BATS, THE SHEA TREE, TREE BUTTER and MONEY FOR POOR AFRICAN WOMEN

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This is a healing and nourishing tree. It is both spiritually and economically valuable. I don't know where to begin.

DIDN'T YOU SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT ABOUT THE FIG TREE, THE BAOBAB TREE AND THE NEEM TREE?

If I didn't, I should have. It is true about so many plants that are pollinated and seed-dispersed by bats.

IF THIS IS A COMPLICATED TOPIC, PLEASE START WITH A SHORT SUMMARY.

  1. The Shea Tree is known to be planted by at least three species of fruit bats in Western Africa.(1)
  2. The Shea Tree has been part of Central and Western African daily life for centuries.
  3. The Shea fruit, butter and oil are an important source of calories for Central African people.
  4. The Shea Tree's roots, bark, leaves, oil and butter are used to treat many, many different medical conditions.
  5. The Shea Tree has spiritual significance for Central and Western African people.
  6. Shea Butter, from the kernel of the Shea fruit seed or nut, is traditionally made and sold by women. It is an increasingly important global commodity. The money from the fair trade sale of Shea Butter through womens' cooperatives gives an economic advantage to poor, illiterate women in some of Africa's poorest countries.
  7. In Africa the Shea Tree is also known as Karite. Karite is an African word which means "life".
  8. Karite grows wild from seed. Seed-planting fruit bats help to ensure continued life for this tree of life.

     

WHICH BATS ARE KNOWN TO PLANT THE SHEA TREE SEED?


Veldkamp's Epauletted Bat

Veldkamp's Dwarf Epauletted Bat, Peter's Dwarf Epauletted Fruit Bat and the Gambian Epauletted Bat.(1)
Peter's Dwarf Epauletted Bat Gambian Epauletted Bat

 

SO BATS LIKE THE FRUIT.

They do. People like Shea Tree fruit also. It is an important seasonal source of calories in the poor countries of Africa south of the Sahara.

It is really not so surprising that the fruit is delicious. The Shea Tree is an Old World representative of the botanical family, Sapotaceae. The Chicle Tree is a New World member of that family. Sapodilla fruit from the Chicle Tree are delicious too, and their seeds are also planted by bats.

Shea Tree fruit is not only a source of calories, it is a very good source of Vitamin C. Weight for weight a Shea fruit contains four times more Vitamin C than an orange.(2)

However, the primary food value and economic value of the Shea fruit is in the fat-rich kernel within the seed husk. When the kernel fat is converted into Shea Oil or Shea Butter, it becomes an important source of concentrated calories for African people and a globally important commercial product known in Africa as "women's gold".

WOMEN'S GOLD, THAT'S INTRIGUING. BUT FIRST, TELL ME A LITTLE ABOUT THE SHEA TREE'S NATURAL HISTORY.

The Shea Tree grows across Central Africa from Senegal on the west coast to Uganda and the foothills of Ethiopia on the east coast. The tree grows in 19 African countries but there is an especially high concentration of trees in West Africa.(2)
The general range of the Shea Tree in Africa.
Darker green dots show where Shea Trees are more numerous.


The Shea Tree is a wild tree. There are ongoing efforts to plant Shea Trees in controlled plantations and some results have been encouraging.

The Shea Tree grows very slowly. It does not bear its valuable fruit until it is 15 to 20 years old. When it is young its existence is threatened by bush fires, browsing animals or being cut by humans for firewood and charcoal. If it survives those hazards, it can live without care and bear fruit for many years. It has to have a long life span. The Shea Tree does not bear fruit until it is 30 years old. (2)

The Shea Tree is from 25 to 75 feet tall (7.6 to 22.7 metres). With its many spreading branches, it resembles an Oak Tree.

Like its relative, the bat-pollinated and planted Chicle or Chewing Gum Tree, the Shea Tree contains a rubbery sap or latex. That natural product is not yet used commercially but it is used by African people to make glue, children's playing balls, chewing gum and to repair cracked and punctured drum heads.(2)


HOW DID PEOPLE IN EUROPE HEAR ABOUT THE SHEA TREE?

Travellers in Africa from as early as the 1300’s have written about the many uses of Shea Butter among the Central African people.

Apparently Europeans did not know about the Shea Tree until M. Mungo Park, a 25 year old Scot surgeon, recorded his observations of it in the late 1790's. He wrote a book, Life and Travels of Mungo Park in Central Africa, in which he described how the butter was prepared and its importance to the local people of the ancient kingdom of Bambarra in southwestern Mali.(3)

M. Mungo Park said that the butter, which was called shea-toulou or tree butter, was " . . . whiter, firmer, and to my palate, of a richer flavour than the best butter I ever tasted made from cow's milk." (3)

He noted the intense activity which accompanied shea butter processing and the importance of the butter in commerce. He commented on the fact that the trees grew wild, were not cut during clearing for agriculture and resembled the American Oak in appearance.

M. Mungo Park had been appointed to determine the course of the River Niger by a London-based society, the Association for the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa. The association had two burning questions: What is the exact location of the fabled Timbuktu? What is the course of the River Niger and in which direction does it flow?(4)

Park set off from Gambia, travelling east, to answer the second question. He wore European clothes, a high hat, carried a compass and umbrella. He was inexperienced and did not speak Arabic. Accompanied by two native guides initially, he finished his journey alone, aided by friendly natives.

 

Park survived life-threatening situations, endured imprisonment and was divested of his umbrella and best blue coat. But on 20 July 1796 he saw " . . . the majestic Niger glittering in the morning sun, as broad as the Thames at Westminster and flowing slowly to the eastward." He returned safely to London to report his observations to the association.

It is our good fortune that M. Mungo Park did not lose his high hat because that was where he carried his travel notes, including the first description by a European of the wonders of the Shea Tree.

When Park returned to Africa in 1805 for further exploration of the River Niger he was accompanied by a party of 40 Europeans including 30 soldiers and officers and four boat builders. Illness had reduced the party to five by November of 1805. Park sent his journal back to Gambia by his native guide, Issaco. The journal and Issaco were the expedition's only survivors. After travelling for 1000 miles down the Niger in a converted canoe, Park and his companions were fired upon and killed by natives who were fearful of raiders.(4)

In 1989 Peter Hudson traced Mungo Park's initial journey in Africa. Peter Hudson suggests that Mungo Park and his few remaining companions, ill and disheartened, fired upon any natives that attempted to approach their boat. The Africans retaliated. Near the rapids of Bussa, Park and another man stepped overboard and were drowned. (5)

ALL DEAD. . . AFTER OVERCOMING SO MANY ODDS. (THOUGHTFUL PAUSE)

HOW DO AFRICAN PEOPLE USE THE TREE BUTTER THAT BRAVE YOUNG MUNGO PARK DESCRIBED OVER 200 YEARS AGO?

AND THE REST OF THE TREE?


IS SHEA BUTTER USED OUTSIDE OF AFRICA?

Yes. In the 1940’s it was used in margarine. Development of promising uses in cosmetics were interrupted by World War II.

In the 1960’s people in Japan and Europe discovered that Shea Butter was a useful addition to pastry and chocolates.

A European Union directive was passed in January of 2003 allowing a percentage of cocoa butter to be replaced by Shea Butter in the manufacture of chocolates. Other butters, including Mango Butter, can be substituted for some cocoa butter in chocolates.(8) Mango Trees are also bat-planted trees.

The chocolate business is one of the world’s most important industries. It is worth millions of British pounds and U.S. dollars. It is worth a lot of money in any currency you want to name. The industry employs millions of people worldwide.

Sometimes a disease or bad weather reduces the supplies of cocoa. Chocolate manufacturers can use Shea Butter in place of part of the cocoa butter and keep producing the chocolate the world demands. Shea Butter also prolongs the shelf-life of chocolates.

Historically, Shea Butter has been used to treat skin conditions of all kinds. The preoccupation of western women with skin care is helping to enhance the value of "women's gold". L'Occitane, a French cosmetics firm,is using Shea Butter in its products and buys directly from West African womens' cooperatives. The Body Shop, Origins, L'Oreal and Bath & Body Works are putting Shea Butter products on their shelves.(6)

You can buy Shea Butter body scrubs, eye makeup remover, foaming cream, skin care packages, hand and cuticle cream, foot scrub and aftershave lotion.

Despite the increased use of shea butter in cosmetics, statistics show that the shea butter from more than 90 percent of all marketed shea nuts is used in the chocolate industry.

 
The primary locations of commercial Shea Butter activity in 2003 are indicated in red.
Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea

IT SOUNDS TO ME AS THOUGH THE SHEA TREE IS A NATIONAL TREASURE. IS IT A PROTECTED TREE?

Yes, it is, but sometimes immediate needs outweigh future needs and Shea Trees are cut illegally so a family can cook their food or plant agricultural crops. The many groups that are working to improve Shea Butter production are also working to educate the public about the value of the existing trees and saplings.(6)

 

HOW DO YOU GET BUTTER OUT OF A NUT?

First you need thousands of hardworking women with strong backs.

For centuries the collection of Shea fruit and the processing of the nuts has been work done solely by women. There are 19 countries where the Shea Tree grows and there are many different African tribes within those countries. Details of traditional practices vary, but not the fact that the Shea Tree is a woman-controlled tree. Historically and uniquely, the income from the products of the Shea Tree has been women's income. (2)

Women in Central African countries have needed a separate income. They are expected to buy meat and other domestic needs for their families. The men, who work in agriculture. provide the family with food from the fields.(2)

One procedure for creating Shea Butter is as follows:(2)

This process takes hours of female labour, scarce water and scarce firewood.


SURELY SOME OF THAT WORK CAN BE DONE WITH MACHINES?

You've introduced an important point. During the last 10 years more and more organizations, both governmental and non-governmental, African and international, have become interested in the Shea Butter business. In today's political climate it has attractive elements;

The many groups that are working to promote and modernize Shea Butter production have begun to introduce machines.

Some of the machines are:

YOU DON'T HAVE TO EXPLAIN "WOMEN'S GOLD". . . I UNDERSTAND. I HOPE THE SHEA BUTTER INDUSTRY CAN CONTINUE TO BE CONTROLLED BY WEST AFRICAN WOMEN.

African men are being encouraged to take a more active part in Shea Butter production. Until now men have been involved only in the sale of the unprocessed nuts.

The trend towards mechanization has been uneven, and there are still time-consuming manual processes being used. But some day there might be a machine that can make Shea Butter directly from the nut. When that happens more kernels can be processed. Presently most of the Shea Tree fruit remains on the ground under the tree, unharvested.

I hope, as you do, that through all these developments West African women will remain in control and continue to be the main economic beneficiaries of the Shea Tree's treasure.

THIS HAS BEEN A LONG ARTICLE.

Yes, and as usual, there are many more factual things that could be said, so I am going to finish with a fantasy.

I imagine Batperson attending an International Shea Butter Conference such as the ones held during 2003 in Washington, D.C. and Bamako, Mali.(8)

Present are buyers, suppliers, and government officials from many countries.

There are speakers from many organizations; consulting firms, banks, investment corporations, food and drug administrations, small business administrations, machinery manufacturers, cosmetic, chocolate and pharmaceutical manufacturers, various institutes and councils,

Finally, there is an opportunity for comments from interested observers. Batperson signals a desire to speak and is acknowledged.

Batperson says:

"Thank you, Madame Chairperson.

This conference has generated an atmosphere of hope and support for the increased empowerment of poor West African women by the production and global sale of Shea Butter through womens' cooperatives.

I would like to bring your attention to some active participants in this endeavour who are not present and who have not been mentioned. Without them, this conference might not have been possible.

They are seed planters of the wild Shea Tree, the Fruit Bats of Western Africa."