The Women's Gold of Africa - Shea Butter

About this Episode

Artificial meat. Shampoo. Cooking oil. Flour. All the good things that come from shea.

Raymond Kakuba is the National Co-ordinator of the Nilotica Shea Alliance, and has been working alongide the Climate Smart Jobs project. In this conversation he talks to us about shea products and the economic opportunities that shea cultivation represent for women in particular. (Nilotica, he says, is a premium version of all the shea varieties.) He talks about how historically women have always been intricately involved in shea production, how it empowers them economically, and the importance of maintaining the landscape where shea can grow successfully. Since shea only blooms once a year, work is underway to ensure than women have other ways of earning income at other times of the year including through harvesting honey, agroforestry and bean and soy production. At the same time, destruction of shea trees for charcoal production is a growing problem, as are population pressures, mining and agricultural expansion. Fascinating, complex stuff.

You can find out more about the Nilotica Shea Alliance here:
https://www.niloticashea.org/about.html

Thanks for listening, and see you next time -

Josephine