page_title: Shea butter
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Shea butter / History
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Préparation du beurre de karité, par deux adolescentes, dans le village de Badala, région de Kayes, au Mali This is an image of food from Mali
context_page_description: Shea butter is a fat extracted from the nut of the African shea tree. It is ivory in color when raw, with more processed versions being white, although it is commonly dyed yellow with borututu root or palm oil. It is widely used in cosmetics as a moisturizer, salve or lotion. Shea butter is edible and is used in food preparation in some African countries. Occasionally, shea butter is mixed with other oils as a substitute for cocoa butter, although the taste is noticeably different.
  The English word "shea" comes from s’í, the tree's name in Bambara. It is known by many local names, e.g., Kpakahili in Dagbani, taama in Waala, nkuto in Twi, kaɗe or kaɗanya in Hausa, Òkwùmá in Igbo language, òrí in Yoruba language, karité in the Wolof language of Senegal, ori in some parts of West Africa, and many others.
context_section_description: The common name is shíyiri or shísu (lit. "shea tree") in the Bambara language of Mali. This is the origin of the English word, the primary pronunciation of which is /ʃiː/ (rhyming with "tea"), although the pronunciation /ʃeɪ/ (rhyming with "day") is common and is listed second in major dictionaries. The tree is called ghariti in the Wolof language of Senegal, which is the origin of the French name of the tree and the butter, karité.
  The shea tree grows naturally in the wild in the dry savannah belt of West Africa from Senegal in the west to Sudan in the east, and onto the foothills of the Ethiopian highlands. It occurs in 21 countries across the African continent, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sudan, Togo, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya and Guinea.
  A testa found at the site of the medieval village of Saouga is evidence of shea butter production by the 14th century.
caption: Traditional preparation of shea butter in Mali
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