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African Shea Butter: A Feminized Subsidy from Nature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Marlène Elias  and
Judith Carney
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Abstract

The shea tree (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.

Résumé

Le karité (Vitellariaparadoxa), arbre indigène de la région soudano-sahélienne, est crucial pour les écosystèmes et les peuples de la savane. Depuis longtemps, les femmes africaines ramassent, commercialisent et transforment la noix de karité en beurre multi-usage. L'essor du commerce mondial du beurre de karité destiné aux industries alimentaires et cosmétiques occidentales représente donc une opportunité d'améliorer les revenus des femmes appauvries. Or, ce commerce international entraîne également des changements dans le paysage ouest-africain. Cet article examine le rôle du karité en tant qu'héritage féminin au Burkina Faso, premier pays exportateur de karité en Afrique de l'Ouest. Il examine les systèmes de savoir qui sous-tendent la gestion, la conservation et la transformation du karité. Il étudie également les effets de la commercialisation mondiale du karité sur le maintien des pratiques agroforestières traditionnelles, les droits fonciers et les techniques de fabrication du beurre. Ce faisant, l'article met en lumière l'héritage culturel et botanique du karité, ainsi que l'importance de cette espèce dans la protection de la biodiversité, les héritages naturels africains et les systèmes de savoir féminins.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 77 , Issue 1: Nature as Local Heritage in Africa , February 2007 , pp. 37 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2007

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