<p>African oil palm (<i>Elaeis guineensis</i>) and canarium (<i>Canarium schweinfurthii</i>) were important oleaginous trees prehistorically exploited across tropical Africa. Both yield nutritious and calorically rich products that were valuable to prehistoric human populations in tropical zones where natural lipid sources were limited. In tropical Africa, archaeological evidence shows that canarium use predates oil palm use, but oil palm use increased relative to canarium use in the late Holocene among ceramic-using Bantu-speaking populations. The increase in oil palm representation in archaeobotanical, palynological, and archaeological contexts is often linked to late Holocene climate-driven vegetation changes and/or anthropogenic activities of food producers. We explore differences in handling costs and technology requirements associated with oil extraction as additional factors that may influence the representation of oil palm and canarium in the archaeological record. Ethnoarchaeological and ethnohistoric information on oil extraction shows that high handling costs and technological limitations, most notably the lack of heat-resistant vessels, may have constrained oil palm processing by prehistoric hunter-gatherers. Heat-durable ceramics associated with Bantu-speaking populations may have lowered the handling cost and allowed for the more effective exploitation. The antiquity and persistence of canarium use, especially among hunter-gatherers, may be linked to the low technical requirements and processing costs relative to oil palm. Explanations for variability in the representation of oleaginous trees species in archaeological contexts should consider differences in processing costs and technology as factors influencing human choice. Some of these differences also have implications for understanding the prehistoric contexts of gendered work effort, culinary traditions, and dietary intensification.</p>