Artwork for podcast Africa with André
From Walking to School with Elephants to Creating Jobs
Episode 929th January 2025 • Africa with André • André Thomas
00:00:00 00:26:29

Share Episode

Shownotes

Beks tells us his life story:

how he occasionally met Elephants while walking to school as a child, and how this led to him working with communities to help them see Animals and Game Reserves & National Parks as something of value.

And how tourism creates jobs and reduces poaching in wildlife areas. We chat a bit about elephants, and Beks’s Favourite Spots in southern Africa.

 

Deutsch: Du kannst diesen Podcast auch auf Deutsch hören: “Africa with André auf Deutsch”

 

** Please tell your friends about this podcast, and leave me a rating on Spotify or Apple. I would love to hear from you - send me your questions, comments and ideas to podcast@africawithandre.com  **

 

African Bush Camps: https://africanbushcamps.com/

Somalisa Camp: https://africanbushcamps.com/camps/somalisa-camp/

Hwange National Park: https://zimbabwetourism.net/portfolios/hwange-national-park/

Mana Pools: https://www.zimparks.org.zw/mana-pools-national-park/

Beks on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beksndlovu

Follow me on Social Media:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/africa_with_andre

Subscribe to Email reminders when episodes go live: www.africawithandre.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/africawithandre/

Sound credits: uppbeat.io/ and https://pixabay.com/ 

Transcripts

Episode 8: From Walking to School with Elephants to Creating Jobs

[:

[00:00:09] André: Hello all and welcome to another episode of my passion project podcast. Today we're venturing into southern Africa to meet an inspirational role player in the safari industry. My guest is Beks Ndlovu, who is the founder of African Bush Camps.

African Bush Camps has a number of lodges and camps in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Hi Beks and welcome to my podcast.

[:

Tell us about yourself, Beks. Where are you from? Where did you grow up? I was born, in a small little rural village called Lupane, which is located just outside one of Zimbabwe's, most amazing national parks called Hwange National Park.

[:

[00:00:55] Beks: I spent a good six years of my life, in that rural village, before I was introduced to an urban setting. So, in a sense, you could say that I did, grow up in a little village before being introduced to the bright lights of urban living.

nd we got our independence in:

[00:01:30] André: And you were always very close to nature, living near Hwange. Did you spend time in the reserve as well?

[:

[00:01:42] André: Yep.

[:

Or we would be on our way to school, and we would have an elephant crossing. So being surrounded and being close to nature was not a strange thing for me. But none of my family members at that stage had been involved in tourism or in the wildlife business. But I think it was that upbringing close to nature that made me very curious about the potential of what one could do in that space.

And of course, at that young age, one doesn't really understand the sight of tourists going past in an open vehicle in a cold winter's morning and thinking, "what in the world are those people doing?" But obviously that's a question that became answered, many years later in my life.

[:

And I, I made the joke and said, yeah, we have elephants that are painted yellow, and we use those as public transport, taxis. And of course, some of them believed me more than others. But now, for a lot of people it's, hard to imagine that you're walking to school and there's an elephant there, but that was normal, natural for you in that village, that the elephants were just part of the community, so to speak, right?

[:

And this is not an uncommon occurrence, in many rural parts of Africa. That is the challenge of growing up in areas close to the park where people have to live, with what the world perceives as a phenomenon. And I say perceive, because, for people growing up with wildlife, it being a problem animal, as they call it in various parts, it's a nuisance, for all intents and purposes. Until such time that one can actually see or derive real benefits from this wildlife. It's only then that, we, as a people, can begin to say, "actually, why don't we look and find ways in which we can be in harmony with nature?"

With human population expansion, we have basically overstepped the mark and have actually infringed in these natural ecosystems and habitats to the extent, that we see ourselves, as being more dominant and therefore having better rights than animals.

But it's in fact not true. We have to find a way to harmonize our existence, with nature and with the wildlife around us.

[:

You started African Bush Camps almost 19 years ago. Take us through the early days. What were you doing before that?

[:

I had reached my limits, at least so I thought, of studying between four walls in a classroom, and I was ready to go and learn from nature. I was lucky enough to start a job straight away as a trainee guide in Zimbabwe, and my first job was actually, working in Hwange National Park. And at the same time, I got an opportunity to canoe the Zambezi River

[:

[00:06:09] Beks: Oh, yeah. I mean, you couldn't have more extremes, Hwange being savannah plains, as an extension of the Kalahari, and of course, Mana Pools being the Zambezi Valley, part of the Great African Rift Valley, which has many rivers and flat plains.

Just totally different habitats from which to draw so much knowledge, and experience from. And of course, back then, close to 30 years ago, actually, the experiences of safaris were a lot more bare-thread minimum as they are today.

Um, I mean, I remember in some instances, camping out, overnighting on an island in the middle of the Zambezi River with a bedroll, a mosquito net, that's strung up with a paddle, that's dug into the sandy beach of an island. And that was your bed under the stars. Hippos passing by at night, and of course, full access to sounds of the night, whether it's lions or hyenas calling in the distance.

And in a sense, I feel like that was safaris. That was really a deep dive into the Africa that the early explorers, uh, found. And very different to what we know today. You can imagine the close limits, and interaction in the early days when perhaps, we were not as overly cautious or overly governed by insurance companies. Who, dictate whether an experience is safe or not.

[:

[00:07:45] Beks: No, you're absolutely right. After four years, I was able to walk around different parts of Zimbabwe, doing walking safaris. And of course I continued with canoeing safaris, but I started to get experiences of guiding outside of Zimbabwe, to Botswana, to Namibia. And, prior to starting African Bush Camps, I basically led safaris throughout Africa.

And it was the combination of all of that, that I'd seen so many safari camps, engaged with so many other guides and communities, that I felt prepared for the next chapter, which was trying to see, how I could expand and grow on the passion, to work with local guides, with local communities and play my part in conservation.

I wanted to play my part in advocating for the environment, but at the same time, in seeing how I could rally up communities to actually begin to see wildlife as a measure of wealth than a nuisance to people's existence.

[:

[00:08:48] Beks: It was in 2006 that the first camp was born, in Zimbabwe. And that was Somalisa camp.

[:

I always found it funny how in the early days you, you were fighting with the elephant over who has right to use the swimming pool. I had quite a lot of debates there with my colleagues at the time, brainstorming solutions about how to prevent the elephant from coming in there. But at the end of the day, like we said, it's their territory.

[:

You know, with time you draw on the wisdom of animals, and sometimes you just have to concede to nature. And, there were many lessons learned. But today, some of these pools in these remote locations provide us with some of the most epic experiences.

[:

[00:09:44] Beks: So, these pool situations are very difficult to solve, particularly when you have, major drought years like we're currently experiencing, where nothing will stop elephants from accessing water. And in fact, it's questionable as to whether we should be having swimming pools in the first place with water, in a drought year.

But at any rate, um, how we solved that problem in the rebuild of, the new Somalisa camp is that the pool, we let them have that, but we built another splash pool, surrounded by large, big decks that the elephants couldn't really access.

So, there was an elephant pool and there was a human pool. Everybody was happy.

[:

[00:10:36] Beks: Yeah, absolutely. Elephants are for me, one of the most insightful wildlife species out there I believe humans could learn a lot, from elephants.

[:

[00:10:49] Beks: Um, it, it's everything from, the maternal instinct of a matriarch and how she leads the rest of the herd. How she protects the young ones, the movement through the forest and the use of plants for survival. And quite often, with almost a sense of, "we need to preserve this plant so that it regenerates, so that it's available tomorrow."

[:

[00:11:27] Beks: To be honest, when I first started Somalisa, the idea was just to grow the number of ambassadors that were advocates of wildlife and community, to having an extra three guides, and having at least an extra 20 staff. That all share the same commitment, share the same passion.

[:

[00:11:46] Beks: But that was in 2006, André, and as most people remember, that was the Mugabe period, um, where life in Zimbabwe was very difficult, and Zimbabwe was not a very attractive destination for people to travel to.

[:

[00:12:01] Beks: So from growing this beautiful garden, and thinking that the birds, the bees, will arrive and the flowers would shine brightly. The birds and the bees were not arriving and the flowers as bright and shiny as they were, they had no audience. And I was very, very lucky to immediately start looking for opportunities across the border in Botswana, where I started my second camp, Linyanti Bush Camp. And that was a success.

[:

[00:12:31] Beks: In 2007, going on to 2008, and that really saved my growth path by providing, a healthy cash flow to be able to sustain the businesses, including the Zimbabwe business. So, it was fortuitous that from one, it very quickly went to two. And having arrived there, I felt, people aren't going to come from halfway across the world just to see one or two camps. I want to create the full experience and hence the pursuit of different locations, different destinations. And almost 18 years later, here we are, looking at opportunities to set up our 18th camp.

[:

[00:13:30] Beks: Yeah, it seemed to happen quite organically. People get hold of me and say, "You know, there's this opportunity here. This is the name of the community. These are the challenges that they have." And I would go out and look at them, and in some cases, I'd been there years in the past, so I knew the quality of the area.

And it's through working with so many people that are very passionate and, share the same vision for our people, for our wildlife, and that makes it that much more rewarding.

[:

[00:14:14] Beks: If I look back at the whole inspiration to start African Bush Camps, it was to address the imbalances, I believe what are imbalances, to the land, to its people and to the wildlife.

And that having inspired me, it was important to also start a foundation that is also almost 18 years old, and that becomes, our vehicle for using tourism to transform the landscapes in which we operate in. So it was always very important from day one, to establish that as an entity that really takes care of what we call our purpose, which is sharing and conserving Africa together.

[:

Do you agree with that? And has that been a challenge for you at all?

And I'm happy to be told that I'm wrong, but this is the perception that I've had, that the industry on very many ownership levels is a very white industry.

[:

Struggles of ownership, struggles of participation, struggles of having a seat at the table, struggles of having to eat crumbs at the table as opposed to participate and have a full say of how you wish to manage your resources. How you wish to, to manage an industry that is around the very resource that you own, that you are expected to be a custodian of. So, I fully agree that this remains one of Africa's biggest challenges.

I did, of course, encounter that myself, but I am one of those people that have been able to break through some of those barriers, but it is a constant fight. More and more, there's people speaking for the voiceless and for the disenfranchised communities.

And I believe that is making a very large and significant difference in certain key areas, but certainly more of that needs to happen. There needs to be more advocates of ownership and participation, but real participation.

I always joke about it to the extreme and say, you know, the days of giving a chief a bottle of whiskey and a couple of trinkets, in exchange for large tracts of land, those days are long gone.

[:

[00:16:55] Beks: As, as they should be. When we talk about them having been disenfranchised, these communities, they used to live in Moremi Game Reserve before it was declared a national park.

And when that was declared a national park, they were moved out of the park and put into these areas with very little resources and told to get on with life.

No wonder we have poaching problems. No wonder we have, communities that don't value these ecosystems and landscapes and wildlife as an asset. We need to change that narrative by ensuring that there's real benefit by putting in place measures, that give value to the wilderness areas that we're seeking to protect.

And this is something that those communities in their original state of existence, in harmony with nature, knew exactly how to look after them. They knew exactly how much to harvest. They knew exactly how much they needed. But the imbalances of all of this movement and the setting apart of humans from nature has caused so much imbalance, that we live today with these modern-day problems that we have of disappearing ecosystems.

[:

[00:18:34] Beks: Success comes in when you're able to deliver on your word, when you're able to deliver on excellence consistently. And it's only then that you gain trust from local communities that you work with. That really begin to believe in your efforts and believe in your vision.

[:

[00:18:55] Beks: And at the same time, you form relationships with the trade and your audience that you're appealing to, and you're consistent in your messaging, your consistency in your levels of service, consistent in providing the promise. and that's really what the only thing that you can do to break some of those barriers.

[:

[00:19:14] Beks: I'm very thankful that I'm very culturally sensitive and that my vision is born, out of knowing the impact that the tourism industry can bring to some of these communities. So, thankfully, close to 18 years now, we've created a very strong brand out of delivering on our promise.

[:

[00:19:38] Beks: Oh, and it's instant, that we see this transformation actually take place. And that's what's so satisfying about it.

[:

[00:19:54] Beks: Our favourite experiences really come about from being able to partner with our trade partners who believe in what we do and have them fully support and adopt projects within our foundation. There is nothing in this world or no battle or war has ever been achieved single handedly. And in partnering with them, also with their clients and their guests, I think having that full circle, André, has been probably one of the most, amazing feelings.

[:

[00:20:45] Beks: Absolutely. The surprising thing that when people come to Africa, they think it's all going to be about wildlife. And the shock and the amazement that they have, is that it's actually the richness and the warmth of its people, that create that experience. To the extent that a lot of our guests leave each camp in absolute tears. Leaving, feeling like they're leaving family behind.

[:

[00:21:17] Beks: That's a good question, André. Um, I think commercial acumen, is a very, very important part of what we do. And my advice to a younger Beks, would be around, The Caution of an entrepreneur, in an industry driven per passion. I quite often laugh around our industry folks and say, particularly the touring industry people, are so full of passion, that sometimes the commercial acumen lacks.

And one of the things that I've embraced, over the years, which I, wish I could have embraced more of when I was younger, is the wisdom and the advice of people that see things in the cold light of day. You know, "is this going to work commercially? What is the financial impact of that?".

Because as much as we're very purpose driven in our endeavours to live transformational lives around the communities and our landscapes, if we don't have the commercial side of the business working, then we actually are not empowered to be able to make those differences. So, a very important aspect is, seeking the wise counsel of commercially astute people, so that, every now and again, you can have a reality check on your passions. But also, I think it's important to look for inspiration from others that have come before you. Don't try and reinvent the wheel.

[:

Right, rapid fire, three questions at the end. Which is your favourite spot in Africa that you've been to over all the years? And yes, you can only say one.

[:

Having the river there, being able to go on, a boat, go in a canoe and experience so much life in the water, outside of the water, that being such a source of life and that being one of the most iconic rivers of the world.

[:

And second question: Which one of your camps and lodges is your favourite and why?

[:

That only lasts until I go to the next camp. And by the time I leave that camp, I say, surely this has got to be my favourite camp.

And I'll tell you why. There's an attachment that one has with the people in each of these camps. And it's the people in each of these camps, that give that camp very specific personality and character.

[:

[00:24:35] Beks: So, I can tell you my favourite place, which is the Zambezi Valley. Favourite camp? Next to impossible.

[:

And my last question, and I suspect I know the answer: which is your favourite animal and why?

[:

[00:25:26] André: Yeah,

[:

And by the way, it's not that I'm biased because, I don't know if you know, but the tribe... which is an offshoot of the Zulu. Most of our surnames are actually names of animals. And so, mine is Ndlovu, which is Elephant. So that is my totem, and one could say that that possibly is my spirit animal, hence my admiration, for elephants.

[:

Thank you, Beks, for your time today, for taking us on the journey of how you grew up walking to school with elephants occasionally, and then involving the community in your journey of growing African Bush Camps and breaking some glass ceilings in the tourism industry.

And I just want to thank you for everything that you and your team have done

for the industry and for the people of southern Africa.

[:

[00:26:50] André: You're very welcome.

And thank you to all of you, listeners, for taking the time to listen to my conversation with Beks. Please tell your friends and family about this podcast and this conversation. If you liked it, give us a rate on one of the podcast platforms, leave a comment, leave a question and see you next time.

Links

Video

More from YouTube