Some of the Forest Guides of the Watu wa Miti. The Paramount
Chief Kinanjui is seated in the centre wearing the uniform of the Brotherhood - a green blanket with a white border - while Chief Josiah who acted as interpreter at the Inauguration is standing on the left.
[Original photo caption]
The Brotherhood of the Trees
Brotherhood had the distinction of being banned by the Catholic Church. However, St. Barbe managed in 1926 to gain a private audience with Pope Pius XI and had the ban rescinded. He explained to the Pope that the Men of the Trees was not a secret society, but “a fraternity like the Scouts.” (My life, My Trees, p. 152)
Brotherhood is St. Barbe’s first book, possibly published in 1924 or 1925; there is no publication date on the book itself.
The Archives of the University of Saskatchewan lists a booklet in the R. St. Barbe Baker Papers from 1924 entitled “A Short Account of the Men of the Trees or African Forest Scouts.” This may have been a precursor to The Brotherhood of the Trees.
The account which is excerpted here of an adventure in Kenya in the early 1920’s may seem incongruous with St. Barbe’s well-known activism as an environmentalist and vegetarian. But as he was later to explain:
“Those were the days when I rather liked shooting – it was a novelty for me to shoot big game and I had not then discovered the deeper satisfaction in stalking with camera instead of gun.”
excerpt: "A Buffalo Hunt"
