THE SHEA BUTTER

Hello! I am the Shea Tree, THE TREE OF LIGHT. . um . . Yes, I AM A TALKING TREE, I am a Griot! And this is a story worthy of celebration because you needed some powerfully GOOD news from the African Ancestral fountain of wisdom. I get my name 'Shea' from the Bamana culture in Mali. They are West African rice famers, the royal clan of the Mandinka people. They Named Me!! The word 'Shea' means 'Light'. 

The Bamana are one of the many Ancestral cultures of the people called African Americans, as the Bamana descendants toiled as enslaved rice farmers in Colonial era Georgia and the Carolinas, making those colonies very extremely wealthy. Along with many other African ethnicities they became known under one umbrella term; "Gullah/Geechee". 

The Bamana also invented the Mud-Cloth textile long ago, and great people like Mansa Musa and his seafaring Brother 'Abu Bakari II' (Mali's 9th Emperor who left him all that wealth in 1311) are descendants of the Bamana. These are pics of me!!! It takes 20 years for me to mature and begin producing the fruit which holds the nut from which traditional shea butter is made. Once mature, I produce fruit for 300 years! The Bamana word 'Shea' means 'Light. 

I am the Tree of LIGHT, illuminating a thousand pages, of a thousand chapters, of a thousand centuries of Black History long before you even reach the era of Vaseline and Crisco. Bamana culture and many other African societies like the Fulani, Yoruba, Dagomba, Akan etc. have relied on me to make the "vegan" African soaps, medicines, cooking oils and lotions for hair and skin for many many many many many many centuries. 

Even lubricants for the Wood of African Drums and Balafons! I am fully enmeshed in the culinary traditions of West and also the Acholi people in East Africa. I am the TREE OF LIGHT. Shea butter is a botanical tree butter, and was also a luxury item in African societies, a gift for young married couples and also the exclusive lotion for young mothers and their new born babies in traditional African societies, from then until this day! 

It was once traded and shipped over long distances as a luxury item in Clay Jars from West to East to Southern Africa by African societies thousands of years ago. I am the Shea Tree, a Sacred tree, the TREE OF LIGHT, illuminating a thousand pages, of a thousand chapters, of a thousand centuries of Black History long before you even reach the era of Rosa Parks, Dr. King, and Civil Rights, or Even Colonialism and The Berlin Conference of 1884. 

Shea Butter is known as 'Okuma' among the Igbo people and 'Kadanya' to the Hausa culture. To the Yoruba it is called 'Ori' as in 'Orisha'. An Orisha is a Neter like in Kemet, a powerful Nature spirit. It's THAT DEEP family, because Shango the voice of Thunder, Oya, the wind of creative destruction and reconstruction, and Yemaya, the water mermaid are all Orisha/Neter nature spirits that represent the 99 'Table of Elements'. 

I am a talking tree, and This is African science!! In Ghana, I am called 'Tama' but I'm the same TREE OF LIGHT. The city of Tamale' (ta MA lay) in northern Ghana is a major center of traditional shea butter production since a very remote time. This is what they do!! And they are among the best to do it!! There are many highly creative people and traditional industries in that region. It's what Tamale' is known for! As in Mali, Trees like me grow in great numbers in this region of Tamale'. 

There we are found growing in Great Clusters, we are the Talking Forests. In other parts of Ghana I am called 'Nkuto'. I am a sacred tree, a tree of medicine, I am the TREE OF LIGHT illuminating a thousand pages, of a thousand chapters, of a thousand beautiful centuries of Black History long before you even reach the era of Black Wallstreet's destruction in 1921, The Brixton Riots, BLM (Black Lives Matter), the #ENDSARS2020 movement in Nigeria or the Destruction of Pinnacle in Jamaica in 1954. I grow wild, and I grow where I please, and I only grow in Africa. 

I cannot be cultivated anywhere else, or I would have been STOLEN from Africa by predatory populations a long time ago, and exploited for my Goody Goodies. So you have to come to me! Even big Chocolate Companies like Hershey's came running to me for a Chocolate Substitute when the Africans in Ghana and Ivory Coast put their foot down and told the multinational companies "PAY US FOR OUR DAM COCOA!"  Some of your favorite Hershey candies are made with refined but sloppy shea butter made by a machine from my Shea nuts. 

But I belong to the African grandmother's, mothers and daughters, the healers, they are my custodians and keepers. No Mechanical process can exceed the quality of Traditional African Hand Crafted Shea Butter and the healing chakra energy of their hands, as the crafting of Shea butter is a long and arduous love process that involves singing and positive energy and this cannot be done with this level of quality by a machine. Appreciate these generations of queen mothers who have kept this industry alive. The technique has been passed to daughters and granddaughter for eons. 

African royalty in Ancient Egypt (Kemet) were often buried in coffins made from the wood of dead shea trees because it is termite resistant. I am always laughing out loud because the "Egyptologists" digging up the African mummies are sometimes shrugging shoulders and scratching their heads, even in 2021, trying to figure out the absence of termites, because they haven't discovered this connection yet. I'm a Tree, of course YOU CAN'T HEAR ME LAUGHING! 

But I laugh loud and boldly because I am the TREE OF LIGHT! illuminating a thousand pages, of a thousand chapters, of a thousand centuries of Black History long before you even reach the era of That Talking Tree in The Wizard of Oz film The entombing of African royalty in coffins made from dead shea trees was once an Ancient African tradition from West to East Africa. My bark and leaves repel mosquitoes if you boil them. My fruit is also delicious, and has a taste somewhere between a Mango and a Peach. I have to shout out my peeps, the 'Fruit Bats' because they eat my fruit, spread my seeds and PLANT ME! 

Because I am a sacred medicine tree, I am never cut down except to make a very high grade of charcoal. I am the Shea Butter tree, the original TREE OF LIGHT illuminating a thousand pages, of a thousand chapters, of a thousand centuries of Black History long before you even reach the era of reading this post because you needed some good news from the African ancestral fountain of wisdom and a beautiful picture of a sacred African tree on your timeline. If any one of my African friends has more to add to this story, please drop a comment! If you need a source, just read about the history of Shea butter, and talk to the people who craft it.  None of this is a hidden history.