Every town and village in Ethiopia has its own adbar, which Wolf Leslau’s ‘Concise Amharic Dictionary’, defines as ‘tree or trees consecrated to spirits (people make scarifies to them’). A warka tree, an indigenous tree resembling the sycamore and distinct for its massive and magnificent size is said to embody a spirit and often used as a gathering place. For instance, the Wodajja (ritual sacrifice) of Muslim communities in Wollo is held under warka tree, which is considered sacred by Islamic cultures. The word warka connotes, according to an Amharic dictionary, a place of ritual prayer.
The deep shade produced by the tree makes it a favoured site for meetings and centre of social activity—from markets to traditional court sessions. It could also serve as points of orientation.
The French traveller Arnauld d’Abbadie who arrived in Gondar in 1838 spoke of the tree, describing it ‘the most beautiful tree of Ethiopia’. He explained it doesn’t grow in Dega (cold) parts, rather in lowest Kolla (hot) ‘where it reaches colossal dimensions.’ “Wherever it appears, it seems to attract the troops of travellers and the caravans, which it covers with a thick and spacious shade,’ he wrote.
There are Warka trees reputedly between five hundred and thousands of years old, which are known for supporting a high level of biodiversity, and birds, bees and other animals depend on it for survival. Leaves of the tree can be used for feeding cattle in the dry season, Dawit Simoen, an elderly farmer in Merawi town, 25kms south of Bahir Dar says.
This one was photographed in Gheralta region of Tigray.
However, like many other indigenous trees of Ethiopia, Warka is at risk of disappearing. It is being threatened by several man-made phenomena, including warming climates, deforestation. The endemic tree is also threatened with extinction as urban development takes a growing toll on the landscape. Asmamaw Getnet, the Amhara region’s Northern Mecha Woreda Agricultural Bureau deputy head told Ethiopia Observer that a number of trees belonging to the species in the forest area are aging. At the same time, few young trees are growing to replace them, building the risk of disappearance, he said. Dawit Simoen, the farmer from Merawi says that villagers are chopping down the tree to get wood to make charcoal. New ones are not being planted because people prefer fast-growing exotic trees such as eucalyptus, he says. (Watch video for an interview in Amharic.)
Even for the highly touted biggest mass tree-planting campaign held in July, the seedlings of indigenous trees such as warka and Kosso (Hagenia abyssinica) a tree with redwood were not on offer. Rather, gravila and other three species were planted in his area, Dawit explains. According to Dawit, even if eucalyptus and gravila are popular with farmers, they tend to dry the area because of their higher water consumption and inefficiency for holding the soil and Warka was much better for this purpose.
