Aloha meets Ubuntu

photo: Jason Patterson

I first started following the voyage of the Hokule'a last year at the suggestion of a friend who knew how much Vince and I enjoy the sport of sailing. At the time, the Hokule'a had just embarked on a historic leg of their worldwide journey, namely from Hawaii to Cape Town.

Their voyage is significant on many levels, but perhaps most notable is the fact that this particular leg signified the youngest culture (Polynesian) arriving at the cradle of humanity where the oldest cultures of mankind originated. This "reverse-migration" story with people returning to their roots piqued my interest even more than the sailing. I have been tracking the voyage ever since!

The crew of Hokule'a made landfall on the African continent in mid-October arriving in Maputo, Mozambique. From there, they made their way to Richards Bay in South Africa before stopping in Mossel Bay where they visited Pinnacle Point, an archaeological site where some of the oldest known hominin fossils have been unearthed. From there, Hokule'a rounded Cape Agulhas, the southern most point on the continent of Africa.

photo from TEC FB page

Along the way they picked up National Geographic photographer and The Explorers Club Fellow Dan Lin (right) who is from Simons Town, South Africa. Lin and TEC Fellow Nainoa Thompson (left) sailed across the southern tip of Africa and into the Atlantic Ocean aboard the Hokule'a with #ECFlag 124. This marks the first time in known history that a vessel from the Pacific Islands has ever reached the Atlantic.

Hokule'a finally reached Cape Town more than a month after landing in Africa where they were greeted by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in the spirit of Ubuntu for which he is a proponent. I had hoped to be in Cape Town to welcome them too when they arrived in port, but a little thing like moving to Asia at the end of November put the kibosh on that plan. 

However Vince was in Cape Town last week for work (and a stop over at the Royal Cape Yacht Club for a farewell drink in order to watch a friend's son race). He managed at least to make it over to the V&A where the Hokule'a is docked during its stay in Cape Town. The crew was not in to say Aloha to, but Vince kindly took a few pictures of the vessel for me to see. Amazing!



 

"Aloha" is a Hawaiian greeting and farewell that conveys affection, peace, mercy and compassion. "Ubuntu" is a Nguni Bantu term roughly translating to "human kindness." It is an idea from the Southern African region which means literally "human-ness", and is often translated as "humanity towards others", but is often used in a more philosophical sense to mean "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity. 

I would have loved to have been there to see Aloha meet Ubuntu in person, but unfortunately the timing was just not on my side. I am encouraged though to know that at least it did happen.

 





To read more about the voyage of the Hokule'a check out these articles in:
The New York Times
and
National Geographic.

To track the voyage in real time, visit their website tracker, 

(Please note that the Polynesian Voyaging Society owns the trademark for the image of the voyaging canoe Hōkūle‘a™)

2041 IAE 2016

2041 IAE 2016

I have been accepted to the 2041 Foundation's International Antarctic Expedition (2041 IAE 2016) led by polar explorer, environmental leader, 2041 founder, public speaker and Explorers Club member Robert Swan, OBE, the first person in history to walk to both the North and South Poles. Swan has dedicated his life to the preservation of Antarctica by the promotion of recycling, renewable energy and sustainability to combat the effects of climate change.

 

The purpose for this Antarctic Expedition is to engage and inspire the next generation of leaders to take responsibility to build resilient communities and in doing so, preserve Antarctica. 

I will be starting a new blog in which I will chronicle my experience on the expedition and will use to convey what I have learned and seen while exploring this fascinating continent. Now I just need to come up with a cool blog name!

Homo Naledi is a Star!

For a self-proclaimed anthropolgy / archaeology nerd like me, Africa is the place to be!










Not only did I get to visit Oldupai Gorge last month when we were in Tanzania, but I came back to South Africa just in time to hear the announcement of the research results from the Rising Star expedition in South Africa's Cradle of Humankind.

In a press conference from the Maropeng Museum on Thursday, September 10, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, Explorers Club Member, Wits University Professor and Rising Star Expedition leader Lee Berger - who happens to have been born in the USA - announced ...

... a new species of hominin discovered in the caves outside of Johannesburg had been identified  - Homo naledi! (If you haven't heard the news, then you must be living in a cave yourself! It was splashed all over the international media for days.)

The unique combination of character in Homo naledi skulls and skeletons means that it is unlike any other hominin species and therefore has been classified as a distinct species.  

The word "naledi" means "star" in the Sotho language and Naledi has been assigned to the genus Homo. It shares some features with australopiths (like Sediba, Lucy, Mrs. Ples and the Taung child), some features with Homo (the genus that includes Humans, Neanderthals and some other extinct species such as H. erectus), and shows some features that are entirely unique to Naledi.

Vince and I went to Maropeng in the Cradle of Humankind to meet Naledi in the flesh ... well you know what I mean!















The exhibit was very well presented. Along with an actual fossilized Homo naledi skeleton, there were 3D reconstructions of individual skulls, hands and feet presented next to their respective 3D counterparts of Australopithecus sediba, Homo erectus and Homo sapien. This really helped to show the distinct differences between the species.











The exhibit also included placards with typical questions a visitor might have. How do you know that this is a new species? How do you know it belongs in the genus Homo? Where does Home naledi fit within the human lineage? This is complicated stuff! And yet the answers were very clear, concise and understandable to the lay visitor.

And just in case you wanted more detail, there were a couple of  representatives from the Rising Star team available to answer questions and expand upon the placard explanations.

This was very lucky indeed! One of the excavators, Lindsay Hunter will also be in charge of the design of a future educational exhibit for the museum. We have a friend visiting us in October who is a museum education consultant out of Kansas City. We will definitely be getting these two together!

cover art by paleoartist John Gurche

Naledi will continue to be on display at Maropeng only until October 11. For those of you who can't make it to the Cradle of Humankind before then, you can read about the discovery in the October issue of National Geographic magazine with Naledi on the cover. I've already got my copy!

I Married Adventure!

my GWM Facebook profile picture (a.k.a Osa Johnson)

I first became aware of the name "Osa Johnson" at the Kips Bay Decorator Showhouse in Manhattan many years ago. The KBDS is an annual fundraising event that benefits the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club in New York and a spring visit to it was part of my annual calendar for about 25 years.

One of the designers that year decorated a room as a "pilot's study"with an imaginary explorer / adventurer as his muse. And in the room on a coffee table he placed a zebra print-covered book entitled I MARRIED Adventure by Osa Johnson. Great title! I was intrigued. "Who was this Osa Johnson?" I wondered.


Later I found first edition copies of both I MARRIED Adventure and Osa's giraffe print-covered book FOUR YEARS IN PARADISE in a vintage bookstore somewhere. I immediately purchased them and used them as a style element in my own downstairs study at home in New Jersey. The book covers looked great alongside my globes, vintage destination label-covered leather suitcases, trunks, and hatboxes, Maasai shields, spears and framed beaded jewelry, Australian boomerangs, Amazonian tangas, Venetian masks and other travel-related details and souvenirs that decorated the room.

Shamefully, I didn't read the books. But I did read the author's biography inside. I found out that Osa Johnson was a documentary filmmaker who traveled extensively to Africa with her husband Martin ... and she was from southeastern Kansas!

When my husband and I decided to move to South Africa in 2012 for his work, "I MARRIED Adventure" became the unofficial mantra of our great migration to Joburg and Osa became my muse. My blog page designer even used Osa's picture on my blog masthead (look up ⬆) and I similarly use her image as my GWM Facebook profile picture.

Flash forward to July 2015. During my month-long stay in the USA I took a 3338 mile road trip to visit family and friends starting from Denver, Colorado through New Mexico to Marfa and Austin, Texas through Oklahoma to Kansas City, Kansas and then back to Denver. That was an adventure!

Oklahoma-Kansas border

As it turns out I would be driving fairly close to Chanute, Kansas which is the home of the Martin & Osa Johnson Safari Museum.

Well worth a stop, the Safari Museum tells the story of Martin and Osa, their meeting and marriage and their life-long adventures as film makers, lecturers, photographers, explorers, naturalists, authors and native Kansans.

I found out that Martin's boyhood idol was Jack London and when he was about 17, he answered a call to assist London on an around the world sea voyage to the South Sea Islands and Africa. Unfortunately, the trip was scuttled in Borneo due to disease and mechanical problems. But by then Martin had contracted the travel bug. He went back to Kansas, married Osa and convinced her to continue the voyage without Jack London. The rest as they say is history.

Although not a member of  The Explorers Club, Martin was a member of the Adventurers Club, an extant club of about the same age, also founded in New York, with a scientific mission.

galleries of artifacts from their travel through the South Sea islands and Africa

Osa wore zebra-skin pumps!

vintage editions for sale at the museum

and a gift shop! I bought a mug and ...

... a couple of cushions that I used to decorate my niece's South African-themed birthday party.
They will look swell at home in Joburg!

The museum showed a History Channel-produced documentary about the life of Osa and Martin and many of the documentaries they produced were available to watch as well. Now I definitely have to read her books!

Explorers Club creds

Finally got my credentials and member's lapel pin from The Explorers Club!

And in true explorer fashion, they had quite an adventure getting here. They traveled from the headquarters in New York to Denver, Colorado by mail and then from Denver to Washington, DC to Frankfurt, Germany to Johannesburg, South Africa via courier (my niece Jill.)

The club had tried mailing them directly to my post office box in Benmore, but TIA. Still haven't received them. And probably never will.

(Hope this doesn't break any rules, but a lapel pin is not really my style so I had it made into a charm for my travel charm bracelet.)

Thula Thula

One of the first books I read when I landed in South Africa and joined a book club was The Elephant Whisperer.

Written by Sir Lawrence Anthony, the book tells the story of the introduction of some wild elephants into Thula Thula Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal. It touched a nerve with me as it has with many others around the world. It is still a best-seller in Africa. The book made Thula Thula into a desired safari destination and its famous elephants into household names.

Nana. Frankie. ET. Mabula. Nandie. Mandla. Ilynga. Marula. Frankie and ET were even featured on a recent BBC special about animals in love.

tented camp

When my sister made her plans to come visit South Africa, I thought Thula Thula would be the perfect place to go with her on safari. Small and personal, with four of the Big Five. (It is not big enough for lions but we would have other opportunities to see lions in Hluhluwe iMfolozi and iSimangaliso Wetland Parks, two Big Five game parks also in KZN. Besides I planned for us to walk with lions before heading out on safari.)

So I sent her the book for Christmas in order for her to become familiar with the story and the elephants. (Yes I did give her homework for Christmas!) It is almost required reading for a visit to Thula Thula. Everyone whom we spoke to during our stay - be they British, American, or Bulgarian - had read The Elephant Whisperer. Except Vince. He said he sometimes felt like he had stumbled into a Harry Potter convention without reading the books!

Unfortunately, Sir Lawrence passed away in 2012 and we were not be able to meet him during our stay at Thula Thula. But we did get to meet his widow, Francoise, who is carrying on his work and legacy. She even signed my sister's book!

Merry Christmas!

Luckily the real reasons we came to Thula Thula were still there. We saw all 27 of the elephants we had read about several times during our four day stay.

The newest member of Nana's brood. Natal ... born this past Christmas season!

My sister really got into the rhythm of being a bush-bound girl at Thula Thula. Walking safaris in the morning, breakfast and luncheon out on the veranda, afternoon tea in the lodge, dinner in the boma and her favorite ritual ... sundowners on the evening game drives.

Cheers to fellow Explorers Club member Sir Lawrence!

tea in the Lodge

welcome torches outside the boma

the boma fire

braai coals made from the boma fire wood

boma dinner

sundowners at Thula Thula