Pink Ivory (Berchemia zeyheri), also called Red Ivory, umNini or umGoloty, is a very rare African wood used to make luxury products (for example billiard cues and knives). The Pink Ivory tree grows predominantly in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. The wood is extremely hard, with a density of 990 g/dm³.
Pink Ivory is the royal tree of the Zulus because only the royal family were allowed to possess the wood. A legend was started in order to increase the value of the wood when sold overseas. The "legend" claimed that anyone else other than the Zulu royal family possessing the wood (including foreigners) was said to be punished with death.
Famous quotes containing the words pink and/or ivory:
“Racism as a form of skin worship, and as a sickness and a pathological anxiety for America, is so great, until the poor whites—rather than fighting for jobs or education—fight to remain pink and fight to remain white. And therefore they cannot see an alliance with people that they feel to be inherently inferior.”
—Jesse Jackson (b. 1941)
“Our dreams are a second life. I have never been able to penetrate without a shudder those ivory or horned gates which separate us from the invisible world.”
—Gérard De Nerval (1808–1855)