Shea: The Mother of all African Trees

I call Shea the mother of all African trees; it produces edible fruits, edible flowers, and inside its seed is the nut processed into a butter for skincare, for health, for cooking, for traditional medicine, and several other uses. 

Behind my maternal grandfather’s house in Navrongo, are hundreds of Shea trees, the majority of nuts are collected for local use, however over the years, the demand for natural, and organic ingredients in health and personal care has increased the need and use of the Shea tree.

Shea is indigenous to the African continent, it grows, lives, and thrives across the Sahel region, and remains one of our most extensive resources. It takes over 20 years for a tree to bear fruit, and an average maturity can take about 45 years. Most trees will continue to produce fruits for up to 400 years. The trees are semi-domesticated, they were not planted by any one individual, and always existed alongside other indigenous trees.

This native Africa tree produces fruit in June and July. It is usually better to wait for the fruits to ripen and fall off the tree, to ensure that you get a good tasting fruit to eat and to also make sure that the seeds have matured to get quality butter during the processing. .

During the raining season, you will see children standing along the roadside selling Shea fruits. At Tongo Oasis, in front of the house are several Shea trees, there you see the children walk around with their small basin to collect the Shea fruits around the tree. Sometimes, they climb the tree, and shake the branches to let the ripe fruits fall. 

Shea Tree

Everyone eats the Shea fruits, however, women are the primary producers of Shea butter. Most rural women process Shea butter for a living, for many, along with farming, this is their main source of income. The process of turning the Shea nut into the Shea butter is tedious, time consuming, and intricate. It’s not a process that can be rushed, the methods for processing are labor intensive and do not always guarantee consistency in the quality of the butter produced.

When made well, Shea butter is white, odorless, and can be described as tasteless. It is usually in a solid taste, however, subject to a liquid state depending the storage environment and temperature. 

Women face many challenges producing Shea butter; like access to proper storage facilities, processing equipment, transportation for distribution, and access to financing to purchase machinery for drying and kneading. 

Supporting women in the Shea butter business means investment in processing equipment, value added training, and a restructuring of the supply chain to benefit the women and their livelihood. Historically, the cultures depended on Shea butter are the Fulani, Hausa, Mandingo, Bambara, and Mossi. In every community where Shea trees are found, almost every woman knows how to process the butter. In my grandfather’s house, my aunties process Shea butter for household use.

Shea butter has long been recognized for its healing properties, it’s anti-inflammatory, excellent for regenerating the skin, it’s incorporated into soaps, ointments, and numerous skincare products. I remember when I had eczema, every single pore on my face inflamed, and Shea butter was the only skin care product that could apply to my skin not only to reduce the itchiness but to also reduce the swelling. For many years, it’s been the main staple in West African medicine, healers have used it to protect wounds, heal infections, and to help soothe sprains and strains. 

Bark, Shea Tree

Furthermore, it provides incredible tree cover across the areas that it grows, along with the African locust bean trees, tamarind, and baobab. It grows well and in abundance in areas that are vulnerable to desertification, helps prevent wind erosion, and adds organic matter back to the soil. The bark of the tree which looks thick, choppy, and somewhat spongy actually protects the Shea tree from fires.

The Shea tree is over explored, exploited, overharvested, and overused. Even though rural women are able to make an income from the butter they produce from the shea tree due to the global demand, there are several challenges and gaps about the long term sustainability and use of shea trees. The rate and demand of Shea butter does not meet nor match the much needed replanting of Shea trees across the Sahel region. The monetary exchange of processing shea butter for global consumption will never be worth the value of a shea tree.