The Legendary Baobab Tree of Senegal

the many species of baobab trees

I can’t believe I’m blogging about a tree, but this is no ordinary tree.  The baobab tree symbolizes great meaning for the people of West Africa.  The baobab is ubiquitous in Senegal.  If you’ve seen Madagascar, the cartoon or promotional photography of the African safari then you know exactly what I’m talking about, with its Botero like characteristics of obese trunk and porky limbs.  It’s defies logic in its desert like habitat.  Like a giant desert rose pumped with steroids to look like a giant’s personal bonsai.

There are nine species of the baobab tree in the world.  Most originated in Madagascar, but two are native to Africa and one from Australia. These trees can live over a thousand years and can grow in circumference to nearly 50 meters.

a baobab seedling

 

baby baobab for sale

this dwarf baobab is said to be about 400 years old but is shorter than me

I first came face to face with the extraordinary goliath in my home city of Hollywood, Florida.  In Hollywood’s “central” park of Young’s Circle stands four enormous baobab trees.  Nobody seems to know how they got here because they are not native to Florida, and because of their age and size they seem impossible to have been shipped here from Africa. The sheer size would put the tree at well over four-hundred years.  My guess’tamation is as good as yours.  

baobab trees in Hollywood, Florida

Without knowing anything about them, you’d conclude that the trees have spiritual and even a mystical aura about them. It didn’t take long after arriving in Senegal to understand why.  They are enormous and everywhere in places that seem only hospitable for cacti and tumbleweeds.  There are many explanations to its unique look.  For example, the branches are hands reaching for the sky. But my favorite is, Baobab was planted by God, but it kept walking, so God pulled it up and replanted it upside down to stop it moving.

 

baobabs on the island of Goree

baobabs are everywhere in Senegal.

For the people of West Africa, the baobab has a multiple of functions: including: 

1      Shade from the African sun.

2      Leaves can be cook and eaten

3      Fruit is popular with monkeys

4      Leaves/fruit can be used as a mosquito repellent

5      Roots can be boiled into a tea

6      Sap is used as a glue

7   Wood is not used for building, but when the tree is dead, it is grinded into a fertilizer

8      Seed pods can be used as maracas

9      Seed pods can be used as a canvas for artists

artisan using the seed pods as a canvas

10   Source of water

11   Bats make a home of the inside once it hallows

12   Inside of the tree was once used as the burial site for village griots

Why in the world would you bury a person inside a tree?

First of all, a griot’s role is the village doctor, psychic, musician, poet, historian and therapist all rolled into one.  The ageless tradition of griots was central to the identity and health of the village.  Because they were one of the few persons in the village to not work the soil, it became taboo to bury a griot in the ground.  If they were, it was said to poison the soil. In fact, when Senegal’s first president banned the burial practice, Senegal experienced one of its worst droughts in its history.  Before it was illegal, the sacred Baobab tree was the chosen place to bury a village griot. 

the largest baobab in Senegal

 But not just any baobab tree is chosen.  Once the tree reaches full maturity (over five hundred years) the tree begins to hallow out from the inside.  Eventually, a small hole emerges in the exterior, slowly growing in size until it is large enough from the outside to place a body inside. Then it becomes a perfect candidate for a place of burial.

the inside of the baobab tree

Toward the end of my Senegalese adventure, I had the chance to visit the largest baobab tree in Senegal.  It’s a bit of a tourist attraction with about a dozen vendors selling handicrafts and good around it.  When Fatou, Megan, and I arrived, we were the only ones there so we had the tree all to ourselves.  We hired a local guide to give us the rundown of the tree, which is dated to around 850 years old.  The hole to enter the tree is tight, but once in, the hallowed inside was as big enough to easily fit an SUV inside.  The smell reeked, as hundreds of bats have made the upper chamber home.  Bat droppings covered the ground.  After a few customary photos, we were ready to get out.  Dozens of baobabs seedling sprout from under its canopy, but the hopes of any of them making it to the size of its parent are astronomical.  The ones that survive to full maturity are in fact, legends. 

my spiritual experience emerging from the largest baobab tree in Senegal

-->