Ayibongwe Nkiwane

My name is Ayibongwe Mkwananzi, I hail from the City of Kings, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, I grew up right on the edge of the City next to what was then a reserve and a wilderness area, an area where quite a few of our industry professionals reside, going to junior school and finding a jackal, aardvark, or bush pig had trapped itself within our fences overnight was a common enough occurrence, as was dodging a serval cat, duiker or kudu that came out of nowhere on the drives home, so we were always exposed to nature.

School trips to wildlife orphanages from animals captured within our area were always the most memorable to me and those sparked the initial flame that would then become a career in wildlife. This career however wouldn’t start until the COVID pandemic when the tragic loss of life made me realise that we ought to live life doing what we are passionate about, and for me that was being out documenting and observing wildlife, I volunteered myself for various Anti-poaching programs which meant through lockdown I was able to be out there protecting the wildlife I admired. I joined organisations such as MYCS under Birdlife Zimbabwe which kick started a whole new love for birds, post lockdown I would participate in JRS programs at the Natural History Museum which offered me the opportunity to learn more about Herpetology.

Eventually I found myself within the Guiding circles completing my Zim guides license in 2021 and working in Matopos, Hwange National Park, and Zambezi National Park, moving from home made me want to learn more about the different biomes, the different birds and animals out there, which is when I was blessed to land a job with Sunway Safaris.

Working for Sunway has offered me the opportunity to grow my knowledge by working with various professionals from across all of Southern Africa, and also afforded me the opportunity to go on to study FGASA, and has also allowed me to share my own love for nature with the world, as well as offering me the opportunity to teach our clients about my own culture as well as the many others we travel on tour.