of its keeping the whole year without salt’. He also
noted that it ‘is whiter, firmer, and to my palate, of a richer flavour, than
the best butter I ever tasted made from cow’s milk’ (Park 2000: 201).
Variations in nut processing do indeed yield butters with different
qualities. Regional shea markets recognize the quality differences
associated with specific localities. This same point has been made with
the African locust bean tree (Parkia biglobosa)orn´
er´
e, another valued
42 AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE
FIGURE 3 Women with hands in shea batter, washing shea. Source: Marl`
ene
Elias 2003.
AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE 43
parkland species, from whose pod women prepare a paste used as a
sauce-flavouring agent. Women in Benin base their market purchases of
n´
er´
eon tangible differences in product characteristics between localities
(Gutierrez and Juh´
e-Beaulaton 2002: 468). These differences reflect
distinctive methods of locust bean preparation. Female shea butter
makers similarly contend that the manner in which the nuts are prepared
results in product differences. Some appreciate the partially fermented
product obtained from nuts stored in underground pits (Hyman 1991),
while others prefer the butter that results from boiling the nuts (Cr´
elerot
1995; Elias 2003).
Many of the techniques women employ in butter preparation are
related to water, firewood and labour availability. Smoking, roasting
or boiling the nuts – and even the number of times the paste is
rinsed – account for perceived differences in quality and taste. For
instance, while the taste of butter derived from smoked nuts is enjoyed
in certain communities, it is unappreciated in others. As with the
preparation of n´
er´
e, the diversity of product offerings derives from
cultural repositories of knowledge that reside in specific communities.
Women develop the rich knowledge of shea nut processing at a
young age. This knowledge is imbued with meanings that draw on the
sociological, cosmological and ritual realms (Appadurai 1986). Shea
butter production is a gendered identity marker, as well as a way
rural women cement their social ties. Women are recognized for the
quality of their butter and skilled butter makers take great pride in their
reputation. In south-western Burkina Faso, butter producers offer their
finest shea butter as a gift at births and weddings and as a gesture
of gratitude for acts of kindness (Cr´
elerot 1995). Similar practices
are reported elsewhere – as in central Anatolia, Turkey, where women
maintain their social networks through gifts of wild plants they collect
(Ertu˘g 2003). The shea butter remaining after gift offerings is consumed
within the household or commercialized.
Regional trade in shea
Trade in shea butter is the principal economic activity of rural Burkinab´
e
women (Cr´
elerot 1995). Nut collectors and butter makers sell shea
products out of their houses, in local markets, or to bulk buyers who
purchase and transport the goods to regional outlets. While commerce
in shea is active year-round, product prices nearly double during the dry
season. The economic value of shea nuts and butter is lowest between
June and September, when shea fruits come to maturity and their by-
products abound in local markets.3Nonetheless, considerable amounts
of nuts and butter are sold at this time. This is because household grain
reserves are at their lowest in the pre-harvest agricultural period, and
women need cash to purchase critical food items (Gosso 1996). One
3A weighted average producer price of 500 FCFA per kilogram of butter is calculated
from local Burkinab`
e markets, based upon annual means for the last decade (1990–2000)
(ANDINES 2002; Elias 2003).
44 AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE
way to raise the value of shea nuts is to convert them into butter, but
this requires women to exert even more labour when they are already
burdened with agricultural work.
Buyers (principally women) take advantage of low wet season prices to
purchase nuts cheaply from female collectors. These buyers then stock
the nuts until their values rise. The nuts may be sold to merchants,
wholesalers, local food dealers and, at times, even resold to the very
females whose cash needs originally forced them to part with the nuts
so cheaply (Terpend 1982; Audette 1995). Terpend (1982) estimates
that a rural Burkinab`
e woman gathers between 560 kg and 650 kg of
nuts in a typical year. If she transforms all her nuts into butter and
sells the entire lot in the dry season, her earnings will average 50,000
to 58,500 FCFA (US$91–106). Such figures, however, overestimate
the real value earned by women because most of the gathered nuts
are retained for household consumption rather than sold, and because
women must often sell the product when prices are seasonally lower.
Attempting to estimate the percentage of nuts actually consumed by
rural Burkinab`
e households, Boffa et al. (1996) calculated that 60 to 90
per cent of a woman’s collection is processed to feed her family. The
remainder is marketed as raw nuts or butter. A more realistic estimate
of female shea earnings takes this point into account and considers
the 450–650 hours each woman typically labours to produce butter for
household subsistence and petty cash sales. From this perspective, a
rural woman earns only between 12,500 and 14,600 FCFA annually,
or between US$23 and $27 per year from petty sales (Elias 2003).4
While this may seem a pittance, the income from shea marketing still
makes a contribution to the region’s otherwise depressed farm incomes
(Boffa et al. 1996).
Traders specializing in shea acquire the butter or raw nuts at local
markets or directly from females selling from their homes or along
the roadside. Chalfin (2001: 217) reports that female shea traders in
one north-eastern Ghanaian town profit from proximity to commercial
networks in south-east Burkina Faso and Niger. They typically buy in
single transactions three to five calabashes of butter, weighing about 20
kg each, for US$15–20. They then sell to more capitalized merchant
middlemen and wholesalers, typically men, who distribute the butter
regionally or on the export market.
Research on northern Ghana’s female shea traders also reveals buyer
recognition of discernible differences in nut and butter quality (Chalfin
2000). At times this is the result of storage and preparation methods
that result in nuts of low oil content. Ghanaian market women also
show considerable savvy in noting regional and ethnic differences in
the quality and taste of shea butter. In bringing together in one place
the products from many localities and diverse ethnic groups, regional
markets operate as sites for profiling butters of different quality. Near the
border between Ghana and Burkina Faso, shea producers from the same
4Figures are based upon an exchange rate of 550 FCFA to US$1 (2006).
AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE 45
region occupy different parts of the market. Their butter is moulded
into different shapes and sizes depending upon their geographical origin
and ethnic background. These provisions render distinctions in shea
butter characteristics and in butter traders’ origins obvious to customers
(Chalfin 2001).
The assortment of shea butters sold in markets reflects the place-based
and culturally embedded heritage associated with butter production.
But this cultural repository also includes the very management of the
shea landscape, which involves the selection and management of shea
trees. Indigenous agro-forestry practices contribute to the maintenance
of shea biodiversity and have assured the conservation of the species
across generations.
THE SHEA LANDSCAPE AND BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION
Shea is a slow-growing tree. It can take as many as 15 years to produce
flowers, and fruit production peaks between 45 and 50 years (Boffa
1999). The tree bears fruit from the end of the dry season into the
rains (in Burkina Faso, from May until mid-September), at a time when
farmers are busy with field preparation and farming (Ruyssen 1957;
Terpend 1982; Schreckenberg 1996). A mature shea tree produces an
average of twenty kilograms of fresh fruit annually, but the quantity
and quality of the fruit can vary unpredictably over short-term cycles
(Chalfin 2000: 992). Climatic, biophysical and human practices affect
tree yields.5Local populations eat the fruit, while nuts are retained for
butter making. With traditional techniques of production, 20 kg of fruit
typically yield about 4 kg of dried nuts and between 0.7 and 1.5 kg of
butter (Terpend 1982).
V. paradoxa is found on over one million square kilometres of savanna
south of the Sahel, where annual rainfall ranges between 500 and 1,400
mm (Hyman 1991: 1248) (Figure 1). The current biogeographical
range of the species extends nearly to the Atlantic Coast in The
Gambia. Domestic animals as well as wild elephants, birds, ungulates,
primates and bats contribute to its long-distance seed dispersal (Burkill
1985; Hall et al. 1996). So do human beings. The diffusion of the shea
tree to The Gambia, for instance, occurred with the migration of ethnic
groups from the west African interior who deliberately established the
culturally valued specimen (Maranz and Wiesman 2003). V. paradoxa
comprises two subspecies: subsp. paradoxa for the tree present in the
5Terpend (1982) discusses a three-year cycle in annual production, wherein production is
good one year, poor the next, and mediocre the third. Seasonal variation in the harmattan – the
arid, cool, dry season wind that blows south from the Sahara across the Sahel – also affects fruit
yield. The tree’s flowers are torn in years of pronounced winds, and subsequent production
is reduced. Precipitation further influences yields, with high rains leading to increased
subsequent production. Diseases, parasites and predators additionally decrease productivity.
Anthropogenic factors responsible for lower yields include the setting of fires to clear land
for agriculture during the shea tree’s flowering period, which adversely affects the timing and
quantity of flowers produced (Abbiw 1990).
46 AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE
western Sudano-Sahelian zone and subsp. nilotica (Kotschy) A. N.
Henry et al. for its eastern counterpart (Hall et al. 1996).
In Burkina Faso, V. paradoxa extends across the country from the
semi-arid north-east to the south-west, which respectively receive an
average of 500 mm and 1,200 mm of rain per annum. Shea trees
are estimated to occupy 6.5 million hectares of savanna woodlands
in Burkina Faso, or one quarter of the country’s total land area
(Kessler and Geerling 1994). In addition to rainfall patterns, human
land use regulates the density and distribution of the species. One
study from the late colonial period in Burkina Faso showed average
per hectare densities of 55 trees in the country’s south-west, 25 in
the densely settled central region, and 35 in the north (IHRO, cited
in Terpend 1982). However, recent studies indicate that the number
of standing shea trees has considerably decreased as a result of the
shift to orchard crops in the country’s south-west, the intensification
of agriculture in the central region, and the expansion of cotton
monocultures, ox ploughing and fuelwood scarcity elsewhere (Saul et al.
2003: 159). These surveys report densities between six and nineteen
trees per hectare, a figure consistent with neighbouring Mali, where
the per hectare average is fifteen (Boffa 1991; Maranz and Wiesman
2003).
Traditional V. paradoxa conservation
Traditional agro-forestry techniques do not involve deliberate establish-
ment of the shea tree. Shea’s prolonged growth and maturation periods,
unreliable production, recalcitrant seeds and out-crossing breeding sys-
tem favour other methods (Lovett and Haq 2000).6Nonetheless, groves
were established in The Gambia during colonial rule and pilot planta-
tions are under development in Burkina Faso (Saul et al. 2003; Carney
and Elias, forthcoming).
Instead, the existence of V. paradoxa parklands results in considerable
part from anthropogenic management and preservation of the species
(Boffa 1999; Maranz and Wiesman 2003). Owing to their valued
products, there exist many local taboos against cutting down Vitellaria
trees (Lovett and Haq 2000). The Bobo in the western part of
the country have long prohibited the cutting of valuable shea trees
during the rainy season when they bear fruit. In other West African
regions, customary law interdicts collection of shea nuts during certain
periods (Lovett and Haq 2000; Boffa 1999). Bans on tree products
with economically valuable environmental resources are typical of
indigenous conservation measures reported in many areas of West Africa
(Freudenberger et al. 1997). These cultural mechanisms promote the
preservation and regeneration of valued species.
6‘Recalcitrant seeds’ refers to the fact that seed viability drops very rapidly. For V. paradoxa,
viability declines within a week of seed removal from the fruit and is completely lost within
three to six weeks (Hall et al. 1996). Out-crossing complicates the selection for ‘superior’,
‘true-to-type’ individuals stemming from heterozygous parents.
AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE 47
Managed landscapes of mixed vegetation and protected trees are
known as agro-forestry parklands. They are the result of a calculated
land management system among specific ethnic groups, which protects
arboreal species providing desirable products when fields are cleared
and burned for agriculture. The dominant tree species of parklands
reflect local climatic, agricultural and cultural factors (P´
elissier 1980).
Livestock production may also be a significant component of these
systems (Boffa 1999).
Along with n´
er´
e(Parkia biglobosa)andgumarabic(Faidherbia albida,
syn. Acacia albida), shea is found on cultivated and fallow lands
throughout the West African Sudano-Sahelian zone (Breman and
Kessler 1995; Boffa 1999). Shea and n´
er´
eparklands are associated with
agricultural societies that rely upon shea butter as their primary source
of fat and cooking oil (Schrekenberg 1999). In contrast, protection of
V. paradoxa is often not a priority among Fulani herders, whose diet is
based on animal fat. They rely instead on Acacia albida, a leguminous
tree that bears its leaves in the dry season, thereby providing shade and
fodder for their animals (Seignobos 1982).
Among west African farming societies, shea tree conservation dates
back to antiquity (Harlan 1992). At the end of the eighteenth
century, Mungo Park (2000: 201) noted that in Mali’s shea-
dominated landscapes, shea trees were the only ones spared when
forested land was cleared for cultivation. Recent palynological evidence
from Burkina Faso suggests that the practice of preserving shea in
cultivated fields was already occurring by 1000 AD (Neumann et al.
1998). Landscapes dominated by aged, slow-growing shea trees serve
as testimony to longstanding V. paradoxa selection and parkland
management.
While farmers preserve shea trees, they cull other species in cultivated
fields. This increases the relative abundance of shea with respect to other
parkland species. In southern Burkina Faso, Boffa (1995) observes that
the relative occurrence of shea trees in farmed fields is five times greater
than that found in uncultivated savanna. In one area he compared,
shea accounted for 83 percent of the woody individuals on farmed
land, but only 16 percent of those in uncultivated bush. In Benin, well
over 70 percent of the trees encountered in farmed parklands are shea
(Agbahungba and Depommier 1989), while in northern Ghana, V.
paradoxa trees constitute more than 80 percent of the wooded farmland
vegetation (Lovett and Haq 2000).
Protection of the shea tree serves vital ecological functions. Its
extensive, shallow root system preserves soil structure and drainage
where the tree grows (Bonkoungou 1987; Boussim and Guinko 1993;
Gray 2003) while its canopy buffers parklands from wind and soil
erosion (Kessler 1992). The tree’s resistance to fire also helps prevent
devastation in the savanna woodlands when fields are burned for
agriculture or pasture grass regeneration (Burkill 1985). The ecological
importance of shea is underscored by the fact that the tree figures among
the few savanna species whose physical presence is used as a vegetative
48 AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE
descriptor throughout the Sudano-Sahelian parklands (Harlan 1992;
Hall et al. 1996).
Local agronomic knowledge
Traditional management practices additionally shape the relatively large
size of shea trees in parklands compared to those on uncultivated areas.
Local agronomic knowledge guides the selection of robust shea trees
that appear best adapted to local growing conditions. Those with
undesirable characteristics are culled. Due to this practice, and to the
enhanced growing conditions found in cultivated fields, shea trees found
on farmed lands typically attain a diameter double those of the same
age growing in uncultivated areas (Boffa 1995).
Local agronomic knowledge also affects butter quality. In a study
comparing shea pulp traits from trees in Mali and Burkina Faso,
Maranz and Wiesman (2003: 1507) show how strong local selection
for desired fruit and nut traits led to selective tree preservation and
the culling of specimens with undesirable traits. As shea is exploited
principally for pulp and fat, three economically valued characteristics
were investigated: pulp sweetness, which is desirable because fruits are
eaten, as well as fat content of the seed and type of fat in the kernel,
which bear upon shea butter processing and quality. Shea populations
in central Burkina Faso displayed the highest kernel fat and saturated
fatty acid content. The percentage of stearic acid is a measure of fat
hardness, which makes the butter retain a solid state at temperatures that
exceed 40 degrees Celsius. In most Burkinab`
e nut populations, there
is a slightly higher percentage of oleic acid to stearic acid. However,
the percentage is reversed in shea kernels from the Moose (Mossi)
Plateau of central Burkina Faso, where stearic acid dominates (Maranz
and Wiesman 2003). Such factors affect shea butter quality in foreign
markets. A lower ratio of stearic acid results in soggy butter that does
not hold its form as solid pats. The interplay between shea nut traits and
processing methods in different geographical regions thus influences the
quality of the butter produced. Both traits and processing methods are
in continuous evolution. Shea tree management methods highlight the
way cultural preferences and practices preserve individuals with distinct
traits in different parkland environments. This also has implications for
shea butter commercialization.
COMMERCIALIZATION OF SHEA PRODUCTION
Trade in African shea butter dates back at least to the fourteenth century,
when Muslim travellers first recorded the practice (Lewicki 1974). The
overseas export market for shea developed with the imposition of
colonial rule in the nineteenth century. Demand grew with the use of
shea as a cocoa butter equivalent in the manufacture of chocolate and
margarine. While most of the colonial trade focused on nuts, butter
exports steadily increased between 1932 and 1947. In 1937, at the
height of the world depression, Burkina Faso continued to export shea:
AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE 49
8,451 tons of shea kernels and 2,927 tons of butter were collected
from the key producing areas of Ouagadougou, Bobo and Gaoua (in
the central and western parts of the country) and exported to France
(Massa 1995).
Following the country’s independence in 1960, shea exports grew
(Pehaut 1976; FAOSTAT 2006). By the 1970s, shea nuts and butter
had become the country’s third largest foreign-exchange earner (Saul
et al. 2003). But the international shea market’s volatility was one cause
of a decline in exports in the early 1990s (World Bank 1989; Saul et al.
2003) (Table 1). Poor tree productivity, as well as the disorganization
of the commercial shea sector, the artisanal nature of butter production
and trade, and unreliable statistics for national output further account
for the export fluctuations depicted in Table 1 (UNCTAD 2006).
Despite annual fluctuations, the export demand for shea nuts
continues to increase. In the two years between 1995 and 1997,
nut exports from Ghana leaped from 15,000 to 32,000 tons, which
represented an increase from two to seven million dollars in foreign
exchange revenues (Chalfin 2000). Burkina Faso’s shea nut exports
have likewise increased in the past decade, with average annual nut
exports rising from 10,000 tons over the ten-year period 1984–94 to
15,000 tons in 1994–2004 (FAOSTAT 2006). Shea butter exports
from Burkina Faso also climbed over the past decade, averaging 630
tons per year between 1997 and 2001 (ONAC 2001) (Table 1).
The contemporary shea market continues to be characterized by raw
nut rather than butter exports (Conti 1979). Two reasons primarily
account for this. First, many European companies prefer processing
imported nuts with modern technologies that guarantee butter of a
desired quality. Second, low producer remuneration confers on women
little incentive to engage in arduous nut transformation activities for
the export market. Thus, while millions of African women produce
shea butter for household consumption and local trade, most of
their production remains in Africa (Hyman 1991; Boffa 1995). The
dominance of raw nut over butter exports perpetuates the pattern
established with colonialism, where value-added processing activities
occur outside the producing area.
International demand for shea derives from cosmetics and food
industries in the North, which are mostly headquartered in France,
Great Britain, Scandinavia, Japan and North America (Pehaut 1976).
The chocolate industry still accounts for 90 percent of the international
demand for shea, used as a cocoa butter equivalent (CBE) (UNIFEM
1997). The market for shea is thus closely linked to that for cocoa.7Shea
sales are favoured in years of low cocoa yields and high cocoa prices,
while the contrary is true of years of low cocoa prices. The availability
7Statistics on the international shea market for the food industry are difficult to
obtain because the few firms that dominate production conduct their activities in a
secretive manner. Four large European importers – Aarhus, Karlshamns, Unilever and Van
Dermoortele – dominate the international shea market.
50 AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE
TABLE 1Shea exports from Burkina Faso, selected years
(1961–2004)
Year
Nuts
(metric tons)
Butter
(metric tons)
1961 2,891 75
1962 2,572 681
1963 3,196 316
1964 6,681 773
1965 4,340 1,154
1966 11,611 1,142
1967 3,366
1968 15,084 1,185
1969 12,342 1,024
1970 14,280
1971 7,667
1972 10,648
1973 3,856
1974 8,762
1975 11,597
1976 40,489
1977 30,613
1978 21,516
1979 23,697
1980 34,700
1981 43,622
1982 23,543
1983 26,051
1984 41,079
1985 11,005
1986 6,298
1987 4,240
1988 2,676
1989 3,072
1990 17,222
1991 3,314
1992 5,000
1993 5,000
1994 14,657
1995 7,263
1996 10,004
1997 9,964 53
1998 20,663 2,367
1999 7,930 271
2000 11,575 190
2001 17,980 269
2002 34,975
2003 26,686
2004 11,891
Sources: P´
ehaut (1976: 1319) (shea butter data 1961–9);
FAOSTAT (shea nut data 1961–2004); ONAC (shea butter data
1997–2001)
AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE 51
of a handful of other alternatives to cocoa butter further drives down
both shea and cocoa producer prices. In 2000, the European Union
ruled in favour of allowing up to 5 percent of cocoa butter substitutes
into chocolate. This legislation has stimulated the demand for shea and
other vegetal oils within the chocolate industry (Fold 2000). Yet, the
labour involved in making shea butter and the low prices offered by
agro-food industries do not provide female African producers attractive
income opportunities under conventional marketing arrangements.8
Current market demand for shea butter by global cosmetics firms,
along with fair trade contracts, is creating a demand for export-quality
butter and shifting more of the product into the export trade. The
popularity of shea butter results from its emergence over the past fifteen
years as a key ingredient in lines of ‘natural’ cosmetics (Compaor´
e
2000). In this new market niche, West African producers could enjoy a
potentially more advantageous position with buyers. However, the food-
processing industry is also poised to produce the shea butter demanded
by cosmetics firms through its raw nut imports and advanced refining
technology. At the turn of the twenty-first century, about half the shea
butter used in the cosmetics sector was supplied by European food-
processing firms. The latter processed the nuts and sold shea butter to
the cosmetics industry at double the market price for its use in food
applications (Boffa 1999).
While the 1999 import demand for shea by the cosmetics industry was
estimated at only 200 tons (a figure well below the tonnage produced
by Burkina Faso alone that year), the potential for integrating the
butter in cosmetics products worldwide is estimated to reach 1,500
tons annually (Boffa 1999). With that in mind, international women-
in-development (WID) projects are promoting new technologies to
improve export butter quality by West African women’s groups. The
idea is to encourage cosmetics firms to purchase shea butter directly
from the female producers, thereby building a marketing relationship
based on ‘fair’ trade. With the middleman’s profits eliminated, women’s
incomes are expected to rise. Contracts have already been negotiated
with global cosmetics firms, such as The Body Shop and L’Occitane,
willing to pay female producers superior prices for their product. In 2001
the French company purchased 60 tons of shea butter in Burkina Faso
and planned to increase imports by another 90 tons in 2002 (Harsch
2001). The Body Shop is involved in similar contracts with producer
groups in Ghana (TBS 1997). Such contracts have earned African
women more than twice the prevailing market value per kilogram of
shea butter (ANDINES 2002; Elias, fieldwork, 2005).
Those convinced that female income opportunities rest on the
production of shea butter, rather than raw nut exports, have high
8Producer prices hover around 300 FCFA (US$0.60) per kilogram of shea butter (Elias,
fieldwork, 2005). This price is inordinately low in the light of the fact that production of
one kilogram of butter demands nearly 10 hours of female labour, (Cr´
elerot 1995; Elias and
Carney 2005).
52 AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE
hopes that women will benefit from new niche markets. Wholesale
trade figures from Burkina Faso reveal the potential. In 1997 one
ton of unprocessed shea nuts sold domestically for FCFA 70,000 and
externally for FCFA 100,000 while the same ton processed into shea
butter obtained FCFA 148,000 (Harsch 2001: 6).
In providing new technologies to producer cooperatives, donor
projects help to ease the labour and natural resource demands associated
with shea processing and to improve product quality. Many Burkinab`
e
cooperatives already have access to mechanical mills that grind shea
nuts and some have acquired equipment to assist them in the nut
crushing, heating and kneading steps. While these cooperatives have a
greater capacity to turn out large quantities of quality butter and reduce
fuelwood demand for processing, the technologies are not without
some drawbacks. They demand costly fuel inputs and spare parts.
When shea presses break down, cooperatives are left shouldering large
debts to repay the initial capital investment and maintenance costs
(Compaor´
e 2000).
For the time being, fair-trade shea projects have offered thousands of
Burkinab`
e women a singular economic opportunity to earn more from
butter preparation. Even though the bulk of shea continues to be traded
conventionally as nuts, the market share of direct shea butter sales to
cosmetics companies is rising. As new markets link female butter makers
with consumers of the product across geographic space, the tentacles of
the female commodity chain now reach to the very processes that have
long formed the cultural heritage of shea.
Changing property rights with shea commercialization
Female income opportunities with shea butter depend fundamentally on
access to the tree’s nuts. As the shea tree is not deliberately planted, its
distribution on different types of land confers varying access rights. Shea
trees are found on household landholdings as well as on unclaimed land
used by villages for pasture, fuelwood and the gathering of medicinals.
In open-access forests, women collect nuts on a first-come-first-served
basis. On cultivated or fallow fields, only women with privileged access
hold the rights to gather the nuts.
Burkinab`
e rural households follow a tenure pattern typical of Sahelian
common property systems (Carney 1988), dividing their landholding
into personal and family fields. If a shea tree grows on her personal field,
a woman is entitled to collect the fruits and the value of marketed butter
(Terpend 1982). If the tree grows on family fields, the male family
head grants female members of the household the right to gather shea
fruits (Ruyssen 1957; Boffa et al. 1996). The decision to cut or leave
shea in parklands is ultimately made by the household head and reflects
existing policy measures, economic incentives, and the value of the tree
and its by-products. For instance, the shade from a shea tree can reduce
the yield of other crops such as sorghum by 44 percent and millet
by 60 percent (Kater et al. 1992). Nut availability is jeopardized every
time a male household head decides to fell shea trees on family land.
Longstanding customary village taboos reduce the incidence of cutting
AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE 53
down shea trees, and some West African countries legislate specifically
against their removal, even if forestry departments are too often unable
to enforce such laws (Schreckenberg 1999; Wezel and Haigis 2000).
Recent research suggests that shea commercialization is changing
women’s rights over nuts and the value derived from making butter.
In southwestern Burkina Faso, near regional export markets in C ˆ
ote
d’Ivoire, nut collection remains a female activity. However, women are
being made to share shea revenues with male household heads. Boffa
et al. (1996) report this development in a quarter of households they
surveyed in a village known for its shea production. In an additional
7 percent of the households, the male family head claimed the entire
value of female shea nut sales (Boffa et al. 1996). The decline in
cocoa commodity prices in C ˆ
ote d’Ivoire has further led young men to
enter into competition with women in collecting shea nuts. The men
do not process the nuts, but sell them directly to wholesalers. These
male nut collectors do not select high quality nuts nor do they put
their harvest through the necessary pre-transformation steps to prevent
nut germination. The deepening demand for nuts has thus adversely
affected nut and butter quality (Bliss and Gaesing 1992, in Boffa 1999).
The extent of men’s longer-term involvement in the shea commodity
chain remains to be seen. History has shown that female-controlled
crops can become the purview of men upon an increase in economic
value, all the while maintaining women’s role in their labour-intensive
processing steps. Such was the case, for instance, with palm oil in
Nigeria at the beginning of the twentieth century. As the product’s
export value increased, men gained control of the associated profits
while assuming only superficial palm oil processing tasks. Meanwhile,
women retained their traditional fruit transport duties and the bulk of
oil processing responsibilities. In Martin’s words (1984: 419),
The entry of men into palm production made a difference to women mainly
in that it deprived them of their right to initiate and control the production
process and to control the use of the resulting oil. By the early twentieth
century men were well established as the owners of palm fruit and of palm
oil. Women were rewarded for their role in oil production by being allowed
to keep some oil for cooking as well as the by-products of oil processing ...
which had no major local use.
Will shea replicate the history of palm oil, where men captured the
market for palm oil as well as the female labour required to process it?
Market mechanisms and biodiversity conservation
The longer-term impacts of shea markets and current land-use patterns
on V. paradoxa conservation cannot yet be evaluated fully. However, a
few trends are evident. High prices for shea nuts and butter – associated
with fair trade and WID contracts – are encouraging the selection and
conservation of shea trees on agricultural land. In contrast, shea trees
are felled when alternative land use is more valued or the price and need
for fuelwood exceeds that of shea products. The density of shea trees
54 AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE
on farmed fields thus remains closely linked with the economic value of
the tree’s products to the household economy (Schreckenberg 2004a).
Gender issues also appear crucial in shea conservation strategies.
Preliminary evidence suggests that more shea trees per hectare are found
on personal fields controlled by women (Boffa, 1995). In Thiougou,
male household heads maintain densities of 20 shea trees per hectare on
their personal fields while female-managed areas averaged shea densities
of 27 trees per hectare. Burkinab`
e income streams are gendered, and
men do not customarily control the products of shea, as they do other
parkland species. They may thus opt to cut down Vitellaria individuals
to the detriment of the women who harvest the nuts (Boffa 1999). Tree
felling may occur even though overall revenues from a typical parkland
in Burkina Faso with five to ten shea trees and two or three n´
er´
etrees is
of the order of 8000 FCFA per hectare (Saul et al. 2003: 131).
Agricultural policies and extension packages that support draught
animal traction and mechanized ploughing also adversely affect the
incidence of shea trees (Kessler 1992; Boffa 1999). Tree removal
facilitates the unimpeded movement of draught animals and avoids
striking tree roots. As a result, such policies cause a drastic decline
in tree densities on cultivated fields. In Thiougou, the average shea
density on land farmed with hand cultivation techniques was 31 per
hectare. Land ploughed with donkey or oxen reduced densities to 21–25
trees per hectare (Boffa 1995). Even fewer shea trees are maintained
on land mechanically ploughed in northern Ghana (Lovett and Haq
2000). While farmers are encouraged to replant trees in non-ploughed
areas, they opt for exotic fruit trees or fast-growing pole and timber
species at the expense of slow-growing indigenous species whose value
is associated with women (Schreckenberg 1999: 288).
Mechanical ploughing, however, should be seen as separate from
the process of agricultural intensification. Agricultural intensification
does not always result in the destruction of shea trees and a
reduction in parkland biodiversity. In southwest Burkina Faso, land
is becoming scarce and fallow periods are diminishing. Gray (2003)
observes that the shortage of farmland has increased the worries of
borrowers, predominantly migrants, who fear losing their fields or the
privilege to farm if they leave fields fallow. Instead of clear-cutting the
arboreal vegetation, vulnerable households are responding to the lack
of permanent land rights and soil degradation with traditional agro-
forestry practices. In the very area where landholdings are least secure,
borrowing households are investing in soil quality to strengthen user
rights to land to which they have few formal claims. A key component of
their land-use strategy is to preserve specific tree species (shea, n´
er´
eand
acacia) for their economic and ecological value. The trees reduce soil
erosion and water run-off as well as supplying the farmland with organic
matter through leaf litter and root decay (Gray 2003). They also stand
as sentinels, preserving the cultural identity of migrants – who rely upon
shea butter – in their new environment.
AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE 55
HERITAGE PRODUCT: SHEA AND GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATORS AS A
MARKETING STRATEGY
In its burgeoning cosmetics niche, shea’s cultural heritage is explicitly
valorized as a marketing strategy. African-American retail outlets as
well as global firms such as The Body Shop emphasize shea butter’s
African origins. Their publicity describes the inherited skills African
women employ in the commodity’s production. Shea’s central role in
Sudano-Sahelian lifestyles and traditions renders it an ideal addition
to the growing number of ‘heritage products’ linking consumers to
‘authentic’ place-based heritages (Bessi`
ere 1998). The novel forms
shea butter assumes within elaborate Western cosmetics combine these
African traditions with modern innovations.
As international interest in culinary heritages grows, does shea’s
cultural heritage hold additional promise within the food industry?
Predominantly within the European Union, accreditation of food
products by origin, preparation and identity is prevalent. Ranging from
labels specifically designed to highlight sound environmental or labour
practices in food production to a product’s geographical provenance,
these markers foster consumer confidence in goods bearing a tradition
of quality. Such is the case, for instance, for France’s produits du terroir.
This distinguished niche market draws upon the notion that some of
France’s regions are specialized in the preparation of particular foods
with distinct characteristics (Bessi`
ere 1998; Roussel and Verdeaux,
this volume). These distinctive culinary traditions are the result of in
situ cultural heritages similar to those exemplified by shea in Africa.
They result from different methods of food preparation, which affect
product characteristics. The Appellation d’Origine Contrˆ
ol´
ee (AOC) label
highlights the regional origins of these produits du terroir within France
to consumers (Bessi`
ere 1998). While an analogous tradition exists for
shea in Africa, what are the prospects for a comparable market valuing
shea butter’s place-based culinary traditions?
The esteem the international community places on shea’s traditional
function as cooking oil is uncertain. Even within West Africa, the
consumption of shea butter is waning where alternatives such as
sesame, groundnut, cottonseed and palm oil are found (Hall et al.
1996; Schreckenberg 2004a, 2004b). While shea butter is often
the most affordable local cooking oil, many Africans prefer the
taste of its alternatives, with shea retaining a specialized use only
in commemorative meals. Internationally, there is no evidence that
expatriate African populations in Europe or North America place the
same value on shea butter in cooking as they do on palm oil or n´
er´
e.The
foreign market for it as a food product thus appears unviable, unless
its role in chocolate manufacture can be linked to current fair trade
initiatives.
There is, nonetheless, a current attempt in West Africa to link the
chemical characteristics or ‘signature’ of shea nuts and butter to their
geographic origins. Sponsored by the Common Fund for Commodities,
the Dutch government and the Food and Agriculture Organization
56 AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE
(FAO), the ProKarit´
eproject aims to document the distinct traits of
shea nuts and butter originating in specific regions. The aim is to
improve the ‘trace-ability’ of shea products along the shea commodity
chain should a specialized market for the product emerge (ProKarit´
e
2004; Masters 2005).
Rather than focusing on regional production specialties, however, the
current trend for international shea butter sales is one of standardization.
To secure international markets for shea butter, producers must comply
with high quality standards. Shea butter must be of reliable quality and
reflect a low percentage of impurities, humidity and acidity. In Burkina
Faso, WID projects advise women on the production of a quality
product meeting strict international demands. Workshops given to
female producer associations call for a standardization of processing
techniques – the very indigenous methods that have long resulted in
the different types of butter produced regionally and by diverse ethnic
groups. For instance, all butter producers are encouraged to boil their
nuts rather than to bury them. Women are similarly dissuaded from
smoking their nuts and advised to subject the shea paste to multiple
washings. This yields a product with fewer impurities but demands
considerable amounts of water.
The advent of new technologies further standardizes the production
process and final product quality. As steps are mechanized, the
cultural heritages embedded in traditional shea nut transformation are
erased. As such, these technologies reduce the need for the specialized
gendered knowledges that inform processing practices (Biquard 1992).
In standardizing the butter-making process, new technologies open the
door to marketing entrepreneurs who wish to capitalize on the products
of women’s labour and emerging market opportunities (Biquard 1992).
Official certification by the Fairtrade Labelling Organization (FLO)
International will provide additional momentum to the standardization
of shea butter production. Fair-trade shea butter is not yet officially
certified by FLO. Yet the organization is currently establishing
criteria to regulate the way butter sold on the fair-trade market
should be produced and traded.9Producer associations desiring
certification need to demonstrate compliance with established social and
ecological regulations, including biodiversity and sustainable harvesting
requirements related to shea nut collection and processing. Certified
importers, similarly, are required to respect a set of trade criteria,
including a minimum price per kilogram of shea paid to producer
associations. Official labelling of fair-trade shea butter in North America
and Europe is likely to increase product pricing and foster this market
niche by building consumer awareness and confidence in the product.
The economic returns and ecological requirements of fair-trade shea
9Inaugurated in 1997, FLO (Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International) is an
umbrella organization that regroups 17 fair-trade labelling initiatives throughout the world.
FLO sets global standards for, and offers third-party certification of, fair-trade products. For
more information on the organization, see: <http://www.fairtrade.net/>.
AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE 57
butter also promise to assist local communities in protecting the
natural heritage passed down from their ancestors. Yet, to comply with
global product norms, producers must adopt standardized processing
techniques that stray from the distinct and specialized cultural traditions
developed regionally by butter makers over the centuries.
CONCLUSION
As this article has sought to demonstrate, the shea tree constitutes a
botanical and cultural African heritage. Owing to its myriad functions
and valued by-products, the species plays an integral role in African
subsistence and is embedded with cultural meaning. The tree’s local
significance ensures its anthropogenic selection and preservation in what
have become shea parklands. For more than a thousand years, successive
Sudano-Sahelian farming communities have managed and shaped these
parklands. Now globalization has reached these areas. Expanding
shea markets, new European Union legislation concerning the use
of CBEs, international women-in-development advocacy groups, and
agricultural extension programmes are affecting the very management
systems of these ancient parklands. As changes sweep over the socio-
cultural shea landscape, what will be the future outcome of this African
natural heritage? Who will be the beneficiaries as shea parklands are
transformed?
While both men and women use, value and protect Vitellaria trees,
shea is above all a female heritage. Across the Sudano-Sahelian zone,
the species is a marker of gender identity. Women acquire knowledge
of shea trees, nut collection and processing at a young age; over their
own life cycle they bequeath this knowledge to their daughters, who in
turn renew the tradition. The significance of shea to female identity and
livelihoods is commemorated in a song sung by butter makers in Mali
(Biquard 1992: 173–4).
Shea is women’s wealth ... shea is women’s wisdom.
Confide in it before speaking to your husband.
Wild shea, born of this very earth;
This shea has stayed with the village, has given it all its riches and protection.
Shea was already present when the Ancestors founded this place, composing
with nature the harmony we must each reproduce.10
As this refrain tells us, the roots of the shea tree reach deep into culture
and nature. With each year, the transformation of nature’s subsidy
into shea butter also roots the identity of Sudano-Sahelian women into
place.
10 Authors’ translation.
58 AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE
REFERENCES
Abbiw, D. K. 1990. Useful Plants of Ghana: West African uses of wild and
cultivated plants. London: Intermediate Technology Publications and The
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Agbahungba, G. and D. Depommier. 1989. ‘Aspects du parc `
akarit
´
e-n´
er´
es
(Vitellaria paradoxa Gaertn. F. Parkia biglobosa Jacq. Benth.) dans le sud de
Borgou (B´
enin)’, Bois et Forˆ
ets des Tropiques 222: 41–54.
ANDINES. 2002. Beurre de karit´
e: Groupe LAAFI (Burkina Faso) et ANDINES
(France), Ile Saint Denis: ANDINES SA.
Appadurai, A. 1986. ‘Commodities and the politics of value’ in A. Appadurai
(ed.), The Social Life of Things: commodities in cultural perspective. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Audette, R. 1995. ´
Etudedelafili
`
ere karit´
e. Programme Micro-R´
ealisations Burkina
Faso. ACDI, Projet 960/16010.
Berkes, F. 1999. Sacred Ecology: traditional ecological knowledge and resource
management. Philadelphia, PA: Taylor and Francis.
Berkes, F., J. Colding and C. Folke. 2000. ‘Rediscovery of traditional ecological
knowledge as adaptive management’, Ecological Applications 10: 1251–62.
Bessi`
ere, J. 1998. ‘Local development and heritage: traditional food and cuisine
as tourist attractions in rural areas’, Sociologia Ruralis 38 (1): 21–34.
Biquard, A. 1992. ‘Femmes et innovations technologique: pertes sans profit.
L’exemple du beurre de karit´
e (Mali)’ in J. Bissiliat, F. Pinton and
M. Lecarme (eds), Relations de genre et d´
eveloppement: femmes et soci´
et´
es.
Paris: ORSTOM.
Bliss, F. and K. Gaesing. 1992. M¨
oglichkeiten der Einbeziehung von Frauen
in Massnahmen der ressourcenschonenden Nutzung von Baumbest¨
anden.
Forschungsberichte des Bundesministeriums f ¨
ur Wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit.
Munich: Weltforum Verlag.
Boffa J-M. 1991. ‘Land and Tree Management and Tenure Policies in
Burkina Faso’s Agroforestry System’. MS thesis, Purdue University, West
Lafayette, Indiana.
1995. ‘Productivity and Management of Agroforestry Parklands in the
Sudan Zone of Burkina Faso’. PhD dissertation, Purdue University, West
Lafayette, Indiana.
1999. Agroforestry Parklands in Sub-Saharan Africa. FAO Conservation
Guide No. 34. Rome: FAO.
Boffa, J-M., G. Yam´
eogo,P.Niki
´
ema and D. M. Knudson. 1996. ‘Shea nut
(Viellaria paradoxa) production and collection in agroforestry parklands
of Burkina Faso’ in R. R. B. Leakey et al.(eds),Domestication and
Commercialization of Non-Timber Forest Products in Agroforestry Systems: non-
wood forest products.Rome:FAO.
Bonkoungou, E. G. 1987. Monographie du Karit´
e, Butyrospermum paradoxum
(Gaertn. F.) Hepper, esp`
ece agroforesti`
ere a usages multiples. Ouagadougou:
Institut de Recherche en Biologie et ´
Ecologie Tropicale.
Boussim, I. J. and G. S. A. S. Guinko. 1993. ‘Tapinantus parasite du karit´
eau
Burkina Faso, premi`
ere partie’, Bois et Forˆ
ets des Tropiques, 238: 45–7.
Breman, H. and J. J. Kessler. 1995. Woody Plants in Agro-Ecosystems of Semi-
Arid Regions, with an Emphasis on the Sahelian Countries. Berlin: Springer
Verlag.
Burkill, H. M. 1985. The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa, Volume 4. Kew:
Royal Botanic Gardens.
AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE 59
Carney, J. 1988. ‘Struggles over crop rights and labour within contract farming
households in a Gambian irrigated rice project’, Journal of Peasant Studies 50
(3): 334–49.
Carney, J. and M. Elias. Forthcoming. ‘Revealing gendered landscapes:
indigenous female knowledge and agroforestry of African shea’, Canadian
Journal of African Studies.
Chalfin, B. 2000. ‘Risky business: economic uncertainty, market reforms
and female livelihoods in northeast Ghana’, Development and Change 31:
987–1008.
2001. ‘Border zone trade and the economic boundaries of the state in
north-east Ghana’, Africa 71 (2): 202–24.
Compaor´
e, P. N. 2000. ‘Femmes D´
eveloppement et Transfert de
Technologies. Le Cas des Presses `
aKarit
´
e au Burkina Faso’. PhD
dissertation, University of Montreal.
Cr´
elerot, F. 1995. ‘Importance of Shea Nuts for Women’s Activities and Young
Child Nutrition in Burkina Faso: the case of the Lobi’. PhD dissertation,
University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Depommier, D. and P. S. Ramakrishnan (eds). 2002. Traditional Ecological
Knowledge, Conservation of Biodiversity and Sustainable Development.
Pondicherry: Institut Francais de Pondichery.
Elias, M. 2003. ‘Globalization and Female Production of African Shea Butter
in Rural Burkina Faso’. Masters thesis, University of California, Los Angeles.
Ertu˘g, F. 2003. ‘Gendering the tradition of plant gathering in Central Anatolia
(Turkey)’inP.L.Howard(ed.),Women and Plants. London: Zed Books.
FAOSTAT. Trade statistics 1961–2004, Accessed online 10 February 2006, at:
http://apps.fao.org/faostat/form?collection=Trade.CropsLivestockProducts
&Domain=Trade&servlet=1&hasbulk=0&version=ext&language=EN
Faucon, M., A. Sauvageau and S. Bahl. 2001. ‘Co ˆ
ut de production pour le
beurre de karit´
e du groupement Laafi’. Unpublished data, Centre d’ ´
Etudes
et de Coop´
eration Internationale (CECI), Ouagadougou.
Fold, N. 2000. ‘A matter of good taste? Quality and the construction of
standards for chocolate products in the European Union’, Cahiers d’Economie
et Sociologie Rurales 55–56: 91–110.
Freudenberger, M., J. Carney and A. R. Lebbie. 1997. ‘Resilience and change
in common property regimes in West Africa: the case of the Tongo in
The Gambia, Guinea and Sierra Leone’, Society and Natural Resources 10:
383–402.
Gosso, D. 1996. ‘ ´
Etude de l’importance socio-´
economique du karit´
eetdes
dangers qui menacent sa survie’. Th`
ese pour Diplˆ
ome de Technicien
Sup´
erieur (DTS), Ouagadougou.
Gray, L. 2003. ‘Investing in soil quality: farmer responses to land scarcity in
southwestern Burkina Faso’ in T. Bassett and D. Crummey (eds), African
Savannas: global narratives and local knowledge of envrionmental change.Oxford
and Portsmouth, NH: James Currey and Heinemann.
Gutierrez, M.-L. and D. Juh´
e-Beaulaton. 2002. ‘Histoire du parc `
aN
´
er´
e
(Parkia biglobosa Jacqu. Benth.) sur le plateau d’Abomey (B ´
enin): de sa
conservation pour la production et la commercialisation d’un condiment,
l’afitin’, LesCahiersd’Outre-Mer220: 453–74.
Hall,J.B.,D.P.Aebischer,H.F.Tomlinson,E.Osei-AmaningandJ.
R. Hindle. 1996. Vitellaria paradoxa: a monograph. Bangor: School of
Agricultural and Forest Sciences, University of Wales, Publication No. 8.
Harlan, J. R. 1992. Crops and Man. Madison, WI: American Society of
Agronomy/Crop Science Society of America, second edition.
60 AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE
Harsch, E. 2001. ‘Making trade work for poor women’, Africa Recovery 15
(4): 6.
Howard, P. L. 2003. ‘Women and the plant world: an exploration’ in P. L.
Howard (ed.), Women and Plants. London: Zed Books.
Hyman, E. L. 1991. ‘A comparison of labor-saving technologies for processing
shea nut butter in Mali’, World Development 19 (9): 1247–68.
Kater, L. J. M., S. Kante and A. Budelman. 1992. ‘Karit´
e(Vitellaria paradoxa)
and n´
er´
e(Parkia biglobosa) associated with crops in South Mali’, Agroforestry
Systems 18: 89–105.
Kessler, J. J. 1992. ‘The influence of karit´
e(Vitellaria paradoxa)andn
´
er´
e
(Parkia biglobosa) trees on sorghum production in Burkina Faso’, Agroforestry
Systems 17: 97–118.
Kessler, J. J. and C. Geerling. 1994. Profil environnemental du Burkina Faso.
Wageningen: University of Agronomics.
Lewicki, T. 1974. West African Food in the Middle Ages.NewYork:Cambridge
University Press.
Lovett, P. N. and N. Haq. 2000. ‘Evidence for anthropic selection of the
Sheanut tree (Vitellaria paradoxa)’, Agroforestry Systems 48: 273–88.
Maranz, S. and Wiesman, Z. 2003. ‘Evidence for indigenous selection and
distribution of the shea tree, Vitellaria paradoxa, and its potential significance
to prevailing parkland tree patterns in sub-Saharan Africa north of the
equator’, Journal of Biogeography 30 (10); 1505–16.
Martin, S. 1984. ‘Gender and innovation: farming, cooking and oil palm
processing in the Ngwa region, south-eastern Nigeria, 1900–1930’, Journal
of African History 25 (4): 411–27.
Massa, G. 1995. ‘Introduction’ in G. Massa and Y. G. Madi´
ega (eds), La
Haute Volta Coloniale: t´
emoignages, recherches, regards. Paris: Karthala.
Masters, E. Personal communication, 8 July 2005, Ouagadougou.
Neumann, K., S. Kahlheber and D. Uebel. 1998. ‘Remains of woody plants
from Saouga, a mediaeval West African village’, Vegetation History and
Archaeobotany 7: 55–77.
ONAC (Office National du Commerce). Trade statistics, 1997–2001,
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
Park, M. 2000 [1799]. Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa.Durham,NC:
Duke University Press.
Pehaut, Y. 1976. Les Ol´
eagineux dans les pays d’Afrique Occidentale associ´
es au
march´
e commun.Paris: ´
Editions Honor´
e Champion, 2 vols.
P´
elissier, P. 1980. ‘L’arbre dans les paysages agraires de l’Afrique noire’, Cahiers
ORSTOM, S´
erie Sciences Humaines 17: 131–6.
ProKarit´
e. 2004. ‘ProKarit´
e’. Accessed online 12 February 2006, at:
http://www.prokarite.org/index-eng.html.
Roussel, B. and F. Verdeaux ‘Natural patrimony and local communities in
Ethiopia: advantages and limitations of a system of geographical indications’,
in this issue.
Ruyssen, B. 1957. ‘Le karit´
e au Soudan’, Agronomie Tropicale 12: 143–72,
279–306, 415–40.
Saul, M., J-M. Ouadba and O. Bognounou. 2003. ‘The wild vegetation cover
of western Burkina Faso: colonial policy and post-colonial development’ in
T. Bassett and D. Crummey (eds), African Savannas : global narratives and
local knowledge of envrionmental chang. Oxford and Portsmouth, NH: James
Currey and Heinemann.
Schreckenberg, K. 1996. ‘Forests, Fields, and Markets: a study of indigenous
tree productions in the woody savannahs of the Bassila region, Benin’. PhD
dissertation, University of London.
AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE 61
1999. ‘Products of a managed landscape: non-timber forest products in
the parklands of the Bassila region, Benin’, Global Ecology and Biogeography
8 (3–4): 279–89.
2004a. ‘The contribution of shea butter (V. paradoxa C.F. Gaertner) to
livelihoods in Benin’ in T. Sunderland and O. Ndoye (eds), Forest Products,
Livelihoods and Conservation: case studies on non-timber forest product systems.
Bogor Barat, Indonesia: CIFOR.
2004b. ‘Shea butter: from cooking fat to cosmetics and chocolate’ in C.
Lopez and P. Shanley (eds), Riches of the Forest: for health, life and spirit in
Africa. SMK Desa Putera, Indonesia: CIFOR.
Seignobos, C. 1982. ‘V´
eg´
etations anthropiques dans la zone soudano-
sah´
elienne: la probl´
ematiques des parcs’, RevuedeG
´
eographie du Cameroun
1–23.
Terpend, M. N. 1982. La fili`
ere karit´
e: produit de cueillette, produit de luxe.Paris:
Les dossiers faim-d´
eveloppement.
The Body Shop (TBS). 1997. Promotional literature in brochure form.
London: TBS.
UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development).
‘Information de march´
e dans le secteur des produits de base.’ Accessed
online 12 February 2006, at: <http://r0.unctad.org/infocomm/francais/karite/
plan.htm>
UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women). 1997. Le karit´
e,
l’or blanc des africaines. Dakar, S´
en´
egal : Bureau R´
egional de UNIFEM.
Wezel, A. and J. Haigis. 2000. ‘Farmers’ perception of vegetation changes in
semi-arid Niger’, Land Degradation and Development 11 (6): 523–34.
World Bank 1989. ‘Burkina Faso’, in World Bank (ed.), Trends in Developing
Economies. Washington, DC: World Bank.
ABSTRACT
Thesheatree(Vitellaria paradoxa) is indigenous to Africa’s Sudano-Sahelian
region and crucial to savanna ecosystems and peoples. African women have
long collected, marketed and transformed shea nuts into a multipurpose butter.
The growing global trade in shea butter destined for the Western food and
cosmetics industries thus represents an opportunity to bolster impoverished
female incomes. However, such international sales are also prompting changes
in the west African shea landscape. This article examines the role of shea
as a female heritage in Burkina Faso, West Africa’s largest shea exporter. It
focuses on the knowledge systems informing the management, conservation and
processing of shea. It also considers the effects of global shea commercialization
on the maintenance of traditional agroforestry practices, tenure rights, and
butter-making techniques. In so doing, the article illuminates the cultural and
botanical heritage of shea as well as the significance of this species in biodiversity
protection, African natural heritages and female knowledge systems.
R´
ESUM ´
E
Le karit´
e(Vitellaria paradoxa), arbre indig `
enedelar
´
egion soudano-sah´
elienne,
est crucial pour les ´
ecosyst`
emes et les peuples de la savane. Depuis longtemps,
les femmes africaines ramassent, commercialisent et transforment la noix
de karit´
e en beurre multi-usage. L’essor du commerce mondial du beurre de
karit´
edestin
´
e aux industries alimentaires et cosm ´
etiques occidentales repr´
esente
donc une opportunit´
ed’am
´
eliorer les revenus des femmes appauvries. Or, ce
62 AFRICAN SHEA BUTTER: A FEMINIZED SUBSIDY FROM NATURE
commerce international entraˆ
ıne ´
egalement des changements dans le paysage
ouest-africain. Cet article examine le rˆ
ole du karit´
eentantqu’h
´
eritage f´
eminin
au Burkina Faso, premier pays exportateur de karit´
e en Afrique de l’Ouest. Il
examine les syst`
emes de savoir qui sous-tendent la gestion, la conservation et la
transformation du karit´
e. Il ´
etudie ´
egalement les effets de la commercialisation
mondiale du karit´
e sur le maintien des pratiques agroforesti`
eres traditionnelles,
les droits fonciers et les techniques de fabrication du beurre. Ce faisant,
l’article met en lumi`
ere l’h´
eritage culturel et botanique du karit ´
e, ainsi que
l’importance de cette esp`
ece dans la protection de la biodiversit´
e, les h´
eritages
naturels africains et les syst`
emes de savoir f´
eminins.
