Afrym
Ideas & Philosophy

The Baobab: Africa's "Tree of Life" and the Stories It Holds

Some baobabs have stood for over a thousand years. They feed, shelter and heal, and they hold a special place in African myth and memory. Recently, the oldest have begun to die.

By Amos Hope Jnr · · 3 min read

Illustration of a giant baobab tree silhouetted against an African sunset

Stand in front of an old baobab and it is hard to believe it is a tree. The trunk is enormous — wide enough, in some cases, that a dozen people holding hands could not circle it. The branches are short and stubby, reaching out like roots. For much of the year it has no leaves at all, which is why a popular legend says the gods, angry with the baobab, pulled it from the ground and planted it upside down. Across Africa, this strange giant has been a source of food, medicine, shelter and stories for as long as people can remember.

The African baobab

The African baobab, Adansonia digitata, grows across the dry savannas of sub-Saharan Africa, from Senegal to Sudan and down to South Africa. (Madagascar has six other species of its own, including the famous tall baobabs of the Avenue of the Baobabs.) Baobabs can store large amounts of water in their spongy trunks, helping them survive long dry seasons.

They can also live for an extraordinarily long time. Using radiocarbon dating, scientists have found that some African baobabs are well over a thousand years old, and the oldest have been dated at more than two thousand. Many old baobabs grow as several stems fused together, sometimes forming hollow spaces inside.

A tree with hundreds of uses

The baobab has been called the "tree of life" because almost every part of it is useful:

  • The fruit — a hard, velvety pod containing a dry, tangy, chalky pulp, rich in vitamin C. It is eaten fresh, mixed into drinks such as Senegal's bouye juice, or used in porridge. In recent years it has become popular worldwide as a "superfood" powder.
  • The leaves — eaten as a vegetable, and dried and powdered to thicken sauces, such as lalo in Senegal and kuka soup in northern Nigeria.
  • The seeds — roasted, ground or pressed for oil used in cooking and cosmetics.
  • The bark — stripped for fibre to make rope, mats and baskets; remarkably, the tree regrows it.
  • The trunk — hollow baobabs have been used to store water and grain, and as shelters.

Researchers have documented hundreds of uses for the baobab across the continent.

A tree of memory

Baobabs often stand at the centre of village life. People gather in their shade to talk, trade, settle disputes and tell stories. Because they live so long, they are seen as witnesses to history — the same tree that shaded a meeting today may have shaded the ancestors' meetings centuries ago.

Many baobabs are considered sacred. Spirits are believed to live in some of them, and offerings are made at their bases. In parts of Senegal, there was once a custom of burying griots — the hereditary musicians and historians — inside hollow baobabs rather than in the ground. The custom has long since ended, but it shows how closely the tree was tied to memory and storytelling, the very heart of the griot's work described in our story on the kora and the griots.

The baobab is also a national symbol of Senegal, appearing on its coat of arms.

The giants are dying

In 2018, a team of scientists led by Adrian Patrut published a startling finding in the journal Nature Plants. Over roughly the previous twelve years, nine of the thirteen oldest African baobabs they had studied, and five of the six largest, had died or lost their oldest stems. Among them were some of the most famous trees in southern Africa.

The researchers said the cause was not yet clear. They suggested it might be linked to changes in climate affecting southern Africa in particular, but more research is needed. Younger baobabs remain widespread, and the species as a whole is not in immediate danger — but the loss of these ancient giants has been called the end of an era.

Why it matters

The baobab is a perfect symbol for many of the ideas found in African thought: patience, endurance, community and respect for the past. A tree that feeds people, gathers them together and outlives generations deserves its title. Protecting baobabs — old and young — means protecting a living link between the present and the ancestors.

Further reading

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