TheTraveler

 
An African Prelude
The Traveler

African Prelude:

To most in North America, Africa is considered an exotic locale, a journey to the other side of the world. Upon learning that my first trip to Africa would be to Botswana, many friends raised an eyebrow, silently asking "why Botswana?" - Generously thinking that I knew something about Botswana that they didn't; which most certainly was not the case. It started with a decision to go to Africa; then a decision to travel with a well-respected company, specializing in high-end "environmental" tours, that happened to offer a wildlife safari to Botswana.

Suddenly Botswana became a subject of interest.

The first thing I did was find Botswana on the map - there it is, sitting on top of South Africa's northern border - and thus began my education. All I know now is just from books, of course; but knowing that I will soon be there has a great way of focusing the mind and exciting the imagination. Images and expectations start to take shape from the nebulous cloud of random imagination.

I expect to feel the earth and the processes of life in an elemental way that my urban, big-city life just cannot provide. I expect to feel a sense of the primordial that is unique to Africa. When life crawled out of the ocean, it found itself in Africa; or what would one day become Africa.

It begs what must sound like a cliché: I am going home - a home I left millions of years ago.

What I think I know about Botswana is that she was once a British protectorate called Bechuanaland. In 1966, the independent state of Botswana was formed in a peaceful transition of sovereignty. Botswana is now governed by a Parliamentary Republic seated in the capital city of Gaborone located in the southeastern corner of Botswana. Since its independence from Britain, Botswana has become an African "success story". Once one of the ten poorest nations in the world, Botswana now enjoys one of the highest GDP's in all of sub-Saharan Africa, second only to South Africa. Between 1970 and 1990 Botswana's economy grew at the astonishing rate of 13% per year.

Still, Botswana has serious problems that threaten this economic growth. Principal among these is a very high unemployment rate, officially estimated at around 40%. Even more devastating in both economic and human terms is the tragic toll of AIDS on the population. From my research, I have found a variety of estimates, but the general consensus is that approximately 36% of the young adult population (aged 15 to 39) is infected with AIDS. In a population of about 1.9 million people, 24,000 die each year from AIDS and AIDS related complications. Botswana has the highest infection rate in world. This pandemic seriously burdens an already substandard health care system and threatens to erode the remarkable gains Botswana has made. I wonder what resources would be brought to bear in the United States to deal with a disease infecting over a third of its young adults.

But despite the tragedy of AIDS, the country still has one of the strongest economies in Africa. The discovery of vast diamond deposits about the same time the country gained its independence is the main reason for this dramatic rise in prosperity, contributing over 75% to Botswana's GDP. Other important industries include copper and nickel mining, salt extraction, and some manufacturing in textiles and car parts. But diamonds have truly been Botswana's best friend in economic terms.

Nonetheless, tourism and conservation plays a large and growing role in Botswana, comprising about 5% of the economy's GDP (the third largest industry). The government has taken a relatively enlightened approach to the protection of its natural resources and promotes low-impact, high-end tourism. Approximately 17% of the country is set aside as a national park or reserve, with another 20% defined as "Wildlife Management Areas"; Botswana is considered to have some of the most unspoiled wilderness in all of Africa.

And it is to these areas that we will spend most of our time. After a grueling 30 hour journey, about 23 of which will be spent in the air, we will arrive in Maun in the northern part of Botswana - "the Gateway to the Okavango Delta" - where our exploration will begin. After an afternoon and night spent recovering from jet lag, we set off for the African Bush.

The Okavango Delta is "the jewel of the Kalahari". Eighty percent of Botswana is comprised of the Kalahari Desert; Maun sits at the northern edge of the Kalahari, where the Okavango - the largest inland delta in the world covering an area the size of Switzerland - meets the Kalahari; its pristine waters disappearing into the sand.

We'll head northeast out of Maun to the Moremi Game Reserve in the northeast corner of the delta. This protected area of the delta will be our introduction into African wilderness and wildlife. For the next six days we'll explore Moremi and even more remote regions of the delta on foot, by boat, in four-wheel drive vehicles, and one trip by charter airplane.

From there we'll move east to Chobe National Park for four days. The first two days spent in the Savuti Channel, a mopane woodland and marsh that hosts a variety of herbivores and the predators that they attract. The last two days we'll move to the famed elephant herds of the Serondella.

So this is all I have now, facts gleaned from casual research, maps, pictures...

I now await the experience, the reality. A reality in which I am, at best, just an observer. The only thing I feel certain of is that whatever words I can muster, or images on film I produce; they will serve but poor justice to the vibrant reality that awaits and tolerates my observation.

This is an African Prelude.

Back to TheTraveler.