You may remember my quandary over the meaning of the name of the sorghum variety Gadam El Hamam. Well, I had the opportunity of asking real experts at the ICRISAT office in Nairobi yesterday. They confirmed, first of all, that the Gadam sorghum that is being so successfully used in beer brewing in Kenya is indeed a selection from the Sudanese variety Gadam El Hamam. And after a quick email to their Sudanese sorghum breeder colleague based in Addis Ababa, we solved the mystery of the name. It turns out the correct transliteration is Gadam Elhmam, which means “Pigeon Foot” in Arabic. This is apparently a trope that is used in Sudanese poetry and songs to describe a beautiful lady. So I more or less had the bits, but I could not put them together. Thanks to all at ICRISAT in Nairobi for helping me do that at last.
Incidentally, the photo is of a beautiful Faidherbia albida tree on the ICRAF campus in Nairobi, which is where the ICRISAT regional office is housed. You may be able to make out from that the Napier grass and mulberries are taller and more lush just under the tree as compared to further back. They don’t call Faidherbia the cornerstone of “evergreen agriculture” (big PDF) for nothing.