Botswana Wild Bird Trust (BWBT), an organisation that has been using mokoro and advocating for the protection of the entire Okavango River Basin using mokoro this week began their big search for Okavango Delta’s fastest mokoro poler through the Nkashi Classic Mokoro race.
BWBT managing director, Koketso Mookodi said: “The spirit of the race is a celebration of the vital flood waters which flow unimpeded from the highlands of Angola, through Namibia and into the Okavango Delta where they become an oasis for wildlife like no other on the planet. It also celebrates the community and the power which it holds to affect positive change for future generations.” According to Mookodi, the event is non-profit and is aimed at celebrating the traditional means of transport around the Okavango waterways using a mekoro and the nkashi. Nkashi is the stick used to pole mokoro. The event also endeavours to build awareness amongst the local community and tourism sector of the vital role that the mekoro and the polers have in promoting tourism and business in the area. The organisers plan to hold the heats covering the Okavango Eastern Panhandle, including the villages of Seronga, Beetsha, Eretsha, Gonotsoga and Gudigwa, as well as Central Okavango that includes villages of Etsha 1 to 13 and Jedibe in Jao Flats.
