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 tell as many of these stories as she can, in the hope they sow the seeds of renewal.

As the most unaffected of continents, many of these tales logically relate to its wildlife as well as culture, travel and just plain good old stories.

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 sit at a hide overlooking a game reserve waterhole for the spectacle that the dawn curtain raiser would reveal.”

In gawky adolescence she learnt of 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’d rather walk 20 kilometres, unarmed through the wilderness, than take on downtown Johannesburg. In 1987 she crossed the Central Kalahari Reserve from south-east to north-west, when few had ever heard of the place.

Learning the business side of ecotourism occurred when she partnered in a mobile safari company and later she ran her own white water rafting company on the Zambezi River. She now consults and advises for ecotourism companies on a part-time basis.

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.

We carry within us the wonders we seek without us: there is all Africa and her prodigies in us. Sir Thomas Browne.