Blue Values Journey Archive

Athabile Xuba and Bayanda Laqwela

Tracing the lineage and adaptation of the desert coastal lions of Namibia offers a captivating narrative of survival and resilience in one of the world's most extreme environments. These remarkable lions, uniquely adapted to both the harsh conditions of the Namib Desert and the rock ‘skeleton coast’ coastline, embody the tenacity of life in the face of adversity.

Jessica Leigh Thornton

With contrasting landscapes, Namibia captivates travellers from around the world with its natural beauty and cultural richness (Buhrmann, 2013). From the towering sand dunes of the Namib Desert where shifting sands sculpted by the wind form otherworldly landscapes such as the iconic red dunes of Sossusvlei, to where the sun casts long shadows across hidden oases where lush vegetation thrives amidst the arid terrain. 

Zanele Hartmann and Sharon Gabie

Storytelling serves as a means of recording and expressing feelings, perspectives, and responses of ones’ lived experiences and environment (Tuwe, 2016). The spoken word has served as a significant avenue for self-awareness, fostering connections, and maintaining a balance among the physical, emotional, and environmental aspects of existence. Njogu (2009) states that, “...story telling occupies a natural role in many African cultures, it has the potential of functioning as a key strategy for promotion of health and well-being”. 

Jessica Leigh Thornton

Tucked away on the windswept southernmost Coast of Namibia, Lüderitz stands as a testament to resilience and cultural richness where German colonialism contributed vastly more exports and imports than was officially acknowledged (Press, 2021). 

Jessica Leigh Thornton

Along Namibia’s Atlantic coast, lies a town of purple hues and culinary delights. Swakopmund links travel routes north to Etosha, east to Windhoek and south to Sossusvlei, providing a cool escape and respite from the harsh Namibian desert landscape (Wetu, 2023). With its array of tourist attractions and desert activities, two culinary traditions have captured the hearts and taste buds of locals and visitors alike.

Zanele Hartmann and Rose Boswell

In Undersea, Rachel Carson once said: Who has known the sea, neither you nor I with our earth bound senses (https://www.theatlantic.com). To sense this world of waters known to the creatures of the sea we must shed our human perceptions of length and breadth and time and place, and enter vicariously into a universe of all-pervading water (Rachel Carson’s undersea, republished in the 1937 September issue of the Atlantic). 

Jessica Thornton and Zanele Hartmann

“Healing in African indigenous cultures is a corporate matter involving the totality of the person, family and community” (Olademo, 2013: 53). In many cultures the sea embodies meaning, healing and identity.