Passing Of A Friend…

Neither how much I fret,
nor how much I cry or what I try I cannot deny transience has won this bet.

On the 1st Nov 2017, Lorenzo (a friend guide who still works in Ruaha) sent me a WhatsApp photo which carried along with it, an incredibly powerful and significant message. Stark is the reminder of impermanence, when a behemoth which could live in excess of 2000 years, suddenly passes.

The baobab pertaining to this passing...“my beloved baobab” in Ruaha...yes, the one within which I spent a day, for the piece I titled: “From the belly of the Baobab”.

The moment I saw the image, I immediately knew what it was. Despite it not being vividly clear...I just knew.

There was an ever so brief moment of grief, immediately (and surprisingly) followed by a deep sense of acceptance and realisation that this is the way it should be. As if I didn’t have the right to cling to my perceived and constructed relationship with that particular tree.

No, it isn't easy to let go. But it is however critical.

Whatever connection I felt with “my beloved baobab” was in the moment and it was real, visceral even. There is nothing wrong with that immediate and powerful connection/relationship.
It would be an illusion though, if I made that profundity dependant on the trees’ (or my) continued existence.

The brevity of time shared, shouldn’t be a determinant of the relationships’ value.
Too often I am tempted to hold on to something, wanting to extend its duration beyond what it is. I sometimes wonder if photography isn’t a way of remembrance and extension of that moment. Much anxiety stems from “wanting” something to be different to what it is.

So in my attempt at letting go of a friend, all the images herein (sans one) are from that particular tree which the locals called “Mbuyu wa Tobo” or “Baobab with hole”. Moments of communion, awe, comfort and marvel all etched in my memory and shared through these photographs.

It has spent all of its life guarding over a particularly spectacular corner in the Mwagusi River. The things it witnessed, the forces it endured. Heat, drought, elephants, fire and humans.
It has most likely provided fruit and honey (see wooden stake-ladder to reach bee hives) to many a Hehe tribesman, a beacon to the Arab traders of the 16th century, shelter to the famous Chief Mkwawa (and me) and shade to German troops in the late 19th century. Then we haven’t even considered the boon to wildlife of all forms.

Elephants in particular are very fond of the soft, nutritious and moist fibres of baobab trees. Using their tusks they pry strips from the trunk and tear them clear.
Due to its fibrous composition, a baobab can withstand this stripping with virtual impunity. The whole trunk acts as a conduit for the nutrients and moisture between roots and leaves. Eventually this onslaught will take a heavy toll on its structural integrity and it will topple.

The demise of Mbuyu wa Tobo however can not be ascribed to this activity though.
Despite the massive aperture gouged into its perimeter, this giant stood strong and resilient to the physical elements. I suspect that either its biological clock ran out, too many successive droughts or some fungal infection could have been the last nail in the proverbial coffin.

There was no “thief in the night” which we can conclusively blame for robbing us of the magnanimous presence of this icon.

It is what it is.

So it is with a deep sense of gratitude for the immensely profound and intimate moments which Mbuyu wa Tobo so graciously shared with a privileged little guide from The Lowveld, that I not bow my head in sorrow...but raise my head in acknowledgement!

Farewell my friend.

Yours in awareness