'The one who gathers knowledge'

For Moji Kitsi, the bush is the best teacher. We joined this inspirational wildlife education guide on one of his outings in the Waterberg.

- TOAST COETZER

It’s a hot November morning when I meet Moji Kitsi at the gate of Welgevonden Game Reserve, about 24km northwest of Vaalwater in Limpopo. He’s dressed in the colours of the bush: olive-green cargo shorts and a golf shirt that’s clearly seen a lot of sun. His short dreadlocks are rolled up under his cap.

We shake hands, then I hop into the white and green minibus used by the Welgevonden Environmental Awareness Programme (WEAP). As coordinator of WEAP, Moji spends a lot of time on the road in this bus, carting schoolchildren back and forth between towns like Vaalwater and wildlife refuges like Welgevonden.

Three youngsters from Vaalwater are already on the bus: Thembi Momene (22), Thabang Mkoe (18) and Mpho Motsomane (19). Moji has worked with them before and knows them well. He imparts knowledge about the bush as we go, in an easy, conversational tone.

A solifuge (a sun spider) scurries across the road and we all get out to take a look before it disappears. Moji segues smoothly into a lesson: “In nature, nothing functions by itself,” he says. “We have three types of symbiotic relationships – do you remember them? Mutualism, parasitism, and commensalism. Mutualism is like when you buy bread, your friend buys chips, and then you eat together. Commensalism is when you buy bread and your friend buys nothing – but that’s okay because she doesn’t eat with you anyway. And parasitism is when you buy bread and your friend buys nothing – but she eats all the bread!”

He laughs and then moves on to explaining how a lichen is a composite organism in which algae and cyanobacteria share a mutualistic relationship.

“Lichen only grows where the air is pristine,” says. “You kids always want to go to Pretoria or Joburg but you won’t find lichen there…”