Since 2003 Gaia has organised an annual experiential learning process for emerging African leaders in collaboration with Ngwenyama Lodge. It became fondly known as the “Botswana Experience” as the process took place in the heart of the Botswana wilderness. Ngwenyama Lodge is an ancestral lodge, and home to traditional doctors Colin & Niall Campbell, who grew up in the region. With Nature as the primary teacher, between 2003 and 2010 around twenty African leaders came together annually in a weeklong process to reconnect with their traditional cultures and with Africa’s diverse Earth-centred, pre-colonial identity.
Through the process participants come to question and reflect on the impact of the colonial process, globalisation and the ‘development’ imposed upon Africa. Together they seek to find ways to revive Africa’s richly diverse heritage as the basis from which to build a viable, resilient future. You can find out more about the experience and its impact on former participants by watching A Story Worth Remembering, narrated by Hugh Quarshie.
The Botswana Experience is now part of the three-year Earth Jurisprudence training course.
We live in a time of multiple, complex crises. There are no easy answers. Working to uphold the health and diversity of our living planet is always rewarding, but we think you’ll agree it can sometimes feel like swimming against the stream. And yet like salmon we leap, and more often than you might expect, we make it. We invite you to make the next leap with us by making a donation of any size. Thank you for your solidarity.
