Southern Africa

I have been thinking for many weeks now, what we should write about our self-drive safari adventure in Southern Africa. It has been difficult because too many thought and memories keep popping up in my mind. I should start by saying that ever since I visited Kenya in 2006, the wish to travel back to Africa had been big on me, so this was one of the parts of our trip I was more looking forward to, while Carsten felt differently having only been to Africa once on business some 15 years ago.

Fortunately for us, the low exchange rate allowed us to extend our stay from one month to three and from one country to six and we decided to rent a 4x4 with a roof-top tent in South Africa and do a self-drive safari the way South Africans do. It turned out to be an awesome experience and we can only encourage everybody to do the same if they want to see Southern Africa.

The first two weeks after we arrived, we stayed with friends in the outskirts of Durban. From there, we started our trip going north into the Drakensberg, around Lesotho, before heading southbound towards the coast, where we followed the Garden Route from Port Elizabeth all the way to Cape Town. We spent an excellent weekend in De Hoop Nature Reserve with two other friends and afterwards headed north into the Northern Cape and from there into Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. From there we crossed into Zambia for the day in order to see Victoria Falls from both sides. We continued all the way to Mana Pools in the north of Zimbabwe before returning to South Africa via Limpopo and Kruger National Park, finishing off crossing Swaziland to get back to Durban. Carsten drove 13.500 km in 67 days. I say Carsten because he did 99.9% of the driving.

So after all that travelling and all those experiences, what can one write about? Should we write about all the animals and national parks we saw? All the birds that made me think we don't have even half of the bird diversity in Chile? (Now we understand why most South Africans are bird watching fanatics and why they go to the national parks with the biggest telephoto lenses I have ever seen). Should we write about all the elephants we saw and how good parents they are? All the rhinos and how peaceful and gentle they are? The impressive great white sharks we swam with, which measured up to 3.8 meters, but despite of their foul reputation are calm, graceful and beautiful animals?

Or maybe we can talk about the landscapes. And how the coastal areas of South Africa somewhat remind me of the Pacific Ocean in Chile, if the Pacific was 10 degrees warmer and the water was clearer. Or about the coast of South Africa, from where you can see whales if you visit in August. About the thatched roofed houses we saw and how they reminded Carsten of the Danish island of Bornholm. Or tell the story of when we crossed Kalahari Central Game Reserve in Botswana with water up to the bonnet of the car and were lucky to reach camp without getting stuck in the deep mud. If you have ever seen a program on Discovery Channel about Kalahari, you would have seen a very dry desert…we expected to see the same…well, it looks very different in March during the rainy season!!

I guess the one eye opener for Carsten and I of this trip, has to do with some of the above, but mostly with the people. On one hand, all the nice people we met on our journey and with whom we enjoyed one braai (South African BBQ) or more and mostly, the Native African people. African people keep eye contact with you when they pass you on the street, which is very different from what we are used to in Santiago de Chile and the big cities in Europe. They wait for you to say hello, and if you do, you can expect to receive the biggest smile and a hello back. African people will jump into the car with you to take you to the best biltong shop to buy what you need and afterwards invite you to have breakfast with them, while they are washing your car. They will give you extra maps and magazines at the border crossing between Namibia and Botswana, because they have never met a person from Chile before. They laugh and joke with you, while saying you should promote Zimbabwe as a tourist destination and come back with your friends, with a: “Don’t believe everything you hear in the news; Zimbabwe is a beautiful country”. Indeed, it is. Long story short, African people are great.

So, we think it is very misleading and unfortunate that the only news we get from Africa are pictures of starving children, townships, poor people, genocides or animal poaching. I never heard much about Africa when I went to school, it was not a subject and all I knew about it, came through the wildlife programs I used to watch on TV, dreaming I would one day go there and see all those animals myself.

On this journey to Southern Africa we learned many things. Did you know that South Africa has 11 official languages that people use to communicate and work? Zimbabwe has 16, Zambia has 72, etc, etc, etc. Overall Africa there are around 2.000 different cultures, which in many cases, where forced to share the same country by limits imposed by foreigners, who sat down in Europe and drew the borders with a ruler. No wonder there is always political unrest somewhere in Africa and that dictatorships are common. Dictators which many times have been sponsored and supported by the West and Israel to maintain stability in the region. The background for that support? Well, years ago, the Cold War and the fear of communism made the West support many dictators in Africa in order to avoid Russia's expansion in the region, and Israel supported Idi Amin (in Uganda) and many others leaders in exchange for protection against the Palestinians. Now the cold war is long over, but some of the wars and racial issues, which started in Africa during that period, continue. The difference is that now the West has no interest in helping Africans getting out of these problems. Only China has been looking at Africa as a huge commercial opportunity for the past 20 years.

This extensive number of cultures in Africa made me think about the Americas and how the only reason for us not having these cultural problems is that the European settlers and the conquistadores killed most of the indigenous population when they arrived. So, there are not many Indians in the Americas who can complain now. Furthermore, these settlers mixed with the remaining indigenous people, so the independence of the Americas was achieved by people of mixed races, with a common political vision developed over a period of 300 years before independence was actually achieved. The situation in Africa is very different.

History tells us, when the Second World War was over, the United States could dictate the new world order, and since they used to be a colony themselves, they were against imperialism in the rest of the world. So, the European countries found themselves somewhat forced to make plans to leave their African colonies. All through the colonial years, different tribes and cultures (with different religious beliefs and cults), were forced to share lands and live under a common European rule. Settlers did not mix with the locals and their cultures remained separate, many of them, until independence. Native Africans were also not allowed to participate in the decision making or the running of their own countries during the colonial times.

But, eventually, independence came to Africa, and most countries didn’t have experienced politicians or educated citizens to rule them. For many countries, independence meant going back to their old tribal system, where there is a powerful chief (of one tribe) making all the decisions, who rules, securing positions for his closest allies and family and secures, by any means, as much money as he can get hold of, because he needs to ensure he can buy off whoever is necessary for him to remain in power. These rulers, in many cases, were chosen by the retreating European governments; who obviously chose the ruler that was more favourable to their own interest. These rulers, in many cases, were not the ones that the majority of the population supported, which later led to civil wars and genocides.

A common institution throughout Africa are the humanitarian NGOs, always trying to get aid to “save Africa”. They try to convince us that Africa “needs aid”, “we need to save the starving children of Africa, so please keep sending money into our bank account” and "Africa will not survive unless we help them". Right now, after having seen ALL schools in rural Zimbabwe (many built or donated by NGOs) completely abandoned and destroyed, because “President Mugabe won’t pay the teachers”, we are left wondering what good was it to build those schools after all. The benefit was for the NGO, who could promote on their website that they had built yet another school in poor Zimbabwe and could keep requesting donations. The foreign donor would also be happy back home; he/she helped poor Zimbabwean kids to get an education and improve their lives. The truth is, no Zimbabwean benefited from these schools. We got confirmation from locals that many of these schools were never even used. Even the local workers who built it, upon completion, returned to their villages and carried on growing corn or tobacco as they have been doing for the last 36 years, since Robert Mugabe became president and decided the country was his, to do with as he pleases without concern for anybody as long as he remains rich and in power. He is 92 years old now, 55 billion USD are unaccounted for in Zimbabwe during his watch and most likely his wife will take over after him when he dies so the Mugabe legacy can continue. Life for Zimbabweans will not change, no matter how much aid money is pushed into the country. For most Zimbabweans, after 36 years, Mugabe is the only leader they know.

At the same time, it’s sad to see that the white South Africans are living the apartheid in reverse today. Years after the initial hope that President Nelson Mandela brought to the new South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC, Mandela’s party, which is still in power today), established laws that attempted to make things equal for blacks and whites. The plan was to achieve this goal as soon as possible (in 10 years), so for more than 15 years today, white South Africans have been discriminated from work and sports because of their color. Today if you are a black, physically impaired woman, you have the highest ranking for getting a job in South Africa. Last week, the South African rugby, cricket, athletics and netball federations were banned by the sports minister from bidding to any major international tournament, because they have failed to create enough opportunities for black players. Further to that, once again, there is an ongoing campaign to change the name of the national rugby team (the "Springboks") for a name that does not remind people of apartheid times. In our opinion, these ideas are thoughtless, they keep promoting racial discrimination, limit the development possibilities of skilled people (regardless of the color) and they are obviously a mean of getting quick votes for the party from the less educated members of the black population.

But in their defense, this mistake happens not only in Africa. Michelle Bachelet, when she became president of Chile in 2006 nominated her ministers not based on merit, but based on gender. Fifty percent of the cabinet had to be women, to enforce gender equality. Quickly she realized that she made a mistake, because the people she chose were not the most qualified and she had to reverse her decision. Further to that, after 27 years of Pinochet being out of the government, the Chileans are still not able to look into the future and leave the past behind. I guess in Chile, just like in Africa, it's always easier to blame the ghosts of the past, rather than your incapability of the present.

Seeking to learn more about Nelson Mandela we went to Robben Island and it was very interesting to hear that the Island had been a prison for more than 400 years. The best experience of the boat trip to the Island was to see a group of 20 school kids, classmates, around 12-13 years old, of all colors and races, playing and hanging out together. Blacks, Whites, Indians, Asians, Colored, boys and girls. They didn’t see skin color differences, they were just school friends. There is hope after all for the next generations.

Isabel Allende, our Chilean novelist, wrote in one of her books that “nostalgia” is something you can only feel about your own country. I disagree. Nostalgia, is what Carsten and I will always feel until we come back to Africa to spend more nights under the stars, sitting by the fire, listening to the crickets, hippos and lions while enjoying a braai and a long conversation with good friends.

A special thank you note to Ryan, Kirsty, Josh and Zach for letting us into their house for so long and to Jannie, Jorietha and Isla for organizing that awesome weekend.

Enjoy the pics and drop us a line to tell us if you liked them.

Claudia & Carsten