July 2014 Philadelphia Chapter of Pax Christi U.S.A.

My African Safari

Genesis 1:1-3. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.”

This opening might come as a surprise. You probably expected a wildlife adventure beginning with the magnificent ‘big five’ - elephant, leopard, lion, rhino and buffalo. I will get you there, first hold on to your thoughts about creation.

Imagine yourself, going for a morning game drive at 6:00 am in a jeep with Kimondo our experienced field guide and driver. You are decked out in khaki-light protective clothing, wide-brimmed field hat, slathered in sunblock, sunglasses, binoculars and carry the essential large water bottle.

New World Encyclopedia http://www.newworldenc yclopedia.org/

We are heading for Serengeti, which means “endless plains” in Maasai language, it covers 12,000 square miles in north Tanzania and stretches into southwestern Kenya. Serengeti is famous for its wildebeest migration with all the mystery and rawness. One of earth’s most impressive natural cycles plays out annually here in Africa. Where over a million wildebeest and some 200,000 zebra are following their ancient instinct searching for grazing land and fresh water on the vast treeless plains. There are few rivers and they dry out quickly. Depending on the season, they move south for short rains and north in anticipation of the long rains, making a 1300 mile round pilgrimage.

We are sitting on a stony overlook under a tree on a hot and dusty day, taking in the panoramic view of the slow meandering mile long line going up North. Many calves are in that line-up, because February is the main month for calving of wildebeest as December is the peak for zebras; now we have March. The predators always lying in wait for them are lions, leopards, cheetahs, hyenas, jackals and more. Further north, during crossings of the Grumeti River the giant crocodiles are waiting for them. We can already see the ever-present vultures swooping down for a cleanup.

Our next stop is Ngorongoro Crater, now frequently referred to as the 8th wonder of the world and one of the world’s largest inactive caldera (a collapsed volcano 2-3 million years ago) about 13 miles wide. Its steep unbroken walls provide the setting for a natural wildlife drama. The crater floor is mostly open grassland with small bush land areas. There is a water supply from a seasonal lake and other small springs. The alkaline lake is edged by a bright pink band, which turns out to be countless flamingos feeding there. Large herds of zebras, wildebeest, giraffes, buffalo, elephants, warthogs are grazing together taking no notice of us staring at them with curiosity from our jeep.

The image imprinted in my memory is a “peaceable kingdom.” It offers a role reversal; we are caged while the wild animals are free to move about.

We continue our safari on rough dirt roads to our next stop Olduvai Gorge. It is a starkly beautiful steep ravine in the Great Rift Valley and stretches about 30 miles. Dr. Louis Leaky and his wife Mary, in 1959, discovered this mysterious archeological site rendering the famous fossil of a 1.75 million years ape-like skull and various stone tools. Not far from this site Mary Leaky excavated, in 1978, the ‘Laetoli Footprints,’ dated 3.6 million years ago and the preserved oldest known footprints of early humans. These sites are now referred to as the “Cradle of Mankind;“ from here early humans migrated in search for food and shelter always adapting to changing climates and conditions of the world’s unique challenges.

We will catch a plane to reach our final stop the “Cape of Good Hope” in South Africa. Exploring seafarers with their heroic deeds discovered the Cape. The first were the Portuguese searching for a sea route from Portugal to the Far East and India. It was named “Cape of Good Hope” by the early seafarers who had dared so much.

Now let me explain why I began with Genesis. It was during my student years in Hamburg, Germany, where I encountered a national fundraising campaign “Serengeti shall not die,” I was thinking ’why is that important?‘ Also Hamburg was our largest harbor by the North Sea with strong seafarer connections to the Cape of Good Hope with many retold stories of shipwreck disasters. This journey was a pilgrimage for me with fifty years in the making. It was the experience of a life time which allowed me deeper reflections about early human evolution. We are all interested in our origin. Thinking about “what was” while watching the wildlife roaming in freedom, and “what we do have now” in contrast with our industrial civilization.

These three Tanzanian sites, the Serengeti plains, the crater and the gorge are in adjacent locations. Volcano eruptions formed them, protecting everything with a cloud of fine ash. The ecosystem is one of the oldest on earth, climate, vegetation, fauna have barely changed in the past million years. Reflecting on the sacred footprints of our predecessors we might imagine what we are contributing with our current carbon footprints.

My greatest discovery was finding the peaceable kingdom, with the ‘lion king’ himself stretched out on a sunny rocky plateau or playfully engaged on a grassy knoll with his family of lions while watching the variety of wild herbivorous creatures grazing peacefully together.

Before my journey I had expected frequent carnivorous predators prowling and hunting. But that did not happen. Only leopards rested with their kill, a zebra and another with an antelope high up in a tree. Vultures cleaned the bones of a gazelle.

As a religious person I can focus on God’s guiding organization. In the end, there is a shared sense of living together in a biological universe between animals and humans.

The beacon from the cape lighthouse can brighten our hopeful efforts. Our mission is clear; we must promote peace among people and the natural world, as the prophet Isaiah teaches us.

Dorothea Graham

Member of CPF and Peace Corp Volunteer (PCV), Tanzania 2008/2009. In February 2014 Dorothea traveling with her son

returned to Africa and the Tanzania village she lived in while a PCV