AdvenTour! The air is good. The pleasant atmosphere. Heavenly. It makes you dream. The large baobab forest of Nianing, a village located south of Dakar 8 km from Mbour, shows all its charm. In the middle of this jungle from which escapes a cool breeze with gentle caresses, a few villagers in search of freshness, bask under the trees. Lulled by the twittering of birds and the beating of tree branches, light sleepers, jumping at the slightest noise, they allow themselves, the time of an escape, a little burp. Far from the suffocating heat of concessions, the lucky ones take advantage of the delights of this niche where stands, majestically, an enormous being with overflowing curves: the sacred baobab tree of Nianing, cemetery of the Serer griots. With its 32 meters in diameter, this eighteen-century patriarch, dating from carbon fourteen, is one of the oldest in Senegal. The tree with its rounded trunk and soft wood soaked in water in winter, is embellished with its foliage, which already forms a greenish cap at its crest. The fibrous bark, gray and smooth, refers to the skin of the elephant. Its advanced age has given it wrinkles materialized by several holes, passage of bats and climbers. Its elongated roots allow art sellers to display their products to tourists visiting the site. Inside the sacred baobab, the view is fascinating. As if a sculptor had placed his expert hands on the body of the tree whose bark is strewn with indescribable shapes! In this cool, climatic hole, a group of bats hibernates. Claws sunk into the top, their love of humidity and darkness draws them into the bowels of the baobab tree. Forming a black mass, only their squeaking shows their presence on the scene. As calm as the cemetery it was, the sacred baobab tree of Nianing also has its secrets, its miracles and its geniuses. It’s hard to forget him after seeing him. For a quarter of a century, this once-unknown national heritage has now attracted more and more visitors from around the world, thanks to its curator, Bou Diop.
A baobab, a story
For more than twenty years, Bou Diop has been the curator of the sacred baobab of Nianing. From the height of his 54 years, like the late Joseph de Ndiaye de Gorée, he easily recounts the story of this tree from another age. Patient, he went to meet the old Serères who, around a good chilled wine, a pipe or cola nuts, told him the story of this mythical tree. This allows him to draw up a rich genealogy that he tells tourists visiting the overturned tree called sacred baobab of Nianing. Why the qualifier sacred? Bou Diop revisits history. The visitor is rocked by Bou’s voice and gently plunged back into the distant past. “Before the arrival of the missionaries, the griots were the memory of centuries. They were called traveling libraries and talking bags. At the same time, they were instrumentalists. But a Serer griot, when he died, was not to be buried. This, because they were seen as bearers of misfortunes that could make the earth infertile. »As a result, the baobab served as a coffin for the griots. “Even inside the baobab, they weren’t buried. We put them on the surface. Surrounded by a white shroud, they were superimposed on each other. The women were, according to Bou, deposited at the entrance, the men at the back. And the children on the other side were separated from the others by a member of the tree, like the Berlin Wall. As they never parted with their instruments, the griots asked to be buried with them. The instruments were thus attached to a large nail attached to the tree.
This practice, which has lasted for centuries and centuries, will be banned thanks to the first President of the Republic, Léopold Sédar Senghor. “With his European education, could not condone such injustice. As a result, he will speak to his Serer parents and ask them not to reserve this fate, so unfortunate, for griots. His arguments were centered on three major axes: the corpses, by decomposing, attracted the animals which came to eat them. And with the wind, it could cause epidemics in the village. Resolutely conservative, the villagers will engage in the showdown for three years before releasing ballast. “This practice will disappear after independence, between 1962 and 1963.”
Over the years, the place that was cursed by the villagers, receives guests from all over the world. Become sacred because having served as a coffin for griots for centuries, the baobab of Nianing is attracting more and more people today. With the miracles attributed to him, the crowd is great around him, especially in tourist season. “As in Senegal people believe in fetishes and gris-gris, they come to make their sacrifices and alms. Thus, to enter the baobab, we put forward the left foot and the left hand, we touch it with the forehead before entering. Afterwards, we formulate our wishes. The men enter in groups of four and the women in three. Three and four makes seven. Seven like the seven days of the week, the seven lives and the seven wonders of the month. The miracle of this baobab bears the imprint of an old griot whose image is visible on the baobab. Having lived alone all his life, the old man, who was one-eyed and childless, had said: “I am going to die in solitude, but as long as the baobab tree lives, my imprint will remain”. This old man has been dead for two centuries, he has no children or heirs, but he will never be forgotten. This story is real. The proof, we cannot carve the wood of this tree, so we cannot say that it is the work of an artist. ”
Remedy for infertile women
While some visit this sacred baobab tree out of pure curiosity, others come to heal themselves. The tree has, in fact, the reputation of favoring births. To arouse the being of nothingness. To restore smiles to sterile women. “A woman who cannot have children can come and have ritual baths in order to be able to give birth. To do this, she will have to leave her house at dusk, in secret, without anyone knowing where she is going. In a calabash filled with rainwater, she puts medicinal plants and two cola nuts before taking a bath in the baobab, ”says Bou. She will also have to leave as she came. Without warning. That is to say without being seen. That night, she will have to sleep with the cola nuts placed under the pillow. In the morning, very early, at the first call of the muezzin, she will have to stand in front of his door, always with discretion. If she wants a boy, the two colas will be given to the first man she sees and to the first woman if she wants a girl. But all that, you have to believe in it for it to happen. “Women gave birth after visiting the baobab. You should know that Africa has its mysteries that the West does not understand. We can’t say that it works every time, but it works all the same, ”Bou dixit.
The curator says that one day, a barren woman came to visit the baobab tree. She couldn’t have children. “I suggested that he make his vows. She replied that she will combine her three wishes into one: she only wants to have children. Six months later, she calls me to tell me that she is pregnant. Maybe it’s a coincidence or a psychological effect, but it turned out that way. In addition to women without children, people come around the baobab tree to seek happiness. “They kill black or red roosters according to the instructions. Apart from these miracles, baobab cures a lot of diseases. The leaves, monkey bread, roots, bark … have therapeutic virtues. He is like the pig, we use him in everything ”.
The majority of visitors are tourists, but Senegalese also go there. Even shepherds find happiness near the baobab tree. “In the middle of the bush, to quench their thirst, they suck on the roots of the baobab tree that are waterlogged”, according to the guide, sure of his knowledge. Revisiting the history of this baobab tree is a pleasure for him. His lesson finished, he puts his left foot, followed by the right, like a little boy in a merry-go-round, takes a big leap and comes out of the gaping hole in the tree. He then glances around the great forest, with a sense of mission accomplished to have introduced the baobab to other people.
