Of Khama selfie and fun at Khawa dunes
Thalefang Charles | Friday May 9, 2014 13:46
It is not just the flat landscape, open sky and the wide expansive road with an occasional ostrich running into the wilderness. It is not just the beautiful small villages next to the pans and roaming wild horses.
Or the dusty villages of brick houses with beat up Ford and Chevrolet trucks parked under Camel thorn tree shadows with their hard metal bodies looking defiant against the assault of the desert road.
It is about the people. The soil coloured people of the mighty Kgalagadi that talk with a melodious accent you will think they are singing. I love them.
My friends know that I fancy a wife from Kgalagadi or NorthWest, there by the Okavango River, where she would address me as, “Eela Mister”. I just love to hear them talk. Listen to their candid conversations. Saying whatever comes to their mind with no restraint.
That is why when I was asked to travel to Khawa on short notice I gladly accepted. The invitation came from Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) for the third annual Khawa Dune Challenge and Cultural Festival.
My colleagues in the media know that BTO invitations sometimes read like one is being recruited for a Survivor reality show. They could invite one to the belly of the Kgalagadi Desert, over 700km from Gaborone, and say one has to figure out one’s own way there. If one is a survivor enough one can hitch a ride in the back of a government truck like I did in 2012.
But this year they redeemed themselves in a pleasant way as the invited media was put in a minibus with the Yarona fm group of ExploreBW and celebrities. On the bus were Generations star, Lorato Motshwarakgole, who had just closed her debut performance at Maitisong Festival, the self-acclaimed ‘Botswana’s Afro sensation’ Kearoma Rantao as well as the beautiful rapper Sasa Klass. With the young presenters of the youthful Yarona fm and other media personalities on board it was a wonderful road trip to Khawa.
Sadly for me, I arrived at Khawa with an excruciating headache that I suspect was due to the horrible corrugation on the 67km gravel road between Khuis and Khawa. We arrived in the middle of the Friday cultural night programme. When President Ian Khama grabbed lucky local girl, Mpho Visage, and swang to the polka moves with her, I painstakingly photographed the dance.
The headache subsided after 11:30pm after a powernap in a tent. By then most of my entourage was already sleeping. But I am not the type to waste time with sleep when I arrive at a destination. After a brief search of where they kept the coolerbox, it was time to meet the locals. I wanted to hear their melodious accent as they crude-talk at me.
Saturday was the day of main activities. Khama arrived with his beast of a quad bike, the Can-Am Renegade and easily won the novice category. The President’s close friend Thapelo Olopeng followed behind mounting an identical bike. I moved around, taking a few shots of the happy Khawa spectators fooling around on the sand dunes, riding quad bikes, camels and drinking. The circuit race got on and Khama stole the show again by starting late in one of the short races but passing all the riders.
In the afternoon it was time for stunts as daredevil riders like Ross Branch showed their skills. As the stunts were going on an hour-long a Khama photo-opportunity session was opened. Many queued for the coveted photograph with the President on a sand dune. The bodyguards controlled movement while Olopeng, photographer for that moment, sat in front of Khama helping everyone by taking the shot.
I was rather reluctant to join the queue because, apart from the length, I have had my photo taken with the President before. Although that time his face was covered with a ski mask, ski goggles and The North Face cap in the Makgadikgadi Pans. While watching everyone stand and wait for someone to take his or her picture with the President I saw an opportunity for the first selfie with Khama.
Selfies have been making headlines lately. Just recently after setting up a new Instagram account US Vice President Joe Biden took a selfie with President Barack Obama. On Twitter the most shared tweet of all time is now a selfie of a group of famous actors during the 2014 Oscars. Last year Catholic Pope Francis also posed for the first ever Papal selfie with a group of youngsters at the Vatican. Another famous selfie was the one by Barack Obama with British Prime Minister David Cameron and Denmark’s Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service in Johannesburg.
So I waited in the long queue for the selfie opportunity. When my time arrived I quickly greeted the President and asked him to look into the camera. He said: “Oh, I see”, as he understandably looked into the camera. His height dwarfed me so I tried to stand on my toes as I clicked away. He laughed when I asked him to lean down a little. And all along my left index finger was on the shutter. After the selfie, I was done with Khama and it was time to have fun with my soil coloured, sweet-talking fun loving people of the Kgalagadi.