I am always in awe of the
hard working Burkinabé women. Karité nuts used to make shea butter are abundant
in our village of Kimini.Young children can be seen very early in the morning
gathering the nuts during harvest season.
That is just the beginning of the
long, arduous process of producing the shea butter used in numerous beauty
products worldwide.
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| Boiling karité nuts |
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| Roasting nuts in outdoor ovens |
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| Grinding roasted nuts to extract the butter. |
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| Butter is beaten by hand. |
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| Testing the consistency. |
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| Women selling balls of shea butter for 5 francs which is about a penny a ball. |
I never fail to be humbled by the strength and tenacity of these gentle women.
