#KEBBITALES (Set 1 - Baobab Series)
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The Baobab Series
The Baobab (Adansonia digitata). One of the very first things that struck me when I first got to Kebbi was the landscape and this was one of the two elements that particularly stood out, the other being the huts. (I had never been before now opportuned to see so many huts built out of clay) It was so much beauty to merely just pass by as we traveled through the settlements.
Now these trees, I had only seen when we were making computer generated three dimensional models of our architectural designs back at school and we had them as parts of the components for detailing the landscape. Seeing them in reality was a great experience as well a captivating entrance into the state.
Widely known around as 'Kuka', the Baobab tree (Adansonia digitata was one of the very first things that struck me when I got to Kebbi state. These "giant leafless trees" that sparsely populate the landscape of the state can live up to 1000 years.
I learnt from the cab driver as we went on that the trees are mostly found within settlements, in compounds and not in the thick forests as one may expect of a tree its size. And almost every indigene and settler is a maize farmer. So in addition to the trees and the huts, you're almost sure to find a maize plantation either in its fresh green form or in this dry and fascinating form, depending on the time of the year.
The Baobab tree trunk normally would grow to a diameter as large as 7m (some species have been discovered to grow up to 20m diameter that's over 20 men standing round in one circle).
The Baobab series is still an ongoing body of work.
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