This gorgeous beast is normally called the wild fig or the strangler fig but in my Kikuyu dialect, it is the Mugumo Tree. It has long been hailed as a sacred tree as it holds an ancient Kikuyu tradition that our long gone ancestors dwell in it.
Kikuyus don't cut down Mugumo trees even while clearing a field for anything. If one falls while still young (believe me they are the oldest of trees in Kenya), tribal elders have to perform rituals to cleanse where it was standing as that is still deemed as a curse.
Aside from being our ancestors' dwellings, the Mugumo Tree is famed for being a spiritual ground for traditional ceremonies and sacrifices even in today's modern world.
For example, in my tradition, a young man has to offer older men traditional brew and two grown rams to be welcomed in the men's circle. This ceremony is one among those done under a Mugumo Tree.
Captured yesterday 🇰🇪