Shea Butter Formation

I was very busy during the last few weeks in Kenieba, preparing for, organizing and running a shea butter formation for thirty-six women that took place on May 12, 13 and 14. (Quick French lesson… training = formation, female trainer = formatrice). My funding proposal was approved in mid-April and the money arrived in my account soon after. When I returned to Kenieba at the beginning of May, I met with the women’s association who worked with me to host the formation. There was still a lot of work to do, from buying the materials that were needed at the training, to planning food and drink needs, and making sure the women would contribute some of the necessary supplies. When I mentioned to my friends around town that I was holding this formation, they suggested that I invite women from rural villages to come. That was logical because the shea trees (where shea nuts come from to turn into shea butter) are all out in rural areas, and women in Kenieba will not be as interested in making shea butter because they have other things to do in a big town. So I handwrote four invitations that were delivered to four villages around Kenieba.

All of the preparations seemed to be going smoothly, as the funds had arrived in my account 10 days before the formation was scheduled to begin and the women who were helping me prepare completed the things I had asked them to do. I should have been more suspicious when everything was going so well, because two days before the trainer was scheduled to leave Bamako to come here, I received a call that the formatrice would not be coming out to Kenieba for the formation. She needed to fill in for another trainer at a shea butter formation near Bamako. I was shocked to hear that only four days before the training was to begin, I wouldn’t have a trainer to run the training! A miscommunication resulted in the formatrice thinking that the dates of my training had not been set, so she thought she could hold the training a few weeks later. I had already bought most of the supplies and sent out invitations to four villages, and booked a flight to Europe the last week in May, so postponing the formation by a few weeks was out of the question.

After a stressful 24 hours of trying to decide if I should cancel the training, hold a “conference” where the women could at least come together and discuss their experiences with shea butter, or maybe try to run a basic training myself, I received a call that someone could still come out to Kenieba to hold the training, but the formation had to be pushed back by a few days to accommodate her. Though I was relieved that the training was going to happen, I frantically tried to get the message about the changed dates out to the women in the rural villages, hoping they wouldn’t have to sit around doing nothing for two days! In the end, four of the women did come early, but they didn't mind sitting around. I'm sure it was a nice break from their usual hard work at home.

Anyway, the formation went really well, much better than I expected. All of the sixteen women that I invited from rural villages made it. Unlike practically every meeting in Mali, the shea butter training started on time every day. Even on the first day, the mayor showed up at 8 AM, and gave some opening remarks. The women dressed up in their nicest clothes, and I was happy to see that they took this training seriously. I also donned some nice Malian shirts that a tailor friend made for me.

Some of the women were literate and could speak some French, but most of the women could only speak Bambara, and most couldn’t read or write. Each day, the trainer had all of the women sign in using their fingerprint. The training was held in Bambara, so I couldn’t understand everything that the trainer was explaining, but I could catch some words here or there. Sometimes I would ask the formatrice what she had gone over. But it was obviously more important that the women could understand the formatrice and learn from her.

The women respected the formatrice and listened intently to what she had to say. She split them up into two groups and had them write down the ways that they traditionally make shea butter. After comparing the groups’ steps, the formatrice explained that to make high quality shea butter that can be sold to bigger markets (and sold for more money), they need to make shea butter a different way. She wrote down the steps, explained them numerous times, and even had the women repeat the steps to make sure they remembered and understood them. She would call on someone and ask her to recite the whole process of making shea butter. I could tell some of the women were nervous about doing that. It was like being called out in class and the teacher asking you to recite something you just learned… not easy! Also, if she caught any of the women falling asleep, she would call on them and ask what she had just said, basically embarrassing them! There were men who came to observe the formation, and when some of them were falling asleep, she even asked them to leave! That’s not typical here either, a woman telling a man to do something. But the formatrice had some status as she was a professional trainer who came all the way from Bamako.

As the formation continued into the second and third day, I noticed that the women from both Kenieba and from the rural villages were really interested in this new process for making shea butter, and seemed motivated to actually use it in the next cultivating season. It inspired me to help them during the rest of my time here. If they become well organized and take the proper steps to form a cooperative, they could sell large quantities of pure shea butter to buyers in big markets, and generate income for themselves. Although there is a long way to go between the end of this training and the first sale of shea butter to an exporter, I think the women have the potential to make a lot of money doing this, if they are really motivated and interested in doing it. I’d like to help them form a cooperative, get each women’s association the supplies they need to make good shea butter, and help them find initial buyers.

It was great to see these women so interested in a new way to bring in money for their families. I plan to gather all of the women’s association presidents together when I am back in June so we can discuss the next steps. If they are still motivated, and want to put the hard work in to creating this high quality shea butter, I want to work to help these women improve their lives and find a new source of income, other than subsistence farming and dangerous gold mining. Forming and developing this women’s shea butter cooperative will likely become my primary project for the rest of my time here, and I’m excited to help them get started.