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Meet the women challenging stereotypes deep in the bush in Botswana’s
tourism capital Maun, filling roles conventionally held by men.
For 10 years, until 2018, Botswana had no First Lady, as President Ian Khama was unmarried. Botswana’s first First Lady, Ruth Williams Khama, the wife of Botswana’s first president Sir Seretse Khama, was recognized for her charitable work with women, and the current First Lady, Neo Masisi, is a champion for these causes too.
However, Masisi is also an accountant by profession with an MBA and an impressive resume (United Nations Headquarters in New York, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic).
But not just on the frontlines, in the deeper realms of this southern African country and acclaimed tourism destination, there are more women defying stereotypes, especially in its famed safari industry.
In
the country’s tourism capital of Maun, at Kwando Safaris, guests visiting the
iconic Okavango Delta waterways and predator plains of the Central Kalahari
might be surprised to discover that for over a decade, a majority team of women
have been behind the operation.
“Having
so many women work in the company was never a policy; it just happened that
way. I guess that women were just more capable,” says Sue Smart in her office
in Maun.
She talks about her role as the Director of Kwando Safaris for 12 years as an accidental occupation, but a gutsy corporate background primed her for the head position.
“Coming
to Gaborone as a volunteer, I worked with children impacted by HIV/AIDS. Then I
visited the Okavango Delta on holiday. A chain of life events eventually led to
me working at Kwando Safaris’ Kwara Camp, volunteering back of house, in the
kitchen, with housekeeping – anywhere they needed it.”
Ungwang Makuluba is Moremi Air’s first local female pilot. Picture: Melanie Van Zyl
Formerly
a Director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, with a background in environmental
biology, it was a chance meeting with the owner that saw her grow from
volunteer to boss in just three months. “In many ways, I was not a conventional
fit for this role. I’m not African, a pilot, a guide, or a man, but my
background in other areas meant I could run a business – even in the bush.”
Having
a woman at the helm has had significant side effects for the company. Many
women at Kwando Safaris hold high positions, from the general manager to
operations manager to those in reservations to sales and marketing. This
unofficial head office policy also extends into the camps in a formal staff
management plan, where each lodge has a male and a female camp manager always
on duty.
Looking
at the origins of tourism in Botswana, it’s perhaps not surprising that
(generally speaking) travel in southern Africa has been a male-dominated
industry. After all, the very first visitors to Botswana’s wild spaces were
rough and tough gun-slinging, trophy-seeking tourists.
The current CEO of Botswana Tourism is a woman and, attesting to the country’s progressiveness, she’s not the first either. Myra Sekgororoane is encouraging about women in the industry saying, “I have not encountered any significant challenges because of my gender. Perhaps, I have been lucky in that the hospitality and tourism industry tends to have a high predominance of females globally.”
According
to National Geographic, research shows working women in developing
countries invest 90% of their income in their families, compared to the 35%
generally contributed by men.
Tumie
Matlhware and Ruth Stewart, managers for Travel For Impact, wholeheartedly
agree. The Maun-based NGO aims to spread the wealth generated from tourism
activities into the community, providing a direct and tangible link between
conservation and its benefits.
“We
want tourism dollars working beyond the traditional tourism world,” says
Stewart, when we meet for coffee at the charming Tshilli Farmstall, another
female-run establishment in Maun.
Travel For Impact has a powerful goal, with the slogan of “If every tourist who slept in our beautiful country paid 1 USD for every night they spent here, we would raise in excess of 300,000 USD per year”.
By partnering with exclusive lodges, camps, tour operators and hotels in Botswana, funds generated are put into local community partners, such as support for basket-weaving cooperatives. Looking at the company profile, the NGO funds many projects that support women.
Stewart shares the scientific standpoint endorsed by National Geographic, saying: “Women are the backbone of the community. If you support women, it gets passed down. They buy food, school supplies and more. They are the pillars of society.”
The corporate social responsibility choice at Kwando Safaris concurs. Smart believes that “the ultimate saviors of animals are people, which is why we sponsor the grassroots initiative, Mummy’s Angels, instead of a more usual conservation project”.
Mummy’s
Angels started in April 2018, spearheaded by three women in Maun, to empower
mothers with newborns who have little by way of financial support.
“We
had second-hand clothes and other baby items in good condition and wanted to
donate somewhere it would make a difference,” says one founder, Rochelle Katz.
The South African hip-hop artist and entrepreneur
experienced a hurricane and a seismic spiritual shift in the city of
Cancun.
It has been a journey, a lot to learn and a lot learned,”
says Siyabonga Metane, popularly known on South African hip-hop stages as
‘Slikour’.
The learnings have been in music and business, but the
journeys have been beyond both.
Just two years post South Africa’s democratic elections in
1994, Slikour was part of a rap group named Skwatta Kamp, formed on the streets
of the country’s Gauteng province, with the aim of commercializing the local
hip-hop scene.
The group consisted of seven members and most of them went on to release solo albums. Slikour released two, Ventilation Mix Tape Vol.1 and 2, in 2005 and 2007. Long before that, in 2002, Slikour had turned entrepreneur, co-founding Buttabing Entertainment, a record label and artist management organization.
Today, he is also the
founder of SlikourOnLife, a prominent urban culture online publication that he
started in 2014 catering to music lovers.
Returning to the word ‘journey’, it especially sparks
memories of a trip he undertook in 2011 to Cancun, a Mexican city on the
Yucatán Peninsula bordering the Caribbean Sea, known for its beaches, resorts
and nightlife. Slikour was there for a television shoot as part of a group. The
trip still stands out in his mind.
He was not blown away by the city initially, but as he
visited some of Cancun’s tourism attractions, he began to change his
perception.
Ultimately, it proved to be what he calls an amazing
rendezvous.
“The people were pretty much speaking Spanish,” he chuckles, recalling being immersed in the local culture.
“There are a lot of laborers there and the people are
beautiful and accommodating, but we never really spoke or interacted with the
community.”
Slikour decided to savor the city’s famed nightlife instead
and see for himself what all the hype was about.
It all began and ended with tequila, a distilled alcoholic
drink and one of Mexico’s most famous exports, made of the blue agave plant
from the city of Tequila in Mexico.
“Everything you do there is done with tequila. I don’t drink
alcohol, but I had to accept and apply myself because there, they don’t use
tomato sauce, they use tequila; I literally had to get into the tequila swag;
it’s everything there. Tequila started there,” Slikour says.
Mexico is known for its recurring hurricanes too, which
Slikour also got a taste of while there.
“After a few days of getting there, we were warned of a
hurricane, and asked to close our doors and windows, and because these things
happen regularly, there’s a drill to follow. The hurricane wasn’t a major one
but I was excited because I wanted to see it. I had to look through the
window,” he says.
The hurricanes are so frequent in Mexico that he likens the
precautions taken to lighting a candle during South Africa’s frequent power
cuts.
Despite this exhilarating encounter with nature, the real earth-shaking experience for him, however, happened deep inside a cave in the city of Cancun – and also deep inside him.
“My spiritual [epiphany] was when I went into those caves.
You go in there with your self-assurance, claiming you understand everything.
Thereon, they tell you where everything comes from and all of a sudden, you
become this very small thing in this big ecosystem. It just shows how
everything affects everything,” Slikour says.
The tour guides explained how everything inside the cave
came from rain, elaborating how it was connected to the core of the earth; which
is where they were at the time.
Slikour was in Cancun for two weeks, and also visited the
pyramids.
“The Mexicans didn’t have all the mathematics that we have
now but the pyramids were built to perfection. It just showed you how
forward-thinking they were and how behind we are in as much as we think we are
forward; we just have technology. We don’t think the way historic societies
used to think,” says Slikour, in deep reflection.
Mexico is a place he would return to, anyday, in a
heartbeat.
The 37-year-old South African soccer midfielder says he
could move to the English city for its sense of serenity and calm.
South Africa’s former national football player Reneilwe
‘Yeye’ Letsholonyane started playing in the streets of Soweto but his fame has
often taken him beyond the soccer pitches of South Africa.
Also a fashion entrepreneur and co-founder of the
newly-established ShaYe lounge, the veteran midfielder recounts the indelible
memories of his most recent holiday to Manchester with his wife, sports
presenter Mpho Letsholonyane.
“In the off season of 2018, I had just gotten married. I personally love Jay-Z and my wife loves Beyoncé; and they were having their On The Run 2 tour in Manchester; a major city in the northwest of England.”
Letsholonyane had also always wanted to go to Paris, a major
European city and global center for art, fashion, food and culture, so flew to
Manchester via the French capital.
The newly-weds spent a few days in Paris and thereon
proceeded to Manchester for the concert, flying Air France on both sectors.
“Funnily enough, the economy class on Air France is not as
squashed as the economy class on South African Airlines. You’d expect an
uncomfortable flight, but that wasn’t the case. There was enough room to
stretch your legs and recline your seat,” says the footballer.
Upon landing and clearing customs, a shuttle was waiting for the two to be chauffeured through the city to their hotel. The 40-minute drive was what the 37-year-old says he enjoyed the most. It made him reflect and draw comparisons between his home country and Europe.
At the age of 23, Letsholonyane’s professional career had
kicked-started, but it was in 2008 that he joined one of South Africa’s biggest
teams, the Kaizer Chiefs Football Club, for an eight-year stint.
Receiving the call to represent Bafana Bafana for the 2010
World Cup was a moment he recalls vividly.
“We were at camp, and told to check out from the hotel and go home. We were to find out from the media, like other citizens, if we had been selected to play. I remember I was in the streets and didn’t want to focus on the media because I was nervous, panicking and excited.
“My parents broke the news to me, but there was more cheering in my hometown and outside my parent’s home. A soccer pitch and jersey with my number and surname were painted in the streets.”
It was a moment that led to fame and more travels. He flips back to Manchester, gushing about the city’s architecture as he was equally captivated by the serenity of the city and its mild-mannered people.
“The standalone houses are the kind you see on television,
with no walls. People that side don’t seem to be worried about burglaries. It
seems like the crime rate is low. It’s quiet and it’s the quiet that I like. I
remember saying to my wife, ‘I could stay here’.”
Letsholonyane admits to seeking alone time to think and
ruminate.
Ironically, for the footballer, the Beyoncé and Jay-Z
concert was in the home of a football club.
Like all tourists, the couple traveled to Etihad Stadium,
the home of Manchester City Football Club, where the musical extravaganza was
to take place.
“We were told to use the train; luckily, it was a
five-minute walk to the station. We got there but the people around us showed
us what to do and where to go. We got off at a station, only to find out we had
to wait for another train and it was packed. Then I started thinking about the
hassle of getting into the stadium,” he says.
Letsholonyane and his wife dribbled their way through busy subways in Manchester to watch their favorite musicians on stage.
“Getting to Etihad Stadium was a pain-free experience. We got there early and people were idling outside. We went straight in and got seats in the front. There was no opening act, just the artists’ music playing.
Then the lights went dimmer and dimmer.
“It was time, we were about 10 meters away, and we saw them
closely. Then it started raining. You’d think people would run for cover but
no, people were just enjoying themselves. It was two and half hours of Beyoncé
and Jay-Z and an experience never to be forgotten,” he says.
It was well after 1AM when the couple reached their hotel.
“There was nothing that made us uncomfortable about walking the streets of
Manchester at night. It felt like day.”
The night ended with rain, rounding off a day so different
from playing under the hot African sun in the soccer fields of South Africa.
The 32-year-old South African comedian traveled to the West
African country for some eye-opening experiences.
South African comedian, actor and entrepreneur, Mpho ‘Popps’
Modikoane, is a frequent traveler but ask him about his happy place and he says
it’s a little corner of Africa named Ghana.
He has traveled overseas before, but it was his travels
within Africa that opened his eyes to the magic of the continent, and made him
realize that all Africans have the same stories and are essentially the same.
“It’s just these borders we were brought up [in that] we
don’t take the time to learn about each other’s cultures and share each other’s
stories,” says Modikoane.
“I’ve traveled to a lot of countries over the years and
early on in my career, I was in the US. A few years ago, I went to Canada for
the annual Just For Laughs international comedy festival and these places are
amazing, but traveling in Africa has been the most eye-opening for me.”
Mpho ‘Popps’ Modikoane in Ghana. Picture: Supplied
Modikoane’s career kick-started in 2009 on the reality TV show, So You Think You’re Funny? His growing audiences haven’t stopped laughing since.
With fame, came the chances to travel. His very first trip
to West Africa was to Nigeria on Arik Air two years ago, when he flew business
class.
“I don’t know what it is about us [black people], but when
we don’t have things, we don’t see why it’s necessary – we don’t understand why
we have to pay R30,000 ($2,000) for a seat, a leather seat,” he says,
chuckling.
He goes on to elaborate with his trademark wit: “The seat is
reclined all the way, we are drinking champagne in glasses; I didn’t even know
there were glasses on planes…. Even forks and knives. And in business class,
you don’t get shouted at by the attendants for reclining your seat four
centimeters back, never! Even the magazines are not the same – we get business
magazines and informative magazines. We even have a food menu with pages.”
That was his trip to Nigeria when on the ground, he was
impressed by the hard work of the locals, the hustle and bustle of the streets
and everything from bikes and Maybachs driving past him.
However, Ghana was his most memorable destination where he stayed five days.
“Ghana just looks beautiful and is next to Nigeria and they have this feud going on about who makes the best jollof rice and after tasting both, I have to give it up to Ghana,” says the comedian.
What he also loved about Ghana was its orderliness, and the
warmth of the people.
What impressed
Modikoane was that the people did not wait for the government to give them
handouts and opportunities; the locals were willing to work hard to find them.
“The people there work outside of their work, have a
business outside of their job and that’s the one thing I’ve come to realize
about traveling in Africa. We [South Africans] are sitting in the land of
opportunity but we are not working as hard as those from other parts of Africa.
That is the magic of going to these places and spending time with other artists
or musicians who also may have [on the side] their own clothing store, a
restaurant, a barber shop…”
Mpho ‘Popps’ Modikoane in an interview in Ghana. Picture: Supplied
Modikoane juxtaposes his experiences in Ghana and South
Africa, making various comparisons in the ways people conduct their lives.
“When you go outside of South Africa, you see the Africanness of our continent.
We South Africans have the modern, western element and live with white people
in our communities and our country is not fully ours, but there, it’s theirs.
Their heritage is rich, their culture is rich.”
And the most important part about visiting the rest of
Africa for Modikoane?
“They make you feel like a celebrity,” he chuckles again.