Chagamba (Cha-GOM-ba) grew up a member of the Ikoma tribe in a village along the west edge of the Serengeti where his grandfather took him on hunting trips and taught him secrets of the bush at an early age. He became a professional tracker for a big-game hunting company and soon realized that if he learned English he would be able to talk directly with the American hunters and have better opportunities. He studied English in Arusha for 3 months, and later for another 6 months. This opened the door for him to eventually switch to guiding tourists on safari, a better-paying job.

Chagamba with binoculars and gun

Chagamba is 45, easy-going and responsible, with a ready sense of humor. His wife and 5 children live in Arusha; the children go to private school, but none of them will know what he knows. Chagamba knows everything about animals. He can look at a track in the dust and identify the animal, size, age, the time the track was made, how many other animals it was traveling with, whether it was hungry or full, injured, looking for a mate, etc. He knows most birds by their flight or silhouette. At one point, he announced, “Lion!” and pointed to tall grass waving about 200 yards away in the vast savannah. Eventually, some of our group got a brief glimpse of a lion’s head. He can see with the naked eye what we can only see with binoculars. Chagamba knows everything!

Our only difficulty with Chagamba is remembering his name.  To the uneducated American ear, “Chabanga,” “Chagamma,” and “Bachanga” all seem equally possible as names, and at one time or other we have tried them all.  He laughs.

Mika (MEE-kah), at 26, would be too young to be a guide if he didn’t know so much. Born in neighboring Kenya, he has lived in Africa all his life. His grandparents came to Africa as Lutheran missionaries, and when they returned to the States, his father and brothers stayed and began a guiding business with a focus on high school and college students. Mika grew up thinking about Africa, birds, animals and ecology. He speaks Swahili natively as well as English and conversational German, and is known in Arusha as “the white Rasta” because of his long dreads, which he can’t bring himself to cut now that he’s grown them for so long. He went to Evergreen State in Washington, majoring in ecology, environmental conservation, rock climbing and snowboarding. He’s been to the top of Kilimanjaro 6 or 7 times.

Mika relishes everything about East Africa.  Through his father, mother, uncles and cousins, he knows birds, animal-tracking, African tribal culture and history, African politics, and ecology. He can go macro or micro easily in his analysis, and his animal-sighting and field skills are outstanding. He has spent time living in a Maasai village. He has judgment beyond his years except when riding a motorcycle, bungee-jumping or free climbing, and his playfulness and humor are always enlivening for our group. His family has set up a foundation, The Dorobo Fund, to work with native African tribes and villages on using their natural resources sustainably.