Headquarters

A stand-alone cluster of a few particularly tall trees may to the human mind suggest a gathering of the eminent, the powerful, the elected; an important meeting is taking place here. Tribal roots and modern culture both yield recognition of governance in action.

Among trees it may mean a fertile spot, an old part of the forest, a place spared past destruction or above average subterranean moisture availability. Trees that lack commercially useful wood like the quiver tree stand a reasonable survival chance in a tree-averse landscape.

San hunters used to hollow out these stems to serve as quivers for carrying their arrows; the bow also slung over the shoulder. Vachellia luederitzii roots are apparently still being used for this purpose by the few remaining offspring of the San that hunt in the traditional way. They live in the faraway region of the South African northwest and in parts of Namibia and Botswana.

A straight piece of root is removed and trimmed, heated slowly in hot ash. The hot truncheon is then pounded against a rock for the bark cylinder to become loosened from the wood. Once the wood is removed, the hollow cylinder, closed at one end, becomes the quiver for enough arrows, given that the root was thick enough. The number of arrows available determines the accuracy required of the hunter for feeding his family (Van Wyk and Gericke, 2000).