Today is about story-telling: a circle of surprising links and coincidences, told by trees.
The first step: a South African woman in Cambridge, UK, gifts trees to her close circle of friends, to be planted at our forest restoration project in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. She’d attended the University of Natal, graduating in the early 1990s before life carried her elsewhere. The friends all worked together at Christ’s College at the University of Cambridge.
One of the tree gifts to be planted is a stately Real Yellowwood, South Africa’s national tree. Its recipients are a Japanese man named Takashi Tomura, and his wife, Annuscha.
Upon receiving the gift, Takashi writes to FFW, and describes encountering a Zulu man over 30 years ago.
‘I was involved in the anti-apartheid movement, through which I came across a support group for an organisation called Africa Tree Centre,’ Takashi writes. ‘The founder of the ATC, Mr Robert Mazibuko – I think people called him The Tree Man – was invited to give talks in Tokyo.
‘He was in his late eighties, tall and gentle; I look back now and think he was really like a tree himself.’
Takashi’s lack of English at the time made him hesitant to strike up conversation, but while a translator was converting Mr Mazibuko’s words into English, Takashi met the Tree Man’s eyes.
‘It must have been only a few seconds but we did communicate without words: I remember the feeling vividly,’ he says. ‘I was a computer network engineer at the time. Years later I became a gardener and have been planting and looking after trees since.’
Takashi worked in the gardens at Christ’s College and Trinity College in Cambridge. He has recently been planting oaks in Switzerland, his new home.
Intrigued by Takashi’s story, the co-founders of Ferncliffe forest wilding did a search for Robert Mazibuko. Newspaper articles popped up from local paper, The Witness, and a little more digging revealed that the Tree Man had ‘Maritzburg links.
He was born in 1904 in Spioenkop. As a teacher, he’d focused on the importance of nurturing soil and trees and the principles of organic farming. In a short book written about his life, author Joanne Bloch quotes Mr Mazibuko saying, ‘The very first thing to do to improve our environment is to plant trees. They should be indigenous trees — trees that come from South Africa and grow well here. They should also be trees that have fruit that is eaten by birds, animals and people. When there are many of these trees, monkeys and owls and other birds will come to live in them. Their droppings, and their bodies when they die, will make the soil rich again.’
The horticulturalist spent 17 years teaching communities organic farming principles while at The Valley Trust in the Valley of 1000 Hills. In around 1973, Mazibuko worked at the Edendale Lay Ecumenical Centre in Pietermaritzburg; in 1980 he started his Africa Tree Centre nearby, to teach environmental education and organic agriculture to young people. He died in 1994.
Ferncliffe forest wilding wrote back to Takashi to tell him that Robert Mazibuko once lived in the same city his Real Yellowwood now grows in. His response soon pinged into the inbox.
‘We would like to adopt or plant a tree in honour of Mr Mazibuko,’ Takashi wrote. ‘It would mean a lot to me: closing the circle to thank him.’
To find a tree species that was appropriate was the next step: perhaps a tree that Mr Mazibuko personally had a connection to, or used to plant? FFW wrote to Joanne Bloch to see if she remembered more, or had notes about what trees the ATC used to plant.
‘“It isn’t the first [email] I’ve had about Robert Mazibuko over the years,’ Bloch replied. ‘I never knew when I undertook to interview him that people would be interested in his legacy for so long.
‘He had a deep, growly voice, a very straight back and was altogether very measured, dignified and impressive…’
But after checking her archives and interview notes, Bloch didn’t have a species recommendation. She suggested asking one of Mr Mazibuko’s former colleagues.
‘I was Chair of the Africa Tree Centre Trust with Robert Mazibuko for many years, after doing an apprenticeship with him in Edendale in 1977,’ agronomist Raymond Auerbach told FFW.
‘One of his favourite trees was the Buffalo Thorn [Ziziphus mucronata]. He would explain how it was used to “lead the spirit of a dead person home”. It was called by the Zulus Umlahlankosi or mphafa for this reason.’
Auerbach described Mazibuko as ‘a remarkable man and a great teacher’.
FFW wrote back to Takashi. The Buffalo Thorn wasn’t typical for eastern mist belt forest, but it can thrive on the margins. Would he like to donate one?
The tree’s symbolism again sparked personal memories for Takashi. His grandfather had had a deep love for trees. The whole family would celebrate the Bon festival at the grandfather’s home: the time of the year when the spirits of deceased ancestors return home to visit.
First there would be a feast that lasted all day. ‘But everyone waits for dusk, when Grandpa says “Let us”,’ Takashi writes. Then they walk to the temple where the family grave is located. They form a procession on the narrow pavements, Grandpa leading.
‘On the other side of the town, the smell and sound of the sea gets closer.
‘The monk at the temple greets us and makes small talk with the adults, while the children fill pails with water and choose the best bamboo ladles. Once the ancestors have been “bathed”, we decorate the grave with chrysanthemums and light incense.
‘If Grandpa got it right, and he always did, it is by now dark enough to light the candles. Each candle is carefully placed inside a large paper lantern hanging from the end of a wooden stick. We have to make sure they stay lit – we don’t want the ancestors to lose their way as we guide them home.
‘They are well fed for a few days during the festival before the candles are put out and they are sent back on the back of a horse, with gifts on the back of a cow, which are made out of a cucumber and an aubergine respectively!
‘Anyway… maybe a Buffalo Thorn would bring back the spirit of Mr Mazibuko, like a candle flame.’
In early October 2024, Ferncliffe forest wilding team members Khulekani Khumalo and Khayelisha Gebashe carried a young Buffalo Thorn to its new home, an area cleared from invasive Lantana, overlooking a small dam and wetland. Raucous Toads escaped the digging; Sombre Greenbuls called nearby. The tree was flush with spring leaves, bursting from thorny branches. One thorn faces backwards: where we come from, explains SANBI website PlantZAfrica. The other faces forward: representing where we are going. Takashi’s Buffalo Thorn is the 546th tree planted to help restore Ferncliffe forest.
Restoration in the face of the global loss of biodiversity is a huge task. Sometimes a small local project can seem like just a drop in a sea of need. Then again, small projects can cause ripples that remind one of the connections that tie together not only people, but nature. The web of life is complex; perhaps all attempts at renewal recognise that helping one species – or person – can have unimaginable long-term effects.
As Mr Mazibuko said, ‘Our ancestors understood that in nature everything is linked up or interconnected. The animals, insects and birds need the trees and plants. The trees and plants need the animals, insects and birds. People need all of them.’
‘I am really happy that the seed Mr Mazibuko sowed in Japan decades ago is returning to his homeland as a tree,’ Takashi wrote. ‘It has connected many people along the way.’
Thank you for reading. Trees can connect people from across the world. How wonderful is that?
Connor & Janine
* Quick update: We’ve planted 619 indigenous trees and created 435 work days.
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