ABSTRACT
Strength and health-giving goodness is symbolized in the official Seal of the Republic of Sierra Leone by the oil palm tree. Its strong trunk bridges streams, and its leaves, as roof thatch, give protection from heat and rain. The leaves also provide tough fibre for fishing nets. The heart of the palm contains a large quantity of starchy food, now fed to pigs. However, women know how to cook it, suggesting that it is famine food, and it may have been utilized more extensively as a staple starch before alternative crops were introduced from Asia and America. Palm wine is the quickly-fermented sap, tapped directly from the crown of the living trees. But the oil palm is best beloved for the thick red oil extracted from the fleshy pericarp of its date-like fruits. The Sherbros living in the coastal area of southern Sierra Leone where the tree grows abundantly attribute great virtue to the oil, which nourishes as it wards off worms and disease. A clear oil can be extracted from the inner
Pulling cassava leaves off stems and putting them in mortar, where they will be pounded to break up the fibres
92 A Sauce from Sierra Leone
kernel of the palm fruit, but Sherbros export the kernel as a cash crop, its thin, colourless, tasteless oil being suitable food for 'effete' Europeans.
