In this blog Haripriya Rangan describes the genesis and development of her co-written article with Karen Bell on African baobabs in India and the human story to be glimpsed behind the movement across the Indian Ocean of these charismatic trees – ‘Elusive Traces: Baobabs and the African Diaspora in South Asia’. The article, originally published in Environment and History (Vol. 21/1) in 2015, a Special Issue on Transoceanic Exchanges, is available Open Access for a limited period (until 1 July 2018).

Fifteen or so years ago, after finishing a field research trip in southern Africa, I went to visit my sister who was then living in Indore, a city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. During my stay, she had arranged for a family trip to Mandu, a historic fort and settlement some 100 kilometres away. Mandu sits atop a ridge roughly 650 metres above sea level and…