KHALIL GIBRAN SAYS...
"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long
to play with your hair."

XIII |February 4, 2021

THE EDITOR'S NOTE

Edition 13 of Portmanteau is here! 

You may notice something in this edition. We've concentrated on a certain continent! The vast savannahs, lush jungles and unique persona of Africa on the world map means there is so much to explore that one Portmanteau wouldn't do it justice. But we've certainly tried our best! 
Our feature talks about the Great Walk Of Africa, an endeavor that has empowered hundreds of indigenous communities in Kenya whilst providing an innate African experience to the traveller. With our good friends from Rare Africa soon conducting  bespoke expeditions on the Great Walk, we thought it made sense to talk about it! 
We also talk about the actual birthplace of the Homo Sapiens as a species (that's you and us!) and its potential origins in the salt pans of the Kalahari. We also have Spotify's own Africa-inspired playlist along with a choice selection of movies that all have an African element to them. Why don't you enjoy them with a plate of Koshari in hand? The recipe is below if you've never heard of it...

We hope you enjoy the thirteenth edition of Portmanteau. As always, we welcome feedback and suggestions from all our readers. 

Sharing the mutual love for travel!

Ashish

01 Stories That Matter

A deep dive into a story that's arcane, thoughtful, and sometimes humorous!

The Great Walk Of Africa

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to walk across Africa through the pristine bush jungle, with the backdrop of Kilimanjaro and across the Galana River? 

The Great Walk Of Africa is a 10-12 day hike through Kenya's Eastern Tsavo region that lets you have the primordial jungle experience. We'd love to tell you more but Goeffery Dean has written his own beautiful account for The Traveller, which should give you enough inspiration to go on your own expedition! 

Having been on more than 40 safaris in as many years in East and Southern Africa, I can say that none was more memorable than the so-called Great Walk of Africa across Kenya’s biggest national park, Tsavo. 

Walking around ten miles a day for ten days, we covered a distance of 100 miles from the far west of the park to its eastern extremity. This was an old-style safari of yesteryear, seeing no other people but coming across a wide range of wildlife and birdlife. It was like immersing yourself in another world, free from its cares and issues, for Tsavo, at 22,812 square kilometres, is vast, even bigger than Israel. Being there felt like an escape from reality.

We were cut off from the outside world for 95% of the time, only occasionally picking up mobile phone signals at some of the half-dozen temporary camp locations we stayed in. No emails, no social media, no incoming phone calls (although a couple of the eight other guests had satellite phones and rang home every evening from their tents). Instead, there was stimulating conversation around the lunch and dinner table every day! 

Thanks to the joint efforts of Kenya Wildlife Service, who operate continuous field patrols, and the Tsavo Trust, which sends daily spotter planes low over the park, poaching in the park has been kept in check. As a result, it has an elephant population of 12-13,000, the biggest in East Africa, including more super-tuskers than anywhere else (elephants whose tusks touch the ground). A healthy lion population of around 400 is another feature of Tsavo, where a couple of man-eaters consumed as many as 132 of the Indian workers who were camping inside the park in 1898 to build the Nairobi-Mombasa railway. The lions were eventually shot, and some human remains of their unfortunate prey were discovered in a cave. 

Happily, today’s lions have never posed any threat to our walkers, being wary of humans. The trackers that accompany us are usually armed with rifles, for hippos when grazing are a potential danger if surprised. Given the many twists and turns of the Tsavo and Galana rivers that we followed, at least two river crossings each day were necessary, but we always traversed them at known elephant crossings at shallow points. Whereas we always walked strictly in single file, river crossings were made three-abreast to create enough splashing to persuade crocodiles we were elephants not humans.

Not once in any Great Walk has there been an incident with crocodiles. Indeed, it is worth stressing how little mishap there have been on these Great Walks. The only real damage by wildlife to camp installations came in the middle of one night when a leopard shredded a shower tent.

In an ever-changing world, Tsavo National Park remains one wonderful, unspoilt wilderness. 

02 What You Missed When Grounded

The Africa Eco Rally quietly had a run in 2020, and has unfortunately been cancelled for 2021. 

A Rally That Focuses On Sustainability 

The world of rallying is a unique one. Imagine riding a vehicle across some of the harshest landscapes in the world. You may have a support crew, but out there it’s just you, your ride and the elements.

One erratic turn and your entire stint goes for a toss or worse, you end up in the hospital. And yet, there’s something beautiful about facing the untamed on 2 wheels or 4. 

Experiencing mighty sand dunes or acres and acres of slushy rainforest, against the clock (and competitors) is a feeling that few plucky people get to live through year after year in international and national rallies held across the world, in unique landscapes that often take you cross country too. And this is where the story of the Africa Eco Rally begins! 

In 2008, contestants of the renowned Dakar Rally were disappointed that the rally organizers had cancelled that year’s edition that was starting in Lisbon and ending in Dakar, the city that gave this rally its namesake.  So they decided to take it upon themselves to start a rally in Africa. By the people, for the people. And the Africa Eco Rally was therefore kicked off in 2009 thanks to the efforts of two stalwarts: Jean-Louis Schlesser and René Metge.  

The Africa Eco Rally is modeled after Dakar; while the latter has now moved on to races in Saudi Arabia, the Eco Rally still conducts the event on the original route that Dakar used to follow: A start in Monaco that takes you through Morocco and the Mauritius before ending in Dakar, Senegal. Days of riding through such pristine landscapes certainly make up for all the hardships the participants have to endure! 

Unlike Dakar, the Africa Eco Race is also specifically meant to be a sustainable rally. Local employment is engaged at every stage of the rally. The resting zones for riders and crew are amidst true African wilderness sans construction or extreme disturbance of the region. All routes of the rally also do not come into contact with protected areas so as to not disturb wildlife.  Organizers also promote sustainable businesses and renewable energy in a big way; solar energy is used wherever possible to power either the vehicles or the living spaces! 

So would you like to head to Africa to watch the Eco Race in 2022? Or better yet, awaken the rally rider within you and take part? 

03 Let's Get Comical

How prepared are you for your travels? 

04 The Reel

Movies revolving around life in Africa to give you a taste of the beauty of the land and its people!  

Who would have predicted that rugby would help in the movement against discrimination? Nelson Mandela, of course. One of the greatest leaders of the 21st century, his legacy is shown beautifully in Invictus. 


Invictus is one of Morgan Freeman's most powerful performances. It's also probably one of Matt Damon's most powerful performances. It tells the story of how the newly elected Black president of South Africa conspires to end racial tensions between white people and black people in the country by convincing the captain of the national Rugby team they can win the world cup. 



While the inevitable does happen and the Gemsboks win the world cup, the journey they take as well as the insights on Mandela's life (plus his powerful narration of the poem from which the movie draws some inspiration) alone makes this a worthy watch. 

We've always wondered what life would be like adopting wild animals. Duma partially answers your questions in a tale of love, humor and drama in a journey that takes you across some of Africa's most iconic landscapes. 

Xan, a South African schoolboy finds a young cheetah cub that was orphaned. Promising to return him to his home one day when he was all grown up. Duma the cheetah lives a jolly life in Johannesburg with his foster family, but soon it becomes evident that you can't take the cat out of the jungle. And so a few years later after the passing of his father, Xan vows to return Duma to his home. 



The journey they take crossing the Okavango Delta and the famed salt pans of the Kalahari, and the people they meet enroute all add to this charming tale about a young boy's friendship with the wild and and how it is to truly step out into the great African outdoors.  

A Coca-Cola bottle unwittingly dropped from an airplane creates havoc and unknown emotions among a normally peaceful tribe of African bushmen. They believe the bottle is a gift from their gods as it is infinitely useful for all kinds of daily chores. 

But the bottle also introduces the bushmen to feelings of envy and ideas of ownership, threatening their idyllic society that has existed without notions of poverty, greed or crime.  In their wisdom, the bushmen decide to get rid of the bottle. Burying it is of no use as warthog digs it up with a bushman child bringing the blessed-cursed thing back to the village. They try throwing it back to the gods in the sky, but the bottle keeps falling back to the ground, of course. That is when the village wiseman tells them to take it to the edge of the world and throw it out! 

A laughter riot through and through, the lessons this movie drives home remain pertinent today, more so, as the conversation on sustainability and conservation takes foreground. 

05 Improbable Places

After much thought, we decided to feature an improbable place, not in space but in time. Well, yes, all paces are improbable when we talk about time travel. But Makgadikgadi is special, in that, it has been recently revealed as the cradle of humanity. 

The Salt Pans Of Makgadikgadi


Africa has been long thought as the possible venue of the “Holy Grail”. Whether or not this particular holy grail will be found or even if it exists, Africa has been established, unequivocally as home to yet another holy grail, the cradle of humanity itself.

There were a few contenders and impostors too within Africa, with the East African Great Rift Valley being the front runner for the longest time. But recently, with advances in DNA study and correlations, a new and definitive venue has been found. 

Modern humans, Homo Sapiens, are believed to have diverged from their closest cousins around 200,000 years ago, in what are the modern-day nations of Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.  Looking at the geography of the region today it is almost impossible to believe that this could have been the cradle of humanity not very long ago, evolutionarily. Dry and dusty land with dispersed salt pans marks the entire region. Yet, 70,000 years ago this was the scene of the exodus of humanity across the globe, with the expansive wetlands drying out.  
The question begets, how this vast wasteland comes to claim the cradle of humanity? For a quick science crash course read on. A study identifying the mitochondrial DNA, known as “mitogenome” across the global population helped retrace the steps of early humans. What is a mitogenome? Well, it is the same as nuclear DNA but different. Nuclear DNA is passed on by both mother and father. Mitogenome is passed on by the mother alone. Hence, mitogenome does not get jumbled up with generations and can help trace our history back to the very beginning.  
It has been seen that large populations of indigenous people share the same mitogenome. But a modern city such as New York would have a large variety in mitogenome but that is due to migration in the recent past. So the way this detective story goes is that members of indigenous populations are randomly selected for a mitogenome study. If a narrow variety of mitogenome is found then they are at the edges of the rather large family tree of humanity. So tracing back a higher variety of mitogenome across indigenous populations led researchers straight to the Makgadikgadi - Okavango belt with the indigenous KhoeSan tribe having the largest variety of mitogenome. So by logical extension, this region must have been the cradle of humanity!

Today, Makgadikgadi is an arid region with the wetlands, having dried out due to changing weather patterns. Yet, some of the ancient tribes stayed here adapting to the changing landscape and climes, while the rest of us moved out, well our ancestors did. For those who stayed behind such as KhoeSan people, the old ways of life still persist, hunting, gathering and foraging for sustenance. Linguistically, KhoeSans are click speakers, a language specialized for hunting.
Geological evidence points to the prehistoric Makgadikgadi region being dominated by the lake for millions of years when it began to break up due to the shifting of land, creating vast wetlands perfect for the sustenance of life and Homo Sapiens would thrive here. But as climatic patterns shifted around 130000 years ago with lands drying out, humans started moving out of these vast wetlands, home for more than 80000 years in search of new grounds.
The richness and resolution of data is so consistent, that it even points out the patterns of movement. The populations dispersed within the modern day Makgadikgadi with the indingeous people living closer to the south border are similar to the humans who moved south, well their mitogenome is and the same with the case of West and North.
Now this scientifically probable theory is leading the revolution in archaeological studies, showing the way forward in identifying the pathways and patterns of migration. One such pathway has been well established with the Ju/’hoansi people of the Kalahari in Namibia, whose legend talks about this great exodus from a wetland many generations ago. Cultural vindication to the mitogenome theory, we suppose.

06 The Thinking Owl

Giraffes have the same number of neck bones as humans do. All mammals do, in fact. Make of that what you will. 

07 Food for Thought

Ever heard of this simple Egyptian rice dish? 

The national dish of Egypt is a true representation of the varied produce of the land, or lack thereof. It's a popular dish at home and also on the streets. 





The best thing about Koshari is that it's an extremely simple dish. Rice, lentils, tomato sauce, a special spice blend known as Baharat and macaroni. And if you're feeling really fancy, some fried onions on top. 

Credits for the recipe below go to www.allrecipes.com

Egyptian Koshari 

Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 2 cups uncooked white rice
  • 3 cups water
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 (16 ounce) package uncooked elbow macaroni
  • 1 cup beluga lentils, soaked in water
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 5 onions, minced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
  • 4 ripe tomatoes, diced
  • ½ cup tomato paste
  • 1 ½ teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 2 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
  • ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper 
Method
 1. Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in rice; continue stirring until rice is coated with oil, about 3 minutes. Add 3 cups water and 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until the rice is tender and liquid has been absorbed, 20 to 25 minutes. 

 2. Fill a large pot with lightly salted water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Stir in the macaroni, and return to a boil. Cook the macaroni uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the it has cooked through, but is still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Drain well in a colander. Return macaroni to cooking pot, cover and keep warm.

 3. Soak lentils for 30 minutes. Drain and rinse; drain again. Bring 2 cups water to a boil in a pot and stir in lentils. Bring to a boil; cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer until lentils are tender 15 or 20 minutes. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon salt. 

 4. Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the onions in the oil, stirring often, until they begin to brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Onions should be a nice caramelized brown color. Add garlic and cook another minute. Remove from pan, drain on a paper towel-lined plate. 

 5. Place half of the onion mixture into a saucepan. Mix in the vinegar. Add the chopped tomatoes and tomato paste, black pepper, 2 1/2 teaspoons salt, cumin, and cayenne (if using). Bring to a boil then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer about 12 minutes. 

 6. Serve by placing a spoonful of rice, then macaroni, and then the lentils on serving plates. Sprinkle with some of the browned onions, then top with tomato sauce.

08 The Travel Record

Africa inspired playlist. Need we say more?

09 Puzzled?

Puzzles to get your neurons firing.

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