My name is Mason McGough, an electrical engineering student from UNF. Today the other members of the Ghana Project and I traveled to a village on the outskirts of Tamale to visit the local women who harvest and produce shea butter.
To this day, the women of Tamale make shea butter by hand using the traditional method. In the heart of this ancient village of clay huts, the ladies showed us step-by-step how to make the popular butter they have used and sold for generations.
The butter is extracted from the fruits of the shea tree that grows here in sub-Saharan Africa. First the sweet meat of the fruit is removed, revealing a core similar to that of a small avocado. The brittle shell of this seed is removed by smashing the seed with a blunt object until the raw nut is exposed.
Next the raw cores are crushed until they achieve a grainy consistency. This process has been expedited at this particular home with the aid of a mechanical device.
These grounds are then left out in the sun to dry. Once sufficiently dry, the grounds are placed inside an iron cylinder, which is spun over a fire like a spit until the grounds are reduced to a fine powder.
Next the powder is mixed by hand in a bowl with water. As the mixing continues, the mixture begins to solidify into a paste, changing from dark brown to off-white after quite a bit of churning.
This process is difficult and time-consuming, so the women will often take turns stirring a batch until the proper color and consistency is obtained. Within the first few minutes of mixing, the paste begins to look a lot like chocolate ice cream, though that could just be the homesickness talking to me.
Once the paste has settled into its off-white color, it is then cooked in a cauldron.
As the pot is heated and stirred, it begins to separate into two layers. On the surface forms the light butter, which is scooped out with a ladle. Underneath forms a dense layer of black sludge. The people of this village are resourceful and will use this byproduct in paints.
The butter is then set aside to cool down. Once it's thoroughly settled, the women take it to use themselves or to sell in the markets. Shea butter is an important resource to the people of Ghana, who use it to moisturize the skin, repel mosquitos, treat hair, and in cooking.
