Improved method of Shea Butter processing in English (Accent from Nigeria)

Shea butter is an ivory colored or yellowish fat that is extracted from nuts of the shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa), which is found in West Africa. Shea butter is used in cosmetics including moisturizer as well as foods such as chocolate. Additionally, it has been used in medicinal ointments. Rural African women typically perform this extraction process, providing them with income for themselves and their families.

The process of extracting the butter is very labor intensive and slight variations in the process can determine the quality of the shea butter and in some cases how much money they can receive for their efforts. Women in various rural communities prepare shea butter using different techniques that result in different quality of the product and sometimes in different products. Even though shea butter production, processing and trading is very important for women's income in West African countries, there is very little information sharing about techniques used in nut processing. The preparation varies from country to country and from cultural group to cultural group. For example, roasting the nuts longer than necessary could bring a different color and flavor to the final products. However, the main elements remain the same in the preparation of shea butter, water, firewood and labor. Factors like storage and preparation methods also influence the quality of the shea butter. A better quality shea butter has low oil content. The following video draws on some of the techniques that can be used to produce better quality shea butter. Thus, this video and SAWBO's sharing system has the capacity to offer information appropriate for rural women about better practices for processing and trading shea butter -- thereby providing them with the opportunity to potentially increase the amount of funds that they may be able to receive from a superior quality product.

The shea butter animation has now been completed and is available in a limited set of languages. Donation funds are needed to perform voice overlays in a diversity of other languages, and make these other language variants of videos freely available to government and non-government organizations as well as individuals in developing nations, such that these videos can be shown to people in their own languages.

SAWBO is co-directed by Drs. Julia Bello Bravo and Barry Robert Pittendrigh.