Volume 51 Issue 8 - August 2013 : Readers Diary
Johan the human hyena
Author : Kefilwe Mokgaotsane
Johan the human hyena
Pilikwe and Bobirwa are a distance apart. From Pilikwe, which is in Tswapong South Constituency, to any part of Bobirwa, one covers a distance of about 300 kilometres. However, one common feature is that the economies of the two villages are heavily reliant on agriculture with Bobirwa having a tourism inclination as well. Curiously one can ask what inspires a boy raised in a rural village of Pilikwe to trek about 300km to Mashatu to live in the wilderness away from mordenisation where only open trucks ferrying tourists and wildlife are the order of the day?
When his former high school mates at Bokamoso Private School in Mahalapye headed down South to Gaborone to pursue their dreams after completing their studies in 1997, Johan Rakumaku avoided the city. While some of his peers found it in vogue to head for university and others finding employment in Gaborone, Johan did not follow the trend. At the age of 20 he enrolled with Mokolodi Nature Reserve to pursue a course that would eventually make him a professional tour guide. It was not just a profession but a calling and he was happy to spend the rest of his professional life in the Bush.
Today the Mashatu bush is not only a stage where he flaunts his unparalleled knowledge of nature and wild animals but a place where he is also a force to reckon with as an investor. Johan arrived in Mashatu in 2003 as an employee of Cycle Mashatu. Finding a job here was a stepping stone towards his bigger vision of one day being the owner of a tourism business.
Johan, a real optimist, says in the wild, he draws inspiration from hyenas. He argues that the Setswana adage, “Phokoje go tshela yo o dithetsenyana” offers a precise description of the predator, and feels that should be the abiding mantra of every business minded Motswana. He speaks intimately and with great admiration about how a hyena thrives in the brutally unforgiving wild teeming with lions, cheetahs and elephants. “I model my life around a hyena” he brags. Johan believes such a spirit endeared him to his former employers, because throughout the two years as an employee, he always held the belief that one day Cycle Mashatu would prosper contrary to what the company owners believed.
In 2005, the investor in Cycle Mashatu decided to throw in the towel and sold his business. If Johan was a sleepy weeping boy, the move by the investor would have shattered him, left him unemployed and helpless. However, the hyena in him sprung to life and he grabbed the chance to realise his childhood dream of owning a tourism business. He moved in quickly to find other investors. Fast forward to 2013, Cycle Mashatu employs seven people, runs four campsites and continues to grow in leaps and bounds, with Johan being a 50 per cent shareholder.
He says his love for nature began when he was a young man growing up in Pilikwe. At school, he was a member of the wildlife club and loved subjects about nature. He is an ardent conservationist who would not even kill an ant. Johan is so free in the wild in that at some point when elephants charge at us, he claims to have a conversation with them and they would retreat. He knows each and every plant in the Mashatu area, each bird and its sound, each animal and its pooh, each trek and what time it was stamped to the ground. Johan is a professional cyclist too. He is ranked amongst the top ten in the country. Every year he participates in the local cycling competition, Kalahari Challenge, and has been to renowned cycling competitions such as Magubasklof in South Africa. These two traits make for an explosive combination that has made Cycle Mashatu grow as a business. It makes Johan not only an investor who watches from a glass window as dividends grow but a hands-on man.
The youthful Johan refuses to declare any scary moments in his career. “I never get scared because I understand animals. What is upper most in my mind during confrontations with wild animals is the behaviour of my clients and their safety,” he reckons. Johan recalls one challenging moment when an elephant charged at them during a game drive. “It was awful because the guest decided to jump off and run away on foot”. Even though there were no fatalities, these are moments he does not want to dwell on. As a professional, his rule 101 to his clients at the beginning of every tour is, “have faith in me and follow instructions all the time”.
Johan is the ultimate professional, a person who knows the business`s ins and outs and this endears him to clients. On this particular day he has three guests from South Africa. The guests have been here before and are on first name basis with him. There is so much excitement amongst them as they discuss their last expedition to Mashatu and how they are looking forward to new challenges that Johan might have discovered since they were last here two years ago. They are at ease around him as they cycle through the most dangerous bushes, down and up stream, heavy sands and hundreds of animals to reach the campsite on the banks of Limpopo River.
The trio is on a four-day adrenalin packed undertaking, filled with heavy cycling, fitness and a good diet. These are issues that Johan and his employees understand very well as they take turns to give their clients High Standard Hospitality. When at work, Johan sheds the rural boy in him, and wears the right posture for the business. His passion makes him a natural. The last day of the adventure offers more than the clients bargained for. The night is spent in an open Boma, with elephants a breadth away. The starry sky is the only escape from the reality of the roaming elephants and roaring lions. While many remain awake, Johan snores happily throughout the night, and in the morning he says, “I was in my REM sleep because I knew you were safe, animals fear humans, and I was sure they would not attack us”.
His typical working life is basically centered around hosting guests from all over the world on varying packages that Cycle Mashatu offers. His business Partners are based in South Africa and deal with the marketing side of things. They must be doing a good job of it because the clients they court keep Johan and his team on their toes throughout the year, and only get a break when they close down during the rainy summer season.
That means he only has about three months in a year to spend in the "civilised world", with friends and other family members. In the bush, he stays with his wife while his only child remains in the village attending school. He is content with his life, especially that the bush accommodates his other major passions such as photography and gadgets. When he is relaxing, he fiddles with them. On one evening, he is on his element around the bon-fire as he announces that, “we will have a full moon today and it will emerge at 7:21pm, with two satellites expected to be visible at our campsite at 7:35pm and 7:46pm”. Everyone at the bon-fire is astonished at this proclamation and a myriad of questions follow. And true to his prophesy, the full moon emerges and the satellites pass at the specified times. Then he confesses that this is basic information from a Star-Walk application in his Ipad! Now this is a rural boy who is pushing boundaries. ENDS