THE JOURNEY WITHIN
Ian Player
Voltaire once remarked that he loved the man who sought the truth, but hated the man who claimed to have found it. I am now at seventy, and on the last lap of life. My search for the truth has been a lifetime exploration, both internally and externally. I make no claim to have found it, but there have been insights. When I travelled to the 8th World Wilderness Congress in Alaska in September 2005, my flight from South Africa took me over the Drakensberg Mountains: Ukuhlamba of the Zulu people. I looked down and pondered, saw the red grass glowing luminously in the afternoon sun.
These mountains were the last refuge of the San or Bushmen people, who painted their exquisite art on cave walls and recorded the history of our country, the coming of the Nguni people, the Boers on their horses, English soldiers and the vast array of wild animals. By 1870 there were no San people left. They were shot and killed without mercy and with them went vast tomes of wisdom and knowledge.
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