“Man’s Most Useful Tree”
By Awake! correspondent in Kenya
TO MOST people a coconut palm is a lazy-looking tree—the very symbol of rest and relaxation. But to the people living on Mombasa Island along the coast of Kenya, it is much more. Some refer to this gentle giant as a “tree of life.” For these coastal dwellers, the palm has the amazing ability not only to provide beauty but also to supply many of the basic needs of human life.
The coconut palm has a catalog of practical uses. It is not surprising, then, that the palm has been called a “tree of plenty,” “the milk bottle on the doorstep of mankind,” and “man’s most useful tree.” The Coconut Palm—A Monograph notes: “It perhaps yields more products of use to mankind than any other tree.”
Made From Coconuts
The people of the Kenyan coast have put the coconut palm to work for them in a number of ingenious ways. Consider, for example, Kadii, a local housewife. She has lived in this tropical environment since childhood. “Has the coconut always played an important role in your home?” we ask.
Replies Kadii: “I can vividly recall using coconuts in our kitchen when I was a young girl. Because the shell is very hard and quite durable, it served nicely for cups, spoons, and ladles. The larger shells were used for soup bowls and scoops. A part of our education in school was to learn how to design and make these items for home use.”
Kadii’s husband, Mbagah, also raised on the coast, has much to say about the use of the coconut palm outside the kitchen. “As a boy growing up,” recalls Mbagah, “I saw this tree as an indispensable part of life.”
For example, of the palm-tree wood, which is hard and tough, he says: “We use it for rafters, supports, pilings, posts, and various other building components.”
What about the palm fronds? “In most villages there are women who earn a living hand plaiting these leaves and making them into large shinglelike pieces of roofing material,” Mbagah explains. Even though a house may be fully exposed to the blazing tropical sun, inside the house the occupants will be cool and comfortable. The thatched roof not only shields them from the sun but also allows a breeze in to cool the home. It is hard to imagine a more efficient roof. Plaited palm fronds serve nicely as walls, fences, and doors.
“Let us not forget the coconut husks,” Mbagah adds with a proud smile. “These are obtained by impaling the coconut on a sharp wooden or iron spike fixed to the ground. We take the coconut with both hands, thrust it downward against the spike and twist it so that the husk is loosened from the actual nut.” The husk yields a beautiful golden fiber, which can be used for making floor mats, rugs, carpets, brushes, brooms, and even stuffing for mattresses.
“More Delicious Than Wine”
Coconut is also an important part of the diet and is consumed throughout almost all its stages of growth. The immature coconut (called dafu in the local language, Kiswahili) contains a pure, wholesome, and nutritious beverage having a very pleasant taste. The beverage can be served in its natural container simply by punching a hole in the top of the nut—just the right drink for a tropical thirst! Famed explorer Marco Polo reportedly said concerning this drink: “The liquid is as clear as water, cool and better flavored, and more delicious than wine or any other kind of drink.”
Tourists often express similar sentiments when they sip this local beverage for the first time. And when the liquid is finished, a broken part of the shell can be used to scoop out the gelatinous pulp. This is tender, sweet, and refreshing. While the delicacies of the immature coconut are a novelty for visitors, for coastal dwellers the beverage is an everyday drink, and it is greatly appreciated when drinking water is scarce.
Coconut Cuisine
The most valuable part of the mature coconut is its meat, or fruit. It may be eaten as it comes from the shell, grated in various dishes, or pressed to extract its precious milk.
Kadii recalls: “As a young girl, I had to make sure that coconut milk was always on hand for cooking.” Traditionally, coconut milk has been added to enhance the flavor of fish, chicken, beans, rice, potatoes, cassava, and bread. It also does wonders for the taste of curry. But we are curious to know how Kadii obtained the milk.
“We would use the mbuzi,” explains Kadii. Mbuzi is a colloquial expression in Kiswahili that refers to a small wooden seat that stands about six inches [15 cm] off the ground. It has a sharp serrated edge that protrudes from it, specifically designed for the grating of coconut by hand. “It was fun for us children to sit on the mbuzi. We would take a halved coconut and scrape the inside against the serrated blade until the shell was cleaned of all the coconut meat. The next step was to take the grated coconut and put it into a long funnellike sieve that was made of palm fronds. Then we would squeeze out that delicious coconut milk.”
The coconut is really a fruit, and it is very compatible with other tropical fruits. One’s taste buds begin watering by just contemplating a fruit dish of freshly sliced papaya, pineapple, mango, banana, orange, and passion fruit topped off with freshly grated coconut or even coconut cream.
Says an old proverb: “He who plants a coconut tree plants . . . food and drink, a habitation for himself and a heritage for his children.” The lazy-looking coconut tree is thus far from lazy. And while it might be debated as to whether it really is man’s most useful tree or not, it certainly is a horn of plenty in this African land!