I recently met with an old Bushman woman, called Ouma Khunna. She lives near the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, in which she was born in 1931. Her clan are known as the Khomani San and were the first people in this corner of the Kalahari.

I asked her what she preferred being called, Bushman or San. And she answered in a definite tone, “Ek is ‘n Boesman.” I am a Bushman. This apparently started a thought train going because she then went on to explain that really her people were Tsaasi (I’ve spelt it phonetically) and that she was a Khomani Tsaasi.

“Tsaasi?”

“Ja, ons is die mense van die tsaa.” We are the people of the tsaa.  Tsaasi.

“And what is a tsaa?” I enquired.

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I heard a lovely, true story today, which shows just how far a little respect goes.  It was school’s out for the boys of Paarl High School and as they came out they filed past a bergie woman (a tramp) scavenging in the dustbin on the pavement.  Being well brought up boys, with respect for others being a cornerstone of their education, they each greeted the tramp with a “Good Afternoon” as they walked by.  There was no apparent reaction from the bergie until one waiting mum noticed in the lull between the surges of departing boys that the bergie walked over to an empty parked car and primped her hair in the reflection of the window. The simple act of the boys’ acknowledgement seemingly engendered an upsurge in pride in her appearance.    How cool is that?

Dignity and respect are mentioned in at least two southern African countries “Visions” that I know of.  Botswana and Lesotho.  Could it be that this will become a worldwide phenomenon?  Global civility.

Like doctors who warn an overweight, beer guzzling, two-pack-a-day smoker that he needs to slow down, so do proponents of population control warn of the calamities that await unbridled population growth.  And it’s not because they hate humanity.  On the contrary, it is out of a profound Love for Humanity that they do so.

Let me put my cards on the table.   As a young adult with an innate curiosity in the world I became convinced that,  in our time in history, the gravest danger to humanity was humanity itself.  Considering this,  I believed that the most generous gift one could give to this amazing phenomenon called Life was to forego the joys of personal procreation.

Sounds weird but stay with me.
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Every second Saturday is Good Hair Day, for dogs at least. In the small Moravian village of Elim, near the southern-most tip of Africa, dogs are given a wash and pamper by local farmer, Andrea Booysen and her helpmate, Belinda Owens. And it’s more than a lick and a promise for these often neglected animals.

Elim houses

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Billed as an annual celebration of conscious living and community, the programme was portentous of the eclectic mix of people that the festival drew.

The topic that initially attracted me to the festival was “African Wisdom”, which embraced the complexity of African thinking. Traditionally, Africans live close to Nature and understand that peoples’ law is subject to natural law. It is only recently (in historical terms) that the tribal initiate’s sense of responsibility to the environment has abdicated to the impersonal concept of government, and this is where things have gone awry. In light of the excesses of the West it is uplifting to learn that answers to our current problems are innate to this wonderful continent. It will take open minds and consciousness to rekindle them; not necessarily in their previous forms but in new, creative ways, appropriate to modern conditions.   Read the rest of this entry »

Stark, extreme, magnificent, the Kalahari has a humbling effect on most people. You’d have to be a hard nut not to get it.

A spiritual reconnection with the Earth is something that more and more people are realising is an essential ingredient to humanity’s psychological health. In fact the Wilderness Leadership School makes it their business to sensitise people to this reality.

During a recent sacramental visit I became reacquainted with Belinda Kruiper, widow of Vetkat Kruiper, renowned Bushman artist. Immersed in the society of the formerly dispossessed Belinda is trying, in her own way, to demonstrate to her husband’s people a way of reconnecting with the Kalahari on their terms. These people of the Kalahari have long been marginalized from their land and way of life.  However, a recent land claim awarded a large portion of the Kgaligadi Transfrontier Park to the Khomani San and a community-owned and run lodge has been erected and is operational.

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News is full of the troubles in Democratic Republic of Congo again. There has been renewed fighting around Kanya Bayonga, north of Goma, and rebel leader, Laurent Nkunde, has established his stronghold in and around the Virunga National Park.

Virunga was the first national park to be established in Africa in 1925, to protect the variety of wildlife found there, including mountain gorillas and okapi. One can jump to conclusions as to what’s happening to the wildlife populations under such conditions. The hippos have been under fire for a decade or more now, but that’s another story. Or perhaps we would be surprised to learn that Mr Nkunde has instituted some kind of martial lawfulness in an otherwise lawless country?

I visited Kanya Bayonga and Virunga some years ago and a vivid memory is of an outdoor restaurant on the shores of Lake Edward where delicious banana chips and bream were served. Marabou storks wandered between the tables looking for titbits. For those unaccustomed to them it was a little disconcerting to have a long, ugly face suddenly appear silently at your shoulder. However, what was remarkable was that they were accepted and tolerated by the restaurant owner and the customers!

I like to think that this innate forbearance, so typical of Africa, would return once all the ignominious influences either dissipate or are brought under control.