Africa, the mother land: Namibia. IN AFRICA NON FA CALDO
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A NIGHT DRIVE WITH LIONS
ENGLISH VERSION
"Hey Man! How is it? Veeeery
very hot!"
That was the question I was doing every day to the boy who
shared the room with me, Mervin, at Damaraland Camp and he always answered this.
And he was right.
There was hellishly hot during the day, to burst; and at
night a crazy cold, to freeze. But you should already know if you have paid
attention earlier (IN AFRICA IT'S NOT HOT).
I have been for a period in the
Damaraland, one of the remotest areas of the world, not too remote to be honest
than other areas of Namibia, but with an exciting beauty in all its aspects,
including hot and cold.
The first time I was there in May during my period of
training to become a safari guide, I started to cry, the second time I got
lost, the third time I fell in love with a beautiful girl, with an exciting
beauty that she’s doesn’t know about, the fourth time I got lost again and the road
seemed endless at night, the fifth time I stayed there for a while, and I
entered the blood.
But let's start from the
beginning, "well not really from the beginning please, let's say the last
time!" "Ok let's start from the last time."
I was sent in Damaraland
by my boss to get some experience and help in a tented camp of Wilderness
Safaris, Damaraland Camp precisely.
I flew with internal flight of Wilderness Air
until Ongava, my second home, (remember the Andersson's Camp? BIG MAN Good you
are careful!) and from there to the brother camp, the Doro! Nawas Camp.
Got
there I did not know how to get my camp so I asked for help to the girls, I
usually prefer to ask them, you know, preferences are preferences ... who very
kindly called the Head Manager of DMC (Damaraland Camp but starting from now
we'll call it so): Maggie, an amazing woman, energetic and smart, with short
hair and a lot of energy to dance, but you will find out later this.
Maggie on
the phone told me she will send someone to pick me up, and who send? Mervin, a
23-year-old guy who looks 12-year-old, small, thin and very unlikely as a
driver, at first glance, he is doing an University internship in the Wilderness
camps. Well the best driver of the Land Rover I have ever known, went
everywhere, but this is about the car, with a style like no other, without
shoes and sometimes even giving up the steering wheel, so I suspected that this
Land Rover had a secret, and later I discovered that it had been used an
indefinable amount of years, so it virtually knew the paths, and it was
wonderful to drive.
Damaraland is the northwestern
part of an intermediate zone between the savanna biome and the desert, and it
is called Nama Karoo biome, because it stretches along Namibia, as a
longitudinal band which ends in South Africa, in the desert of the Karoo
precisely. It is characterized by semi-desert adapted plants and wonderful
animals.
Above the Damaraland there is Kaokoveld, inhabited by the Himba, one of
the remotest areas of the world where it is difficult to go even with the 4X4
in certain areas and where the population, the Ovahimba precisely still live as
in 1500 AD, rejecting all forms of modernity and contemporary way of life. They
are farmers and nomadic herders, belonging to the same strain of Oshiherero (Herero)
with whom they share the language and some customs.
They come in fact from the
North (East Africa) and followed the migrations of Bantu speaking languages populations
that departed from West Africa, arrived in East Africa and then colonized the
Southern Africa.
"Thanks we did not understand anything, but we were not
to speak about Damaraland?" "Oh yes, right."
Into the Damaraland
they live the Damara or Berg Damara, an anthropological mystery. And what misterious
things they have?
Well, first of all they look Negroid (always understood in a
biological sense, without any racist implication either) but they are not like
the other tribes that have Negroid traits: they’re are not tall, but strong,
and resilient, including men and women, accustomed to resist to conditions of
temperature and drought that could bring down even the most experienced
explorer of the desert.
A dear friend guide, Damara, loves to say that women
are like the Land Rover: Built Strong To Last Long! Forget the implications that
could relate this statement...
Second they not speak a Bantu language, but a Click
Language! The Click Language is considered by many anthropologists one of the
oldest languages of Africa, which is definitely the first appearance in
Southern Africa and is shared by different populations: Damara, Nama, the Bushmen
(San), Khoi Khoi, Khoi San and the Bushmen of Etosha, but there are differences
in the pronunciation of clicks. And what are the clicks? Sounds that resemble
click pronounced on teeth or palate.
One of the most fascinating things in
southern Africa. The peoples.
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