namibia: my corner of the african sky (by marco ruben t. malto ii)

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Marco Ruben T. Malto II



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I never even dreamed of seeing Africa be-

fore I flew to Namibia in 2007 to join my

wife, who had been working there as an

NGO practitioner for more than a year. I did

watch the movies about it: the outrageously

hilarious “The Gods Must Be Crazy (which

was actually shot in Namibia)”; the epic

“Out of Africa”, and even the more vicious

“Hotel Rwanda”, “The Last King of Scotland”

and “Blood Diamond”. I was understanda-

bly drawn to a huge billboard just outside

the airport, flashing “Diamonds Employ”.

Namibia, after all, is known to be the land

of the best diamonds in the world. I arrived

in the capital Windhoek after a three-flight

journey that wore me out forthe past 24

hours, what with all the transfers and de-

lays. I came out of the small,

yet surprisingly modern, international air-

port of Namibia at around seven o’clock in

the evening, and I was welcomed by the

vastness of the sky packed with stars, in

contrast to the almost total darkness of

my new surroundings.

That Africa is to be pitied, worshiped or

dominated , is the typical way of capturing

the imagination of the readers in describing

the Black continent. My first African experi-

ence in Namibia took me beyond these

stereotyped sentiments about Africa.

Diamond Mining in Namibia

NAMIBIA: My corner of the African Sky



3Klein Windhoek, M. Malto, 2007 (Oil on canvas) NAMIBIA: My corner of the African Sky



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“Welcome to the Bushland,” beamed

my wife as we drove our way to our

new home. I began to feel the chilli-

ness in the air since June is winter

time in Namibia, but the extreme dry-

ness about us reminded me that I was

experiencing winter in a desert land.

Walkin’ Windhoek

I saw a very different Windhoek when I

woke up the following morning and my

wife insisted that I have my first walking

tour of the city to better cope with jetlag.

I saw brown and bushes everywhere,the withering trees looked like they were

about to die (yet they were the same

trees that bloomed with lavender flowers,

jacoranda, come spring time), and the

cerulean sky had never been so rid of

patches of white clouds. The African sun

kept us warm during the day. Many of

the locals were out in the streets sunning

themselves since central heating in the

houses and office buildings is still a lux-

ury to most.

Windhoek, Capital City of Namibia




5NAMIBIA: My corner of the African SkyJacoranda in Springtime



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The town proper can be compared to a

small German town, a distant image of how

I imagined Africa to be. At some point I felt I

was in Europe, not in Africa, especially with

the winter temperature. Remnants of forti-

fied castles and fortresses had been turned

into fancy restaurants, galleries and muse-

ums. Alte Feste, a former military garrison,

had been turned into museum of Namibian

culture and history. As a professor of Fine

Arts, I never missed any of the exhibitions

of local artists at the National Gallery or at

the Franco-Namibian Cultural Center,

during my stay in Namibia. A turn-of-the-

century Lutheran Kristchurch is a popular

spot for pictorial among locals and tourists

alike, with the Tintenpalast for a garden. For

the best apple crumble in town, or anycakes for that matter, everyone heads to the

Namcraft Cafe. Rows of African craft shops

and European-inspired pubs and dining

places line the streets of the small town cen-

ter, I got to see the entirety of it all by the

end of the day.

However, a 10-minute taxi ride from

the town center is Katutura, the

township where most Black Namibi-

ans in Windhoek reside, and it

showed me an entirely different side

of Windhoek, reminding me that I was

still in Africa.

Katutura

Lutheran Kristchurch




7NAMIBIA: My corner of the African SkyCity of Windhoek



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Since I was to stay in Namibia for six

months, I decided I might as well know

more than just the directions to the super-

markets, the post office, and my wife’s of-

fice.

Reading the in-flight magazine, I

learned that Namibia, formerly

known as south-west Africa, was a

colony of South Africa under the Ger-

man Kaisers and the British Empire. In

1990, Namibia was born into a Re-

public from its long armed struggle

for independence.

Nonetheless, traces of the European culture

are still inherent in the lifestyle of many Na-

mibians, particularly in the capital.

Krieger-Denkmal at the Alte Feste




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Seven-Day Safari Adventure

Winter is the best time to camp in the safa-

ris of Namibia since the weather is more

bearable than in summertime, and becausethe game animals tend to wander around

the bushes more.

In August, my wife and I went on a

seven-day Safari Adventure with a

group of foreign tourists-- British,

German, American, Belgian, Italian

and Japanese. We travelled by land,

camped in tents and cooked our

meals by the fire.

The first day took us to see leopards and

cheetahs in a shelter, run by a group of ani-

mal welfare activists. The only way I could

tell a cheetah from a leopard is through thedistinctive black spots on their tear ducts,

forming a somewhat pair of tear drops.

We reached our first camp site for the night

at the foot of a hill, where we were taught

to set up our own tents. Our starlit dinners

were always a time for a braii (African bar-

becue party), with the smell of burnt game

meat and boerwoors on glowing coals mix-

ing with the aroma from the Springbok pot-

jekos.

Etosha, Africa’s Finest Game Reserve




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The following morning, we headed up north

with a short stop for lunch at the mysteri-

ous Lake Otjikoto, where peacocks roamed

freely in the area. By noontime, we reached

Etosha, tagged as Africa’s finest game re-

serve, and we set up our tents in our new

camp. The camping sites around Etosha are

a respite from the wild bushes. Camps Ha-

lali, Okaukuejo and Namutoni ,

once military fortresses, offer tourists the

facilities of city comfort, such as pools, bun-

galows (for non-campers), restaurants and

even hot showers. The seemingly lazy pa-rade of the giraffes, elephants, kudus and

zebras was an

amazing sight during mid-days and late af-

ternoons when they converge toward the

savannah waterholes to quench their thirst

from the arid land of Etosha. The Etosha pan

is a wide, shallow salt bed, with a vast ex-

panse of 23,000 sq. km. Its saline and min-

eral residues attract immense number of

animals. Herds of ostrich, zebra and wilde-

beest cluster at the edge of the pan as the

carnivore hyenas and jackals scavenge for

carcasses, next to the vultures. We had sun-

downers at sunset -- the perfect way to end

a long day of search for the Big Five.

Mysterious Lake of Otjikoto

Etosha Pan




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Moving on to our third day, we had to stop

in our safari truck to make way for a cross-

ing elephant , as it

stomped one giantfootprint after an-

other on the dusty

road with every

slow, heavy step.

Up close, I noticed

that the elephants

of Namibia have

shorter tusks than

those of India or

Thailand. I learned

that this is due to

lack of nutrients in

the African soil.

However, the Afri-

can elephants are

fiercer compared

to their Asian

counterparts. We

later spotted a fe-

male lion, a white

rhino, gemsboks, elans, hartebeests, wild

cats and wild birds that we have never even

heard of before, and I soon realised that

going on a safari is one of the fastest ways

to build one’s vocabulary.




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On the fourth day, we en-countered the Himbas in

their Kamanjab settle-

ment. Himbas are the no-

madic tribe of Namibia,

and they are highly

sought-after by the tour-

ists because of theirunique traditions. They

use animal hide to cover

only the lower parts of

their bodies, and they ap-

ply a mixture of clay, ochre and organic but-

ter all over their bodies for adornment, as

well as protection. We camped next to their

settlement, and to giant geologic rock boul-

ders in various formations.

Kamanjab Camp Site

Himba Tribe Settlement in Kamanjab District




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Art and archaeology was the theme for our

fifth and sixth day. We reached Namibia’s

highest mountain, Brandberg, where the

remnants of primordial time are still evi-dent-- the 250 million year-old petrified

trees and fossilized rocks, and the two thou-

sand year-old Welwitschia mirabilis. A three

-hour trek to reach Brandberg rewarded us

with a glimpse of the famous pre-historic

rock paintings done by the shaman or medi-

cine man some 2000 years ago.

Brandberg, Namibia’s Highest Mountain

Pre-historic Rock Paintings, The White Lady




15The Thousand Year-old Plant, Welwitschia mirabilis NAMIBIA: My corner of the African Sky

The Million Year-old Petrified Forest



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Another very significant site in the

area is the Twyfelfontein, recently de-

clared a UNESCO World Heritage Site

for its gallery of pre-historic rock en-

gravings dating as far back to 3000-

5000 thousand years ago.

Pre-historic Rock Engravings, The Lion-man


Geological Rock Formations



17NAMIBIA: My corner of the African SkyTwyfelfontein Petroglyphs



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As we left the world of the shamans and

petroglyphs, the last leg of our seven-day

adventure took us to the Atlantic coast,

where we passed by the Cape Cross -- areplica of the cross erected by the first

European who landed in the country. The

orange and ever-shifting sand dunes of Sos-

susvlei set the backdrop of our last camp

site in Swakopmund, known as the summer

destination of Namibians for its pebbled

beaches and freezing Atlantic waters. Swa-

kopmund, formerly an exclusive community

for the Germans and other white people,

was every bit like a fancy German town

from its food to architecture. For the last

supper of the group, we decided to forgo

our nightly braiis and dined at a fine restau-

rant; Cape to Cairo boasted of a wide vari-ety of dishes from all over the African re-

gion. Tired of our daily camp breakfast of

brochen, cold meat, cheese and instant cof-

fee, my wife and I indulged ourselves at the

quaint Café Anton with its freshly-brewed

coffee, and everything sumptuous.

Sand Dunes of Sossusvlei




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For the tour’s last stop on way back to

Windhoek, we had lunch at the

Skeleton Coast next to a ship-

wreck and skeletons of seals

from the nearby colony. We

were back in Windhoek by eve-

ning time and the once ghost

town capital seemed booming with noise

and beaming with city lights, after being out

in the wilderness for seven days.

About the Author

Marco Ruben T. Malto II teaches Studio Arts

at the College of Fine Arts in UP Diliman.

He designed the Twyfelfontein UNESCO World Heri-

tage Stamps of Namibia in 2008 to commemorate its

first anniversary. He stayed in Windhoek, and trav-

elled around Namibia, from June to December 2007.

Swakopmund

Twyfelfontein UNESCO World Heritage Stamps


Cape CrossSkeleton CoastSwakopmund Lighthouse

namibia: my corner of the african sky (by marco ruben t. malto ii)

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