namibia: my corner of the african sky (by marco ruben t. malto ii)
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8/14/2019 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
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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
NAMIBIA: My corner of the African Sky
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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
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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.
NAMIBIA: My corner of the African Sky
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8/14/2019 NAMIBIA: My corner of the African Sky (by Marco Ruben T. Malto II)
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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
NAMIBIA: My corner of the African Sky
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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
NAMIBIA: My corner of the African Sky
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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
NAMIBIA: My corner of the African Sky
Geological Rock Formations
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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
NAMIBIA: My corner of the African Sky
Cape CrossSkeleton CoastSwakopmund Lighthouse
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