Page 126 - Discover Botswana 25th Edition - 2025

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photography as a storytelling tool at the Nkashi Knowledge
Centre in Matlapana. Nkashi Trust is in the process of
expanding this programme to even more remote places
around the Delta. The next cohort of budding storytellers
will be established in the Eastern Okavango Panhandle
and will be facilitated from the newly constructed Nkashi
Knowledge Centre in Beetsha.
Storytelling Club Camps also provided opportunities
for the students to visit the Moremi and Khwai Nature
Reserve where students learnt the techniques of wildlife
photography from National Geographic Explorers and
local photographers. Khwai was kind to these budding
nature storytellers and gave them some of the best
sightings. There were leopards, lions, plenty of elephants,
and incredible sunrises and sunsets that provided lots of
lessons in photographing the natural world. Most of the
photographers proved to be naturally talented and took
beautiful images.
Right: Nkashi Visual Voices, a cohort of deaf storytelling
students photograph a young elephant at Elephant Havens
near Shorobe.
THALEFANG CHARLES
Thalefang Charles is a photographer, writer,
journalist, producer, storyteller, and arts
lover, based in Botswana. He is the author of
Botswana’s “Top 50 Ultimate Experiences”
– a photographic coffee table guidebook
about Botswana. After 16 years of illustrious
career in journalism, he is now focusing on
using the power of storytelling to help in the
protection of the Okavango Delta. He is the
storytelling manager for National Geographic
Society’s Okavango Wilderness Project, which
has been working with local communities,
NGOs, and governments of Angola, Namibia,
and Botswana to secure a permanent and
sustainable protection for the greater Okavango
River basin. As a National Geographic Explorer,
Charles documents the lives of the people of
the Okavango Delta in Botswana. His “Legends
of the Okavango” project aims to capture,
retell, and preserve the amazing life stories of
the former safari guides, old hunter’s porters,
and elders from the Indigenous communities
of one of Africa’s last wild places.