Andrew Baxter, CEO of Babanango Game Reserve speaking at Indaba 2024: “The name Babanango comes from folklore it comes from a time when a young child was lost in the community in the Hills and Valleys of Babanango game reserve and the community all set about trying to look for this child and they called her name and they searched for her and eventually the clouds lifted and somebody saw the child and shouted to the father Babanango, a salutation, that’s “father father.” Babanango there she is, there she is, Babanango, so that is the name of Babanango.”
“Now the reason why I tell you this is that you will never forget it again. So now you know the name of the place let’s talk to you about the reserve um so I’m not this is a bit text heavy so just listen to me rather than read all the text but Babanango game reserve is really a community owned project that is privately operated and it’s a wonderful coming together of community the land that Babanango game reserve is situated on was restituted as part of a lands claim process and returned to the original inhabitants who are now the title lead owners of these properties and they have come together with a private investor who sought to to generate and establish a game reserve for altruistic reasons and also because of opportunities to create a sustainable project that is vested in tourism.”
Samantha Cuthbert, Eoghan Corry, Jo Austin and Andrew Baxter at Indaba 2024.
