Africa News blog
African business, politics and lifestyle
Can shea nuts help the women of Mali?
By Rainer Schwenzfeier
How can African countries earn more from their raw materials. And how can the women of Mali improve their ability to trade with buyers in the West?
Korotouma Doumbia, a 29-year-old from south-west Mali, has no education or formal skills but she manages to earn the family income. She harvests shea nuts and turns them into shea butter, a popular ingredient in many western cosmetics.
The shea tree grows wild in nearly 20 countries in Africa and Mali has more shea trees than any of its neighbours. They are often cultivated for their oil and Korotouma’s village has some planted trees, but they also harvest the wild trees further from the village.
“The trees belong to all of us, because nobody has planted them. All the women from the village can harvest wherever they like,” she told Reuters Africa Journal.
The women collect as much as they can carry. But about two thirds of Mali’s shea harvest stays on the ground. The trees are spread out and the women have no other means of transporting their harvest than carrying it on their heads.
One organisation that has tried to help Mali’s women earn more from their shea butter is the Development Trust Association or ACOD, a non-governmental group based in Bamako.
Women in Africa who are producing shea butter might benefit by forming an organization/union (?) whereby their product is 1) better produced – quality shea butter, 2) to generate better pricing, 3)develop business plans, becoming entrepeneurs, 4) open bank accounts, 5) participate in reinvesting in the local economy/villages, by perhaps 6) developing/building schools for children, paying the teachers well, whom in turn teach finance and business management to the children, as well as English, etc.
Mali women have phenomenal potential to market their product worldwide; westerners should help these women, free of charge, to develop sound business plans which would sustain their villages/culture now and in the future. The women could then participate in microfinancing other women in other villages to get projects started….
Being a westerner, this next comment may seem out there, but instead of the women carrying the nuts/product on their head, how about starting a program that builds bicycles, narrow wheelbarrows for narrow paths, rickshaws, etc. to get the product to the market easier? Maybe not…maybe sauntering down a path with a basket on their heads, after laboring all day, is a way to unwind and relax their backs from so much bending. Perhaps pushing a wheelbarrow would bring on more back aches. I do think bicyles, wagons, rickshaws would be beneficial… a cooperative could start, creating a business plan for these vehicles, as well as making them onsite….developing skills, becoming self-sustaining, and entrepeneurs all at the same time! Ya-hoo!