The older image on the LHS is of a handsome camelthorn tree Acacia erioloba near the Catholic church in Omaruru, Namibia, taken during, or before 1904.
The color image was taken a hundred years later.
The size of the tree has not changed that drastically.
It has been around since darkest pre-history, would have witnessed the settlements as well as many migrations of local tribes.
The tree has witnessed several complete changes in fashion styles of the people, from traditional Khoe-khoe loin-cloths, traditional Herero wardrobe, the Victorian style dresses worn by the ladies since the arrival of European missionaries.
Many elephant would have rested in its shade before elephant got wiped out in these parts by ivory hunters like Andersson and Eriksson at around 1870- 80.
Giraffe would have fed on the abundant pods of the tree.
Many an ox-wagon span would have moved underneath its branches here at the banks of the Omaruru river . Steam locomotives had puffed past over a hundred years ago, when the railway line was completed from Swakopmund to the copper mines at Tsumeb.
The ground around its roots has been paved and covered in bitumen asphalt and many heavy trucks are thundering past.
Street lights illuminate the pavement and surroundings at night.
The tree had endured many cold winter nights and as many hot summer days. Many thunderstorms had swept around, and many lightning bolts had made the earth shudder.
Steadfast and resilient, the tree has come through many long spells of drought.
It has withstood several of the very rare, yet devastating torrential rains like central Namibia had witnessed in 1934 and again in 1976.
Usually one rushes past, towards some or other destination, without much awareness, without giving one moment’s thought to the other sentient beings along our paths.
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