FATS

The medieval Arabic sources contain a number of references to the origin and consumption of edible fats used by the West African peoples; from these it can be seen that these peoples used both vegetable oil and butter as well as animal fat.

Vegetable oil

Let us start with vegetable oil, which must have been very important to the West African peoples, and particularly for those for whom the keeping of cattle and other domestic animals was only of secondary importance. Arabic authors mention three plants providing edible oil: shea butter (karite, karité), Elaeis guineensis (palm oil) and sesame.

Shea butter (karite), bot. Butyrospermum Parkii, also known as Bassia Parkii, is a tree of West African origin growing semi-wild in the savanna zone, wherever rainfall is not excessive. The tree produces egg-shaped fruit with a stone containing considerable quantities of oil, up to 60% of the whole. This is the principal source of vegetable oil wherever Elaeis guineensis palms do not grow. Shea butter is used in many ways; it is used to anoint the body, to light the room, and above all as an important foodstuff. The Arab author al-cOmarī (fourteenth century) called this plant qarītī, which can also be read qarītē; this exactly corresponds to the present-day Sudanic name of the plant and its oil, karite.