Page 100 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 5

AFRIKA IS GOD’S
HALLER PARK
KEEPING THE GREENS GREEN
few steps after the ticket booth, un-
der the cool canopy of trees, we spot
two ancient giant tortoises, quietly
A azing on some grass. Stepping
gr
over one of the giant millipedes whose fore-
bears helped to tame the harsh environment
of this former quarry, we venture further, our
eyes taking in the variety of palm trees, the
towering Casuarinas (Whistling Pines) and
the gentle eland a few hand lengths away,
quietly retreating from view. It's the relative
silence, interrupted from time to time by the
excited chatter of tourists wandering from
the hippo and Oryx enclosure to the croc-
odile enclosure, to the snake house, to the
bird house... but that silence that draws you
in. Makes you want to stop under the shelter
of one of the palm trees, sit on the benches
provided, unplug and just be. Walking down
the path, past giant clamshells, we catch a
100 | heal . restore . rebirth . Afrika
MOMBASA
Chioma Phillips
Trees are life givers. “
We must keep them
alive.
Samuel Phillips
glimpse of a meeting of worlds. An ancient world
that casts one's mind to the days gone by when the
world was concealed beneath the water, exposed by
the claw of the decades’ old digger now broken and
resting between the trees not far away, evidence of
the barren wasteland that the corporate world tends
to leave behind... and a beautiful glimpse of the
world of healing and restoration that man can bring
back, if he truly tries and cares enough to.
This is Haller Park, named after Rene Haller, the
Swiss Naturalist who was hired by Bamburi Ce-
ment in Mombasa, to grow crops for their workers
in 1959. He was convinced that he could find a way
to restore the environment after their quarries be-
came uninhabitable wastelands, where no new life,
it seemed could ever take root again. So in 1970, he
convinced them to let him try.
Dr. Haller was faced with the seemingly impossible
task of finding plants that would serve as pioneers