and want a good wood for fire by friction, try Vitex doniana. (Just prepare your tinder bundle a little better than I did in this rush job)


It can be found in savannah regions from South Africa to Ethiopa to Senegal (and in Gabon, where I recorded this).

The abundant, black fruits are also edible (another top tip: anything a chimpanzee eats, is also safe for us to eat) although I personally don't think it tastes like the chocolate/prune it's usually described as. The young leaves can be used as spinach as well.

There are other woods that work as well, but Vitex was the easiest I tried. The local guys were impressed that a white guy who didn't have the forest skills they did, could make a fire using sticks.

For tinder I used dry savannah grass, fluffed up bark from a few trees and the fluff from the seed pods of a member of the Malvaceae family (like capok).

The resin of very common Okoumé (Aucoumea klaineana) is known locally as torche indigène and burns very well.