Flying over northern Botswana at the end of the dry season brings home just how delicate our hold on life is. It has nothing to do with the single-engined Cessna I’m in nor the fact that it is made of very dentable aluminium. It also has nothing to do with the +40C temperatures that force us to eat up extra runway in order to take off. No. This sense of fragility comes from what you see from the air – a god’s view of life on earth.
Many Westerners regard African tribal lore as simplistic, even naïve. This is far from true. On the contrary, African beliefs reveal a sophisticated, experiential understanding of the natural environment – one that most Westerners have lost touch with.
Born out of millenia of living at the mercy of the Earth’s vagaries, rural Africans have an innate understanding of nature. With the current environmental problems facing the planet, traditional Africa is a good place to search for the wisdom that points the way to ensuring our continued place here.
With this in mind I went looking for the Keepers of the Knowledge, the Sangomas and the Healers in rural South Africa recently.
Will lifting the trade ban reduce poaching?
I love surprises. So when someone suggested that I research the subject of legalising the trade in rhino horn I leapt at it. I could see that the issue was ripe for some Edward de Bono-type thinking.
In Africa the black rhino is considered critically endangered and the white variety is listed as near threatened by the International Union of Nature Conservation. Black or white, population numbers are fragile. The primary cause of this situation is the continuous slaughter of rhinos by humans.
Some good out-of-the-box thinking could serve rhino well, I thought. Surely all it needs is some imagination and rational pragmatism.
The number one reason behind the killing is the demand for rhino horn in the East where it is used in muti of the Chinese kind. And so the fundamental question around the trade in rhino horn can be expanded to all geographical regions where traditional healers are faced with a dwindling supply of ingredients: at what point do we reconcile traditional values with modern reality? It is a question that requires deep introspection.
Reed frogs strike up a dainty symphony of tiny bells. A cool breath rising off the water caresses warm skin. Soon fire flies will appear weaving their visual magic with a choreography of lights.
The Okavango Delta on a warm summer’s night is an unlikely setting for a murder story. But death is in the air. It comes from afar, and is executed by people who think that what they’re doing is good.
“They kill all of us in Botswana,” Keeditse Bailang says on the subject of a call to boycott tourism to the country. Supported by charitable souls who think they’re protecting the rights of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) Bushmen this campaign will do the exact opposite. If successful, it will condemn many thousands of Botswana’s people to lives of poverty.
“Bamba!” Sakoi Shengaera greets us in the village of Shaikarawe, 15kms west of the Okavango River in northern Botswana. The village is inhabited by Khwe Bushmen and we’re here to learn about the culture and beliefs of the people who call themselves the Bugakhwe or Bush Khwe.
We find a shady spot. It’s September – The Month When Messengers Come – so called by the Bugakhwe because when leaving home in the cool mornings on food gathering expeditions one doesn’t anticipate the heat of midday. Caught unprepared, someone has to be sent to the nearest settlement to ask for water. Read the rest of this entry »
An experience with habituated African elephants can have a profound effect on our emotional intelligence of the wilderness.
“You must do the elephants, they’ve been the highlight of our whole trip,” urge the Americans as we step onto the airstrip, a ribbon of highground surrounded by the blue-green carpet of the Okavango Delta.
At dinner we meet Doug Groves, director of Grey Matters, an education-based eco-tourism company. Soft-spoken and diffident, with the demeanor of a true gentle-man, Doug tells us he has been the human element of the elephant partnership for the better part of twenty two years. It becomes apparent that Doug’s benign nature makes him an obvious candidate for a pachyderm calling.
Lions have long held a special place in human minds. Around the world they’ve appeared in mythical and cultural lore reaching right back through the ages. From ancient Egypt and Turkey to Greece, Rome and India they are closely aligned with the Sun, and therefore are an archetypal symbol of light.
Lion King - Guardian of People