Kingsley Holgate speaks to News24
2009-10-23 15:10
Cape Town - While Africa is often called a dark continent, it is the "great light" seen through the various traditions and cultures that have remained intact for so many years on the land that gives rise to a lot of wealth amongst its people, says one of the most travelled men in Africa, Kingsley Holgate.
A humble and humorous character, Holgate said although the continent was considered poor by western standards, the ability of its people not to lose touch with their roots made it a “very rich place”.
“Africans have great respect for their culture and traditions. Some own a lot of cattle and some have fascinating ways of survival. Others also have brilliant ways of making money as a number of them run businesses that they establish through hard work. We saw it Nigeria where through urbanisation, women, for instance came to the cities with little knowledge about money. But once they are there and start selling small items, they begin to understand how the whole system works and their success begins,” he said.
Holgate was speaking to News24 about his recent three-month humanitarian expedition in which he and his team explored nine African countries in a journey that clocked 15 500 kilometres.
Embracing the theme of nature, culture and community, the adventure called ‘The Boundless Southern Africa Expedition’ set to bring people closer to natural resources.
Malaria-prone areas
“The expedition was a great success, which saw us as a team being honoured by different presidents of the countries that we visited. The key objective of the journey was to link the nine countries, seven Transfrontier Conservation Areas, 30 National Parks and Nature Reserves and communities adjacent to these conservation areas,” said Holgate.
He said it was, however, disappointing to note in some parts that an African child growing up in an area closer to a national park, had never been to see it. These were the types of things the team was seeking to correct.
The countries visited were Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The main programme they had lined up was the distribution of mosquito nets to various people living in malaria-prone areas. Through a campaign called One Net One Life, tens of thousands of nets were given to pregnant mothers and children under the age of five.
As Holgate puts it in his book Dispatches from the Outside Edge, launched in Cape Town on Friday; “…It was always a thud to the heart when miles from the nearest clinic or hospital, we’d come across villages with babies screaming from a malaria fever and the mothers not knowing what to do. The shocking statistic is that for every minute of every day and night two African babies die from the bloodsucking bite of the Anopheles mosquito – in many areas it’s far worse than HIV/Aids. We had for some time been distributing mosquito nets to pregnant mums and those with infants, but I vowed that on the next expedition we’d try even harder to make a difference in fighting this silent killer.”
Trying times
What added value to the campaign, Holgate said, was the basic education that the beneficiaries also received about the disease.
"We made sure we didn't simply dump the nets - we gave people very good education through some entertaining theatrical performances. And we were so happy to note that we had managed to live up to our dream of saving life through adventure," he said.
And yet according to the man who himself has had malaria attacking him more than 40 times, malaria was not the only problem that plagued Africa.
“During the time that we went to Zimbabwe, cholera was at its peak and we were able to take on the fate and educated people on the basics of the disease. I understand now the situation is improving. Our visit there made us realise that the biggest thing right now in Zimbabwe is not the great Victoria Falls but the people of that country. Good governance is all what the people of Zimbabwe need, otherwise it’s a beautiful country with people who have the ability to make a plan and get on with life. They need a chance," he said.
He also recalled some of the trying times that he and his team have had to go through during some of the African expeditions that he and his team have had.
"We've been to the war tone zones which have seen us being interrogated but because of the passion we have for the continent, that hasn't deterred us. We always get through it. At one point I came across the Unita forces who dragged me off but I managed to survive. Each day of the expeditions comes with its own surprises, not to mention the uncertainty that comes with sleeping in bushes with the sound of a lion roaring a distance away. But such is the adventure," he said.
Holgate, who has become the Greybeard of Africa because of the long grey beard that seems to cover the whole of his face, remaines positive about the future of Africa.
"I think Africa's time is coming. The World Cup is coming to the continent for the first time and that is a sure sign of great hope," he said.
