The Drakensberg has been around for 540 million years. Man has been living in its shadows for more than 100,000 years. In its bowels are 40,000 Bushmen paintings. It is home to one of the most famous choirs in the world, The Drakensburg Boys Choir, countless resorts, and herds of cattle. Thousands of tourists flock to its scenic basalt rock structures to hike, climb and camp in its huge shadow.
Winter is a good time to go. It brings out the golden hues of a dry mountainscape capped with sapphire skies.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2327" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_5899-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" />
I’m nestled deep within the sweet scent of the pine trees of the Champagne Valley in the heart of the Central Drakensberg.
Within this valley is the Champagne Castle Resort. It is here where I am about to experience the ‘berg’, as people call it, in what many say is the best way possible; in the saddle.
The brochure was a sell: Why walk when you can ride in comfort? Experience the glory of an African sunset. To boot they’ll even throw in a free glass of champagne. It’s money you will never regret spending.
With this in mind, I walk down to the stables to gewar-up. I imagine a majestic creature approaching. The dust rises up as its hooves caress the earth. His mane billows majestically in the cool mountain breeze. They say if you stare into a horse’s eye you can see into its soul. All I see is a beady eye.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2328" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_8875-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
“Majestic?” I ask the guide.
More like a deadly creature galloping straight out of a nightmare. Its brown coat is muddy. It smells like hay and 10-year-old sweat. Staring into his eyes was like being a loaf of bread in the middle of St Michael’s Square in Venice with a flock of hungry pigeons hovering in the air.
“You don’t want to walk behind it,” the guide reminds me, as I try to mount the steed.
Osama. That is his name, I am told. Yes I didn’t believe him either. An ill omen for someone with an innate fear of horses. And so my romantic champagne sunset horse ride in the mountains began, more like three hours of hell.
I rode with the grace of a sack of potatoes. Fear kept me rigid in my saddle. My helmet bounced on my head; slapping sweat, horse hair and bugs into my eyes.
True to his namesake, Osama was a force to be reckoned with. Much to the amusement of my fellow travelers, I had no say in which direction or what speed he wanted to go. He was a horse apart. At times he would stop to eat grass, a brief respite for my sore behind, only to leave our company wandering off into the distance. He behaved like a mountain goat leaping from stone to stone with his penchant for the off-road. His attempts to swing me over the edge of deep gullies left others rolling in laughter; me in terror.
As the sun began to set, our mounted troop finally paused. I figured that I had earned more than a glass of bubbly. I sat and admired the trails of smoke rising up in the distance from the bush fires that filtered beams of sunlight. The Drakensberg was bathed in gold. A photographer’s paradise.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-2330" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_8902-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />
It’s hard to ruin a beautiful sunset accompanied with champagne, but Osama came close.
My far-from-graceful dismount led to a deep breath of fresh mountain air, only something smelled rotten. Beneath my shoes was a mountain of steamy dung, courtesy of my trusty steed. Idiot, don’t walk behind a horse.
I wish I could have stayed on that hill longer.
But alas, as the sun sank over the horizon, Osama decided it was time to leave—this time without his rider. In the fading light, in the shadow of one of Africa’s splendid natural wonders, I ran after him into the sunset. I really don’t get why people like horses, but I can see why riding a horse in the Drakensberg is an unforgettable experience. A short three-hour drive from Johannesburg, it’s truly a beautiful place to spend a weekend away.

Love The Mountain Hate The Horse

In silence and solitude we traverse the scrub-specked grasslands of Kenya’s famed Masai Mara in search of an elusive leopard spotted the previous day.
The rains have begun and newly formed rivers and gorges pockmark a terrain sketched with the region’s emblematic acacia trees. Shuka-clad Masai tend cattle on conservancy land fringing the national reserve and copious wildlife blankets the expanse. But few of the roughly 700,000 tourists who descend annually upon one of  the Seven New Wonders of the Natural World remain. Soon, shuttered camps will reopen and from July through October crowds will return to witness the Great Migration of countless wildebeest, zebra and other game transiting from Tanzania’s adjoining Serengeti National Park.
Navigating the muddy soil, even in a tank-like vehicle, proves challenging. But perseverance rewards us with remarkable sights. A buoyant Thompson Gazelle inexplicably chases a rare Denham’s bustard, lions feast on zebra remnants, the carcass of a newly killed giraffe sadly succumbs to scavengers, while herds of majestic elephants lumber across the plains. Bones and skulls litter the landscape, but rebirth abounds. An endangered cheetah lounges amid camouflaging scrub just meters from her two young cubs. Babies of every endemic breed suckle their mothers’ teats as siblings frolic nearby. It’s the natural order of things and I feel privileged to behold this diverse kingdom without mobs encroaching.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-31204 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/AR0B1662-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/AR0B1662-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/AR0B1662-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/AR0B1662-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/AR0B1662.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Unfortunately, serenity masks peril as escalating human-animal conflict and an ivory poaching pandemic threatens survival of the animals we come to see.
Enter the crusaders, one of whom is Kenyan native Richard Roberts, founder of The Mara Elephant Project (MEP). It works alongside government and environmental groups—including the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), American-based Escape Foundation and prominent NGO Save The Elephants. The privately funded non-profit organization was created in 2011 to help communities “combat the increasing human-animal discord” and augment anti-poaching efforts. In 2012, the Mara suffered 149 elephant mortalities, 139 of those attributed to poaching.
“Too many elephants were getting killed. Something needed to be done to help farmers and wildlife coexist Without wildlife there is no tourism… and tourism is wildlife’s savior. There are more eyes on the ground and more incentive to protect the animals,” says Roberts. And as the tourist industry accounts for 14 percent of Kenya’s GDP, raking in $1.2 billion in 2011, that’s a lot of incentive to keep visitors coming.
“A funny disconnect exists. The Masai love tourism but don’t like the wildlife. They don’t see the correlation,” adds Marc Goss, director of MEP and manager of Mara North Conservancy.
But that’s not a universal sentiment, especially amongst the more than 100 Masai, who have thus far benefited from sponsored training at the Mara’s Rekero Camp guide school. For them, the dual crisis is evident as I learn from Teketi “Stephen” Nabala, my ardently well-informed guide from the exclusive Ngerende Island Lodge.
“We [Masai] benefit greatly from tourism, economically and socially. Exposure to more people and increased education is beginning to open eyes to the importance of protecting our ecosystem.”
Recent demonstrations in the Mara calling for stronger government action substantiate changing attitudes.
Since the reserve opened in 1948 on a scant 520 kilometers­—today park and conservancy land spans more than 1,500km2—tourism has exploded. The Masai Mara alone generates $50 million annually.  In the mid-nineties, privately-managed conservancies sprouted on the reserve’s perimeters when Masai began leasing newly-owned parcels of formerly communal land to lodge operators. This arrangement provides income, employment and camp-endorsed community support for residents, while visitor fees ($70 to $100 for non-East African residents) subsidize Conservancy management and preservation efforts.
But it’s a precarious balancing act. Animals don’t recognize boundaries and often venture outside protected areas. In the past two years, farmers increasingly greet encroaching elephants with violence, while the acute resurgence of poaching continues unabated. These are complex and convoluted issues stemming from Kenya’s ballooning population (up from seven to 43 million since 1963), traditional pastoralist Masai culture embracing agriculture, limited arable land and the revitalized, highly profitable, high-demand illegal ivory trade.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-31202 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/IMG_6148-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_6148-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_6148-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_6148-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_6148.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Although the MEP collars and monitors Mara elephants, maintains a network of paid informants and two roving general security teams, “our resources are insufficient,” says Roberts.
Hoping to secure an airplane and additional security teams this year, it all comes down to funding.
“We’re seeing that poachers are becoming more organized and lethal, further emphasizing the need to expand MEP,” Goss interjects.
“The good news is that the KWS has many dedicated employees with whom we share information and resources. Kenya is very lucky to have one central wildlife service, which eliminates the kind of bureaucracy Tanzania has,” says Roberts.
Further encouragement derives from the new constitution that empowers the county rather than local government to oversee the Mara.
“We’re hopeful that things will improve with decentralization and the recent election of Narok County Governor Samuel Tunai. If all private sector revenue coming from Narok was used in a transparent manner it would be the third richest county in Kenya. If that money was used sustainably, we would solve a lot of these issues,” says Goss.
“In the past, administrators ignored anything going on outside their boundaries,” notes Ol Chorro Conservancy Manager James Hardy.
“Everyone is now realizing that we’re in this together and that one region’s problems ultimately affect and belong to all [regions]. We’ve recently established a conservancies forum to address issues and voice concerns on a national level.”
It’s Roberts’ birthday and he’s invited a few friends to celebrate. Pouring rain, snorting hippos and the menacing yelps of hyenas provide the soundtrack. Yet even in the relaxed ambiance of Roberts’ tented camp, conversation turns serious. Will the newly decentralized government be as effective as hoped? Will education help mitigate the human-animal and poaching crises? Will national reserve and conservancy entrance fees get to the right places and be used efficiently?
Before returning to my tent, I’m treated to a bedtime story that hinders any chance of peaceful sleep. It’s the tale of a huge and beloved Mara elephant named Heritage, who, although collared, had twice been wounded and treated for farmer-inflicted injuries. “We thought this elephant was blessed with a cat’s nine lives. Then a few weeks ago he was poached,” Goss laments, clearly taking it personally.
Heritage’s death adds yet another to the toll of seven mutilated bulls discovered in Mara West last December. Since January, 74 elephants have been slaughtered in Kenya. In 2012, a reported 656 elephants were killed (149 in the Mara), up from 578 in 2011. Samburu and Tsavo National Parks are especially vulnerable, the latter having lost 12 elephants, including a two-month-old calf, in March. In total, wildlife organization Born Free estimates that more than 32,000 elephants have been killed since the beginning of 2012.
Fueled by an insatiable Asian appetite for ivory, particularly amongst China’s newly affluent, the “shifta” with suspected links to Al-Qaeda, as some speculate, through Al-Shabaab in neighboring Somalia, are infiltrating Kenya in record numbers. With a kilogram of ivory fetching up to $2,000, this illicit industry nets an estimated $7 billion annually.
Most illegal large-scale ivory seizures over the last three years have originated in Kenya and Tanzania, which, alongside Uganda and five Asian nations were targeted at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) conference in March for failing to adequately crack down on the ivory trade.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-31201" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2517-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2517-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2517-600x401.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2517-768x513.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/IMG_2517.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
The good guys face tough odds as organized cartels, allegedly unscrupulous officials and outdated Kenyan laws that impose absurdly tame poaching penalties, conspire against them.
That said, notwithstanding a recent poor track record, Kenya has long been at the forefront of wildlife conservation. One of the first African countries to ban trophy hunting in 1973, Kenya vehemently opposed the CITES edict permitting China to purchase non–poached ivory and is currently countering Tanzania’s attempt to remove elephants from the endangered species list. To date, Kenya has allied with 16 African nations (two-thirds of the 23 member African Elephants Coalition) to quash the proposal that will repave the way for legal ivory sales.
Despite international outcry and support, officials and NGOs in Kenya and throughout Africa are fighting an uphill battle. A CITES report last June documented the highest African poaching numbers in a decade and the most ivory seizures recorded since 1989. The contraband ivory trade has more than doubled globally since 2007 and is three times larger than in 1998.
“The new wave of killing elephants in Africa is in many ways far graver than the crisis of the 1970s and 1980s… there are fewer elephants and demand is far higher. Record ivory prices in the Far East are fueling poachers, organized crime and political instability across the African elephant range and the situation shows no sign of calming,” wrote Save The Elephants founder Iain Douglas-Hamilton in the January-March issue of conservation journal SWARA.
Like most visitors, I journeyed to the Mara in pursuit of spotting big game. But, I depart with something far more indelible than beautiful photos, muddy shoes and Masai beaded jewelry. I take with me a profound awareness and renewed appreciation for the consequences of human infringement on our fragile planet. And a fierce desire to do s

2301

A New Wave Of Killing

Ten years ago, weddings across Africa were planned at home—your aunties did the cooking; close relatives sewed the wedding dress and the simple church ceremony was followed by speeches, a meal and dancing.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-1307" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/1310821447uc0RZ6-247x300.jpg" alt="" width="247" height="300" />
These days we have wedding planners, six course menus and everything from make-up artists and hairdressers to professional photographers. Even though most couples hold on to the traditional ceremony, the white wedding has taken center stage amid tiers of glamorous cakes, flowing champagne and designer gowns. Many of these weddings even have themes—Duduzile Zuma, the daughter of South African President Jacob Zuma, chose a Parisian theme.
Money appears to be no obstacle. The price tag ranges from $10,000 to $50,000 for the middle class; the super-rich spend millions. Nigerian billionaire Mike Adenuga is believed to have spent $2 million on his daughter`s wedding. The white wedding, replete with its extravagance and squabbles, has truly landed in Africa.
“I got married recently and did our traditional wedding ceremony with 300 guests at the countryside. It included dowry and all other required traditional rites, but we still came back to Nairobi to plan our contemporary wedding,” says James Masese, a local businessman.
He adds that his parents, who live up country didn’t really understand why there was a need to have an expensive white wedding in the city, but he wanted to have a fun, classy, party—it cost him $25,000 to entertain 200 guests.
Like the Maseses, many other couples living in cities feel strongly that the white wedding is a necessity, not only because they get official wedding certificates but there is a desire to make a statement. A big white statement that is! Being married according to European customs—wearing a white lace dress; exchanging vows and rings amid a sea of flowers; an enormous buffet; a tiered cake and dancing the night away—is fast becoming a way of keeping up with the Joneses.
The generational gap between parents and their children, when it comes to weddings, is slowly closing. Many parents, living in cities, will host the traditional ceremonies in their homes with outside caterers, marquees, decorated tables and flowers as they try to keep up with the times. They also help their children pay for their white weddings because expenses increase yearly; they want to ensure a great party and it gives them status amongst their friends to be able to do this.
“Brides and grooms seem to be splurging more on a lot of things that didn’t matter 10 years ago. The cakes are getting more dramatic, there’s a lot of attention to the wedding fashion and today couples want to have fun at their wedding,” says Funmilayo Victor-Okigbo, a top wedding consultant with The Wedding Company in Nigeria. “Gone are the days of sitting at the ‘high table’ looking miserable as they want to be where the action is. There’s a lot of attention to entertainment as most weddings end up being a music concert with two to four Nigerian artists performing live, depending on the budget. It’s no longer just enough to have a band perform,” she says.
Kanyi Ohawa, a wedding stationery designer based in Kenya agrees. Customized invitations done by her firm, All and Sundry Designs, set back clients $4-7 each.
“Ten years ago, invitations were on a single sheet of paper on embossed text in a plain envelope. Today, everyone wants a customized invitation card. A bride will come in and say this is my personality and my fiancé’s, can you come up with something that reflects us and stands out? Cards can have buttons, bows, beads, metals, bones, twigs and come in all shapes. The more unique [it is], the better it is! The wedding invitation is what sets the stage for the wedding day.”
These days, the lovebirds want all the bells and whistles to ensure an out-of-this-world celebration. Annual wedding exhibitions have become must-attend events, whether you are in Lagos, Kampala or Nairobi. The Wedding Expo—which was established 10 years ago and has two exhibitions in Johannesburg annually—is the biggest in South Africa, with 30,000 visitors and more than 300 exhibitors. Book stores are stacked with bridal magazines and wedding directories, which promise to help the couple find their perfect ‘supplier’ match. Many couples also enroll for dance classes so as to impress their guests on the night. Meanwhile, Kenya has been hit by wedding reality TV shows that air on Sundays.
“I have to be home every Sunday evening to watch both shows to see what other brides did for their wedding day and to make sure I do something better,” says Mercy Murungi, who is planning her December wedding. She admits that she has become wedding obsessed and her biggest fear is that her budget of $18,000 will not match her wants.
It is these kinds of pressures that are keeping brides on their toes in their efforts to outdo each other, regardless of budget.
“Some of the most costly weddings in Nigeria range from $500,000 to a couple of million dollars. It really depends on the family; how far they are willing to go and their social class. Nigerians love to look good as we’re very fashionable. A lot of money goes towards jewelry and clothes and then on drinks—we love our champagnes here!” says Victor-Okigbo.
Of course, this has meant booming business for the wedding industry. Suppliers of cakes, flowers, marquees and bridal gowns have been on the rise as they cash in on white wedding fever.
And then there’s the honeymoon.

Tag: Cattle

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Love The Mountain Hate The Horse

A New Wave Of Killing

My Big, Fat, African Wedding!