The Eastern Cape’s first survival school gets up and running
Shane Engelbrecht cuts a shy and unassuming figure but when he talks the man seems to grow in stature. He talks with passion and intensity about the environment and humankind’s increasingly problematic relationship with it. The challenge for him, a deeply personal one and now a career choice, is how we understand and relate to the environment.
Engelbrecht is founder and coordinator of The Eastern Wilderness School, the first and only of its kind in the Eastern Cape, based on Fairview Game Reserve just outside of Grahamstown on the R67 towards Port Alfred. The school offers courses on the basic skills of wilderness living and outdoor survival.
Born in Kwa-Zulu Natal, Engelbrecht has lived all over South Africa as well as having travelled inside of Southern Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the United Kingdom. He has returned to the Eastern Cape, now home, hence the name of the school.
The cultures of indigenous people have always interested Engelbrecht, the way that they live in and with the environment and the social harmony that results. This interest was given new fuel after he studied a BA at Rhodes University with majors in anthropology and sociology.
As he talks one can hear that the fascination is deep, complimented by a learned understanding of the peoples and ideas he talks about. The Khoisan and Ovahimba (Namibia) peoples in particular are a source of inspiration because of their nomadic, low impact lifestyles. “The whole idea of living in harmony with nature interested me, taking what you need and nothing more,” explains Engelbrecht.
The importance of proper use of the environment first hit home during a camping trip in Namibia. “We made a bonfire at night,” he says, “not for warmth or cooking but because we could. The next day we saw an old Himba man with a small fire and I realised we burnt what he uses in a week”.
The biggest problem in the western world, he says, is how we have moved away from a holistic consciousness, from seeing ourselves as part of nature, to one where it needs to be conquered and dominated. This situation is likely the largest contributing factor to the global environmental crisis that humanity now finds itself in. To counter this, says Engelbrecht, “our main push is to rekindle a love of the outdoors. The best survival skill (of indigenous people) is to work with nature”.
“The long term plan is to take different people out of the city environment, put them in the wilderness and give them an alternative view of nature,” he says.
The philosophy driving the school is one that seeks to bring people back to nature in a way that they are not starry-eyed tourists giving them, instead, a grounding in the ways of surviving in the natural world.
We must remember, he argues, that “in each of us are certain instincts but they dormant, in the current context of global scarce resources, these things are important. We teach a holistic way of thinking about nature and survival. If you do one thing it feeds into another.”
Courses cover things such as survival psychology, knives, water, food, fire, shelter, navigation, creepy crawlies, as well as rescue procedure and survival kit. Eventually the school will cater for various levels ranging from basic weekend courses, highly specialised training such as military and pilot/air crew survival, and personalised programs, designed to suit the needs and natural environment of the students. So far Engelbrecht has run courses for students and some local schools.
The school is also linked to Hobbiton-on-Hogsback, an organisation that does social outreach programme aimed at underprivileged children and schools with a focus on outdoor activities and team building. Through providing complimentary activities groups leave with a more rounded experience.
One gets the sense that this process of learning about going back to nature has been a spiritual journey leading to the establishment of the school. “The ironic thing,” says Engelbrecht, “is that most of these (survival) skills have been forgotten here (in Southern Africa) and I have had to travel very far to learn them. I am interested in recovering these lost skills”.
Smiling, he recalls “the first time I got fire with a fire stick it took me four hours. When I saw flame I felt what the first human must have felt, but here I am in the twenty-first century. I thought to myself, this is it! If I can share this knowledge with someone else and they can have that feeling, great.”
Partner in the process of building the school is Grahamstown local Siyabonga Mthathi (21). Mthathi is co-facilitator and responsible for teaching students about Xhosa culture. With time Engelbrecht hopes to train Mthathi up to a level where he will facilitate for Xhosa-speaking groups. The school’s aim is not to be exclusive but to educate people of all ages, backgrounds and racial groups as environmental issues are a universal human concern.
Fairview owner, Len Kruiskamp, says that the presence of the school at Fairview would add depth to the farm’s existing offerings and provide a valuable service to the entire Grahamstown community. “From my point of view it is a facility that Grahamstown needs and with the Hobbiton connections it gives added opportunity to underprivileged kids which they don’t have at the moment.”
In parting Engelbrecht quotes from a book on “participating in nature”. His challenge is simple, “the more you know the less you need to take with you. Then you go out and melt into nature”.
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