The setting was Moonraker Outdoor Adventure Restcamp; which served as the backdrop to an event that looked to the past to inspire the future. This was the official opening of the Helmut zur Strassen Room of Remembrance, and with it, a new resolve to mould the next generation of tour- and field guides in Namibia.
The date of this event has been carefully selected. 17 February would have been Helmut zur Strassen’s 97th birthday. This year, it also heralded in the Chinese year of the fire horse, an event that recurs only once every 60 years to bring forth change, boldness, and dynamism in all aspects of life.
Zur Strassen, described as “a legend of the industry”, has been remembered by those who knew him as an individual who embodied such qualities: inquisitive, ambitious, and fearless in his pursuit of knowledge. The fact that this date coincides with this new year of the fire horse does not feel like a coincidence, but rather like continuity.
The formal opening of this Room of Remembrance follows hot on the heels of an invigorating workshop held the week before, in which well-known Namibian specialists gathered to reflect on the tour-guiding craft and to reimagine its future. The debates were lively, sometimes contentious, and often inspiring. The talk was not just of facts and figures, but of what it means to interpret a landscape, culture, and history to others.
At the heart of the initiative is Gondwana Collection Namibia, with its vision of further development of the Gondwana Academy.
The aim is to provide a holistic learning environment that will upskill field and tour guides throughout Namibia, enabling them to become the guides of the future – not merely to provide information but to interpret, inspire, and connect with the people they meet on the journey.
Notably, this training will go beyond theory. Training and modules are envisioned to take place in the field across Namibia, where participants can engage with the surrounding landscape as a living classroom. This way, the physical space and the training philosophy meet, with knowledge in the field supported by knowledge in the classroom.
Facts and figures alone will no longer suffice in the new programme. The initiative aims to integrate the disciplines of geology, ecology, history, storytelling, ethics, and personal development into the framework of the programme. The vision is for the tour guides to see the bigger picture and understand the intricate connections in the processes of evolution, adaptation, and survival in the desert environment of Namibia and her people.
If the year of the fire horse represents momentum and change, then the training programme represents the same kind of energy and momentum, channelled toward growth. By honouring Zur Helmut’s legacy, the Gondwana Academy is not merely preserving knowledge for the sake of preserving it; it is putting it to work to develop future generations.
As the training programme takes shape, further information will be shared.
More information on Gondwana Collection Namibia’s people team and academy programmes is available on the Gondwana website.
www.gondwana-collection.com
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