By Hindaty Traore, Girls Project Coordinator

One of the sources of income for Mali Rising’s Girls Project girls and their mothers during the winter is making shea butter by hand. Maybe you have used shea butter yourself — it is a wonderful moisturizer and you may find it on the ingredients label of many products you use!

Below, one of our Girls Project members tells us about how she and her mother make shea butter:

My name is Fanta Samake. I am 15 years old. I am in grade 9 at Mali Rising’s school in Tamala, Frances W. Burton Middle School. I'm going to explain to you how we do with our moms to get money while on vacation.

I wake up every day at 5 am and with the small flashlights I to go to the bush to pick up the shea nuts. We often leave between 5 and 6 with my friends. Ripe shea nuts fell naturally to the ground. We pick the nuts up at the feet of the trees selectively according to their degree of maturity and their good condition. Once at home the nuts are poured into a large hole in the ground or into a mud room. We store them there until we have collected enough for manufacturing.

When we have enough nuts, the harvested shea nuts are freed from the pulp. This involves removing by hand the pulp that surrounds the kernel. Once the pulp is removed, the kernel is placed in a mortar or a huller and ground cracked to reveal the nut. It is then washed and left to dry in a traditional oven. It is then crushed, roasted, ground in a mill which makes it possible to obtain a fine paste with a high butter yield. The dough is churned with water to extract the fat. It thus creates shea butter which is then pressed and filtered several times. The dough, alternately added with warm and cold water, is beaten vigorously with the hand by ourselves until it becomes whitish. Then we add water to collect the foam on the surface. This emulsion is washed once to rid the pieces of nuts and then heated.

The emulsion is heated in a pot containing water for 10 to 15 min. At the end of heating, water is added to facilitate decantation. The oil is collected on the surface of the water. Immersion in boiling water will separate the butter from the other components of the nut, in particular the impurities which settle at the bottom of the container. Once removed, the butter floating on the surface is kneaded before being cooked for a long time to allow the water to evaporate and the impurities to settle. The oil (actually liquid butter) thus obtained will be filtered before being packaged. We sell it at the market at 300 FCFA / KG (editor’s note: 300 FCFA is about 50 cents U.S.)