22 Travel Zambia November 2008 PeoplePeopleVakachaVakachaHabitatHabitatNkaniNkaniCultureCulturePeoplePeopleVakachaVakachaHabitatHabitatNkaniNkaniCultureCultur PeoplePeopleVakachaVakachaHabitatHabitatNkaniNkaniCultureCulture Kingswood College Concert Band, from Grahamstown, South Africa, toured Zambia to delighted audiences in April this year. Thirty- eight students, including five Zambians, took part. The tour raised money for three Zambian orphanages: Seven Fountains Mission in Kalomo, Ben Doree Orphanage near Kitwe, and Kondwa near Lusaka. Director of Music Stephen Holder tells the story. It is my experience that musicians tend to get more tired and grumpy as a tour goes along, and play less and less well. In Zambia, however, the opposite happened: the big audiences we received were a huge boost to morale, and it was uplifting to play to people who loved what we were doing and who showed it without inhibition. We certainly got tired, but our playing got better and better: our final performance, in Livingstone, was our best. In turn it was wonderful to see how we were able to inspire people – especially children. Music is not generally part of the curriculum in Zambian schools, but certainly the children for whom we played – and children of all ages came to our performances – were very excited by what we were doing. Our excellent organising team handled arrangements, leaving the band free to concentrate their energies on the music. The logistics were daunting; a concert band has so much stuff. Most members carried their instruments as hand luggage, but some instruments ­– including much of the percussion and brass – were too bulky, and we had five huge crates for percussion alone. Venues also presented their challenges. We arrived in Lusaka to find that the Mulungushi Conference Centre, where we were due to perform, had been taken over by a SADC emergency meeting. Luckily Lusaka International School generously made their sports hall available to us. The tour also had social benefits for band members, who normally rush from class to rehearsal with little or no time to get to know one another. The percussionists in the back row, for instance, seldom see any more of the flautists than the top of their heads in front. But hours of travelling together gave us valuable time to chat and relax. At Kingswood College we believe that each of us can make a difference. Music students are well placed to do this simply by virtue of what they love doing: making music. The tour taught us what we can achieve on both a national and a personal level. It had a profound and enriching effect on us all. Made in Zambia Johnny Clegg World- famous musician Johnny Clegg owes a vital spark of inspiration to Zambia. Clegg, who formed South Africa's first racially mixed band, Juluka, and challenged the then apartheid authorities with such anthems as Asimbonanga (' We can't see him'), spent a year in Zambia at the age of 11. Here, for the first time, he attended a black school with black pupils and teachers. " Zambia had just become independent and I had more black friends than white friends," he recalls. " There was an incredible sense of freedom." This freedom clearly left its mark in the powerful messages of Clegg's music. Concert band tourS ZAMBIA ' Mtuku' shshines withth Barefeet Musical Legend Oliver Mtukudzi joined Zambian youth drama group Barefeet Theatre at Shine 2008, the third annual Barefeet festival. ' Mtuku', one of the great voices of African music, closed the festival on 17 October with a concert at Lusaka International School. The festival had kicked off one week earlier with a spectacular march- past from Arcades Shopping Centre, in which more than 1,000 people enlivened the streets of Lusaka with singing, dancing, stilt- walking and drumming. This was followed by daily performances at Lusaka Playhouse and a grand finale at Munda Wanga Botanical Gardens. Barefeet Theatre is a group of young Zambian performers who work together to address issues such as HIV/ AIDS, drug abuse and life on the streets. The annual festival celebrates their talents and allows them to showcase the work they have created throughout the year. Details at www. barefeettheatre. org. STEPHEN HOLDER ( 2) LAURA MANNI

November 2008 Travel Zambia 23 PeoplePeopleVakachaVakachaHabitatHabitatNkaniNkaniCultureCulture Wildlife at Old Mondoro Levy Farao's quiet, soft charm belies his canny ability to locate wildlife on a drive or a walk, and to know exactly how to maximise the thrill for guests and minimise the irksomeness of human contact for the animals. And if you don't want to leave camp, then the wildlife will come to you. Elephant visit almost daily to munch away at the trees, and even hyena and hippo stroll through at night. Canoeing from Chiawa The canoeing trips are, in my view, the highlight. The hippos and crocodiles you spotted from eagles' view on arrival are now viewed from water level. You travel in blissful quiet listening only to the breeze, your paddles, the currents and the birdsong. Dinner at Chiawa Dinner is announced when the all- male staff gathers to sing in complicated and intriguing harmonies, making you drift to the candlelit tables more metaphorically than physically. The idea is that you feel as though you are being looked after within a family structure – and it works. Reader's Journal View fromom Dowown Under Travel consultant Stephanie Rogers- Julian visited Zambia with her husband Warren for the first time in June this year. She stayed at Chiawa and Old Mondoro camps on the Lower Zambezi and was inspired to record her observations. These were among the highlights. F lying into the Zambezi Valley After soaring over a high escarpment we bank down to a riverine terrace, through which the Zambezi scuds along eastwards. Our slow descent over the curving riverbanks reveals that the dots and dashes we were watching from on high are, in fact, thousands of hippos and crocodiles. Game drive from Old Mondoro It is a landscape that seeps into your psyche. The vegetation is akin to a patchwork quilt that has been pulled apart and draped at random around a room. What you see are knotted vines and thistles, trees, shrubs and glades through which sunlight penetrates the darkest corners. It is this haphazard tapestry that keeps you alert to the possibility of animal sightings at every turn of the vehicle. This enormous baobab looms over a small camp deep in the middle of one of Zambia's finest national parks. By day you hear the peal of children's laughter. By night the roars of the local lion pride take over. Do you think you know where it is ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Tell us where in Zambia this picture was taken and you could win one of five copies of Zambia: the Bradt Travel Guide. Send your answer on a postcard to: Zambia Bradt Competition, Travel Zambia magazine, 4 Rycote Lane Farm, Milton Common, Oxford, OX9 2NZ, United Kingdom. Or email your answer to competitions@ travelafricamag. com, putting Zambia Bradt Competition in the subject line. Entries MUST include your full postal address and daytime phone number. Only one entry per household. Entries close on 31 January 2009. GUESS WHERE... And win the Bradt guide to Zambia MIKE UNWIN MIKE UNWIN WARREN JULIAN