Africa is a wonderful continent with many untold stories. The Soul of Africa may just be the tonic for a pervasive spiritual weariness in the world. Clarissa’s mission is to open the imagination of Westerners to these stories, in the hope they sow the seeds of renewal.

Clarissa spends much of her time writing. Articles, ghostwriting, fiction and non-fiction – you can see some of her work under the ‘other articles’ tab on this site. So if you’re looking for a writer, give her a call.

She also consults and advises to eco-tourism businesses, having spent a large part of her life in this milieu.

Many of the tales on this site relate to Africa’s wildlife and culture, as this has particular fascination for her. African culture is not well understood outside the continent yet it holds priceless wisdom for the entire world at this tumultuous time.

Born and bred in Africa, Clarissa recalls an early attraction to the continent’s wild places. In childhood Christmas holidays were spent on the beach and winter holidays in the bush. “One early memory was traipsing down a path in the dark with my mother to a hide overlooking a waterhole in anticipation of the spectacle that the dawn curtain raiser would reveal,” she says.

In gawky adolescence she learnt the healing power of the wilderness and remembers feeling utterly at ease in the bush. Young adulthood provided an opportunity to experience a life few others have known. As one of the first women safari guides in Botswana she became so comfortable in the bush that she would rather walk twenty kilometres, unarmed through the wilderness, than take on downtown Johannesburg.  In 1986 she crossed the Central Kalahari Game Reserve from south-east to north-west when few had ever heard of the place.

Learning the business side of eco-tourism occurred when she partnered in a mobile safari company and later she ran her own white water rafting company on the Zambezi River.

She is currently working to raise awareness of the conservation messages inherent in African culture (and,in fact, all traditional cultures). Living close to the environment, most Africans have a deep kinship with Mother Nature, one that the rest of the world can learn from. By understanding African cultures Clarissa hopes that others will rekindle their own harmonious relationship with the planet that nurtures  humanity.

Clarissa is passionate about the African stories that need telling. Not only is there is a great yearning in the hearts of Africans to be recognised, but in the West there appears to be a sense of spiritual purposelessness, of being adrift somehow. Africa is the continent of Soul and it is with tales of its humanity and magnificence that Clarissa hopes the seeds of a rejuvenating spirituality are sown.

For the African mind, the living animals of the plains are reflections of their heavenly cousins. The herds of Eternity are in the stars, where the origin and destiny of humanity resides. Credo Mutwa.