Baccalauréat · Série D · Anglais — 2016

TEXT — The women of the shea tree

In the province of Sissili, in the south of Burkina Faso, the shea tree grows almost everywhere. For centuries, women have collected its nuts, boiled them, crushed them and turned them into butter. They used to sell this butter by the roadside for very little money.

Ten years ago, thirty-five women decided to work together. They created a cooperative. They bought a mill, they learned to keep accounts, and — this was the hardest part — they learned to negotiate. Today the cooperative has more than four hundred members and it exports its butter to Europe, where it is used in cosmetics.

« Before, a buyer came with his lorry and gave us the price he wanted, » says Salamata Kaboré, the president. « We had no choice, because the butter could not wait. Now we store it, we know the world price, and we discuss. »

The money has changed the village. Every member opens a bank account in her own name. Eighty per cent of the children now go to school, and the cooperative has built a small health post. « People used to say that we were only women, » Salamata adds, laughing. « Nobody says that any more. »

But difficulties remain. Shea trees are cut for firewood and charcoal. Rainfall is less regular than before. And a shea tree needs between fifteen and twenty years to produce its first nuts. « We are planting for our granddaughters, » Salamata says. « Not for ourselves. »