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Abe (Oil Palm); Introduction and Conclusion
by Phil Bartle, PhD
Akan proverb:
The oil palm (abe) has thirty (ie many or uncountable) uses. You can not taboo the oil palm; you will always touch it.
- Men and Women; (1) Oil Palm; Introduction
- Men and Women; (2) Oil Palm; Farming, Oil
- Men and Women; (3) Oil Palm; Wine Tapping
- Men and Women; (4) Oil Palm; Marketting
- Men and Women; (5) Oil Palm; Other Products
- Men and Women; (1) Oil Palm; Conclusion
Introduction:
In the rain forests of West Africa, the abe (oil palm) is ubiquitous. Much like the cedar tree for First Nations people of the West Coast of Canada, it has many uses, and is made into many things. This is a set of illustrations to demonstrate some of those things.
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The Rain Forest; On the Kwawu Escarpment.
In my Three Souls paper, I talked about red being associated with women's things, and white associated with men's things. So, too, with the abe. Some things about it may be neutral (eg baskets), but the two major products from it, the oil from its kernels (red, female) and the sap from its trunk (white, male), are clearly set in the colour cosmography. Let us look.
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Oil Palm (Elaeis Guinnesis Jacq)
This paper got too long, so I have split it into several portions: on farming and oil extraction, on tapping palm wine, on marketing palm wine, and other products of the oil palm tree. Click on the picture below to go to each of those.
Conclusion
I hope that you enjoy these pictures and the text. These are personal, not commercial slides. Please do not steal them, or, if you use them, ask first and then inform me.
The abe has thirty (many, uncountable) uses.
- Gender Hub
- Gender Introduction
- Gender Commensality ; Gender II
- Women I; Food
- Women II; Farming
- Women III (1): Cooking
- Women III (2): Cooking 2
- Women IV: Marketing
- Women V: Clay
- Men I: Wood
- Men II: Weaving
- Men III: Hunting
- Men IV: (1) Transport
- Men IV: (2) Transport
- Men and Women; (1) Oil Palm; Introduction
- Men and Women; (2) Oil Palm; Farming, Oil
- Men and Women; (3) Oil Palm; Wine Tapping
- Men and Women; (4) Oil Palm; Wine Marketting
- Men and Women; (5) Oil Palm; Other Products
- Men and Women; (1) Oil Palm; Conclusion