Bahá’í World/Volume 5/The Men of the Trees
THE MEN OF THE TREES
BY RICHARD ST. BARBE BAKER, Founder
WHO are the Men of the Trees? They are tree lovers the world over who are working to create a universal tree-sense and encourage all to plant, protect and love trees everywhere.
The first Men of the Trees were African tribesmen who, in response to an appeal that was made, volunteered to protect their rapidly vanishing forests and plant trees in their farms and so leave behind them a forest instead of a trail of destruction.
The life and prosperity of the dwellers of equatorial Africa are inseparably bound up with their forests. Lofty and dense, they have provided food and shelter for the wandering inhabitants from time immemorial. Whenever the farmer wanted a new piece of land upon which to grow his food crops, he would go into the forest, cut down the trees, burn the grass and reap his crops, and then move on, repeating the same process of destruction. This method of nomadic farming has been practiced for hundreds of years, with the result that the end of the virgin forest is now in sight.
The Sahara has not always been desert. At the time of Muḥammad great numbers of Arabs invaded that region, farmed and moved on deeper into the forest region. They brought with them vast herds of goats which would not permit of tree growth in their wake. As recently as two thousand years ago a King of Egypt received a present of buffaloes sent from a place which is now surrounded by desert. Those who have studied the habits of the African buffalo know that although they graze in open parklands in the early morning and at night, they lay up in the dense forest during the greater part of the day. Further evidence comes from remains of trees which have been discovered on the banks of vanished rivers and on the shores of dried up lakes.
Away to the north of the Gold Coast in the French sphere of influence, seeing the end of the forest in sight with little more virgin land in which to make their farms, the chiefs have forbidden marriage and the women have refused to bear children, for they will not raise sons and daughters for starvation! They are forever being driven before the oncoming desert and are forgetting even the simpler arts such as pottery making, and their poor crops are buried by the sand.
As Assistant Conservator of Forests in Kenya, I called the chiefs and elders to me as I passed through that country. Day after day they came to my camp, and night after night they went away fully determined to do something, though not knowing how to begin. They said, “What you want is an army of Morans. They are the young men and warriors.”
When I talked to them about the importance of tree-planting they said, “That is Shauri ya Mungu,” (God’s business).
To be in a better position to help them I studied their language, their folklore and tribal customs, and was initiated into their secret society, an ancient institution which safeguarded the history of the past which was handed down by word of mouth through its members.
Soon I came to understand and love these people and wanted to be of service to them. They called me "Bwana M'Kubwa,” meaning “Big Master,” but I said, “I am your M'tumwe,” (slave).
After three months safari travelling from place to place from thirty-six different camps, it suddenly dawned on me that for any constructive action in that part of Africa there was always a ceremonial dance. So I sent for the captains of the dances and when they came to my camp I said, “You have a dance when the beans are planted, and another when the corn is reaped; what about a dance for the trees—for tree-planting?”
“Trees,” said they, “that is Shauri ya Mungu, (God’s business,) to look after the trees.”
“Yes,” said I, “but if you cut all the
[PHOTOGRAPH][Page 550]
Giants of the Redwood Empire Highway in Northern California leading toward the “Grove of International Understanding” established by Mr. St. Barbe Baker. These trees are thousands of years old and at one time covered all of this country. They are fast disappearing and it was the mission of Mr. Baker to awaken the people to their ancient glory, their unspeakable grandeur and their value as evidences of a distant past. It is in this remaining redwood grove that Mr. Baker has visualized a meeting place for all races and all religions which he has named the “Grove of International Understanding.”
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mother trees which provide the seed you don’t
give Mungu a chance.” Apparently
they had not thought of that.
Then I suggested that it might be a good plan to have a dance for the trees. I said, “Suppose we have a dance at my camp in three weeks’ time? I will offer a prize for the best turned-out warrior.”
It was agreed that this would be a good thing; so three weeks later three thousand turned up at my camp carrying their spears and shields as if prepared for battle, but on the point of their spears was a little black ball of ostrich feathers. That was a sign that they came in peace and not in war. They marched past and fell in before a solitary sacred tree, for when they cut down a forest they were in the habit of leaving just one tree to collect the spirits of the other trees that had been sacrificed to make the farms. This was an indication to me that they were tree-lovers at heart. They had the tree-sense already developed in no small degree.
That day I called for men amongst them who would promise to become forest protectors and tree-planters. From the first five hundred volunteers I picked fifty for the trial experiment, and a badge was tied on their wrists with a kinyatta worked with green and white beads—green to remind them of their obligation to plant trees, and white because every man of the trees must have a safi (clean) heart. If a man had not fulfilled his tree-planting obligation he could not be said to have a safi heart and was not allowed to be present at the dance of the trees.
As time went by, these young African tribesmen more than fulfilled their tree-planting obligation. Like Boy Scouts they promised to do one good deed each day, plant ten trees, seedlings or seeds each year and take care of trees everywhere. At first the very simplicity of doing one kind act for another was not readily understood by them; they were naturally kind to each other and most considerate for their parents.
One of the most delightful experiences of my life happened some days after the inauguration ceremony of the Men of the Trees. I had been riding round my forest and came back tired one evening when my boy Ramazani bin Omari said, “Bwana, there are many Morans who want to see you.”
"Tell them to go away,” said I. “Don’t they know the office is closed?"
After tea I was somewhat refreshed and went out for a walk in my garden. There on the fringe of my compound I saw a number of young Men of the Trees talking earnestly amongst themselves; so I strolled in their direction, and when I came up to them I said, “Did not Ramazani tell you to go away? Don't you know the office is closed? Did not he tell you to go away? Did he not say 'Kesho’?”
Then one of the lads stepped out in front of the rest, looked me straight in the eyes with winning frankness and exclaimed, “Bwana, did you not tell us that we must do one good deed each day before the sun went down? In two hours the sun will go down and so far we have been unable to think of one good deed to do. We have come to ask you to help us to think of a good deed to do.”
I was nonplussed. These people whom I had set on the way wanted to do something very definite then and there to further the cause. Hard by there were thousands of young seedlings waiting to be planted out. They were of the Mutarakwa, pencil cedar kind, and most valuable. I had applied to Government for money to spend in planting, but there was none available. It seemed to me that these delightful people had been specially sent to me to meet this need.
“Come along,” said I. “Every man who plants out fifty young trees, that will count as his good deed and he can go away with a clear conscience, feeling that he has fulfilled his obligation for the day."
Then onwards evening by evening they came to my camp and when they could not think of a better good deed to do they planted out trees, and in this first nursery they raised over eighty thousand young Mutarakwa. Their simple faith inspired others and soon tribes who were suspicious or jealous of each other banded themselves together, taking as their motto and password “TWAHAMWE,” meaning “We are all working together as one man,” or used imperatively, “Pull together.”
In 1924 I was invited to read a paper at
the Conference of Living Religions within
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the Empire on the beliefs of the A-Kikuyu.
It was there that
I had the pleasure of meeting many interested
in the Bahá’í Cause, amongst whom was Claudia
Stuart Coles, who became a great inspiration
in my life, and one of the most active
members of the Council of the Men of the
Trees, which shortly after this was started
in London under the chairmanship of Sir Horace Plunkett.
The Men of the Trees came into being in Palestine in 1929, and Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá’í Cause, was one of the first to give his practical support in this movement to restore that land to its pristine glory by tree-planting.1
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1F. J. Tear, M.A., Department of Agriculture and Forests near American Colony in Jerusalem, is honorary Secretary for Palestine.
I began to realize the truth expounded by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, that "in the Bahá’í Cause, arts, sciences and all crafts are considered as worship. . . . Briefly, all effort and exertion put forth by man from the fulness of his heart is worship, if it is prompted by the highest motives and the will to do service to humanity.” The science of Forestry arose from a universal need. It embodies the spirit of service to mankind in attempting to provide a necessity of life, and in addition ministering to man’s aesthetic tastes and recreational interests.
Trees are forever giving to life; they are giving more than they take. Their roots dig down deep into the mother earth and raise the mineral wealth which comes up with the sap into the leaves where, under the influence of sunlight, sugar compounds are formed which are stored in the heart of the tree for the service of man. In the course of growing the tree is forever creating life-giving air, purifying the atmosphere which we breathe, improving the soil with its leaf fall, providing beauty to behold. It is a living poem of root, trunk, limb and branch, twigs and bud, blossom and fruit, providing shelter for man, birds and beasts.
Trees are essential for the very existence of man, and when man has neglected to care for them he has in consequence suffered and perished. Therefore forest protection and tree-planting should receive the wholehearted support of the people of every nation on earth.
- “He that planteth a tree is a servant of God,
- He provideth a kindness for many generations
- And faces that he hath not seen shall bless him.”
So sang Henry van Dyke, a great man of the trees whose passing we mourn. May it not be that nations as well as tribes will be brought together in this great brotherhood based on beautifying the world by the cultivation and care of one of God’s loveliest creations—the Tree.
Note:
What is Africa? This narrative of personal experiences during an eight years’ stay in the Mahogany Forests of Nigeria and in the Highlands of Kenya reveals the truth behind the tales we hear. It is vibrant with the enthusiasm of a man whose whole life is devoted to a constructive mission: the planting and preservation of trees for what they can give us. Already Captain Baker has so inspired the indigenous tribesmen with the contagious passion of his ideals that they have turned out in bands of hundreds and thousands at his command, and have pledged themselves to forest protection and tree planting, thus stopping the tide of the desert, their ancient enemy. He is a man who not only can, but does move mountains. He is one of the only two white men who have been admitted with full rites and ceremonies as a blood brother of the tribes. . . .
(The above was written by Tom Galt, undergraduate of Harvard University, for the loose cover of Richard St. Barbe Baker’s “Men of the Trees.”).