When you hear the word safari, what do you usually think of? For me, an average American college student, I think of going out into a conservation area and seeing wild animals. While this may be one (American) definition of the word, the Kiswahili word “safari” actually means a journey or trip. This whole experience in Tanzania so far can definitely be described as a safari.
On the way to class at the University of Dar es Salaam
During our course we have learned a lot about Tanzania: its history, its politics, and its culture, to name a few things. My favorite parts of the course, however, have been the supplementary field trips that have provided us the opportunity to see what we have learned about in the classroom brought to life. Rabia has already talked about why Zanzibar was so awesome, but I want to talk about our trip to Ngorongoro Conservation Area near Arusha in northern Tanzania. The entire trip to Arusha was fantastic, but I thoroughly enjoyed the (typical American) safari we took. It was amazing seeing all of the diverse wildlife coexisting so naturally! Not to mention just how gorgeous Ngorongoro Crater and the other parts of the Conservation Area were even without animals. It was breathtaking! And undeniably one of the coolest experiences of my life.
A view from inside Ngorongoro Crater
The week of our excursion one of the concepts we discussed was that of neoliberal conservation. According to “Neoliberal Conservation: A Brief Introduction” by Jim Igoe and Dan Brockington, this is the theory that opening up conservation areas to private foreign investors will help benefit both the environment as well as the local people. However, as the article mentions, this is usually not the case when put into practice. These conservation areas usually benefit the foreign investors at the expense of the local culture. Reading this article for class helped me to better understand the theory, but it wasn’t until we went on our academic safari that I really comprehended what they were talking about.
Our group were only two jeeps out of several hundreds observing the wildlife in the park that day.
While I definitely saw the way the local Masai people were being pushed out of most of the conservation areas, I was way more captivated by the conservation part of “neoliberal conservation.” The animals were everywhere, and there were so many different types! I saw 4/5 of the traditional Big Five (the animals that are the most dangerous for people to hunt): lion, rhino, cape buffalo, leopard, and elephant. Only the nocturnal leopard went unobserved. It was really wonderful seeing these animals, especially given how rare some of them are nowadays (the rhino especially). Besides these, I also got to see zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, warthogs, hyenas, flamingos, rabbits, hippos, gazelles, antelopes, ostriches, other cool birds that I don’t know the names of, and many more! I saw so much up close that it all felt a little surreal just how amazing this place was. Pictures really don’t do this place justice. I am eternally grateful that I got the chance to experience this safari within a safari.
A small sample of the vast number of animals here in Ngorongoro Conservation Area