Much ado about Awin

Last month a picture was sent to me with the question “remember this?” almost immediately, I sent a reply “don’t you?”
The next question was what set me off on my noble quest.

Journey to the days of old.

Armed with the picture, my amazing friends and feeling like a cop, I’d flash the picture (or display it as my profile picture) and ask for the English name.
Most people I asked recounted tales of walking home with a bunch in hand, cracking it open and popping one tiny fruit after the other into their mouths while remembering to spit out the seeds (many of us believed that fruit seeds swallowed accidentally or on purpose would grow in our stomachs, and sprout from the top of our heads. To be on the safe side, even with my B.Sc. and all, you will not find me deliberately swallowing a fruit seed to prove a point) although they each had an idea or more, they could not quite remember the exact name.
I would not say in my early childhood I pretended to be a goat, didn’t know better or my mother did not feed me but I can admit I had a thing for the glossy oval leaves.
I will stuff a forest in my schoolbag when coming back from school, do my chores and finish lessons (if I had any that day) then run to the back of the house sit down in a coded corner and happily munch on my loot.
Imagine my delight when I noticed the tree struggling to grow in the ixora bushes in front of the house!

(Degema street, #sigh#)

Dialium indum

The velvet tamarind is a tall, tropical, fruit-bearing tree.
Rumored to be rich in all them plenty good vitamins, anti oxidants and additive properties, it belongs to the Leguminosae family.

It has small, (most times) orange typically grape-sized edible fruits with velvety black hard but inedible shells.
A native to southern Thailand and Malaysia, the velvet tamarind can also be found in West African countries such as Ghana, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Nigeria.

Although its close relative Tamarind (Tamarindus indica) (from Arabic: تمر هندی‎, romanized tamar hind meaning "Indian date") which is the only individual in its species exists, Dialium indum is the most common and widespread Dialium in Nigeria.
For people interested in getting their tongues around the fruit, the tree flowers from September to October and fruits from October to January in Nigeria.

Due to its valued hard and compact wood the velvet tamarind is a threatened species.
Sadly, the tree is not commercially grown because it takes 5 to 15/17 years, sometimes even more to come into bearing.
If we are not careful about protecting and propagating the few trees we have left, the sight of said trees might become a memory.

Local names in the country (aside from “Licky –licky and Baba dudu ) include:

Amugen – Benin

Awin – Yoruba

Ukuk – Akwa ibom

Icheku – Igbo and

Tsamiyar kurm – Hausa

From places in the world: it is called Yoyi in Ghana, Keranji in Malaysia, Luk yee in Thailand and some other parts of the South East Asia.




@ Frank and Black Dorian, this one’s for you!