Park

Long, grinding drives through deep Kalahari sand. A surprise encounter with a black rhino in scrubby bushland. The briefest glimpse of a wild dog. The clicking hooves of eland, walking single file towards water. The whistling wingbeats of countless doves, the cautious approach of a lone giraffe… An appreciation for subtle beauty and brief encounters, and a disregard for time schedules are important to relish an unhurried visit to Mangetti’s waterholes and woodlands.

As a nature park, Mangetti is the Khaudum’s minor counterpart. It embraces similar habitat and exudes that ambience of Kalahari woodland wilderness. Yet the park is small, and fenced; an island in a patchwork of farmland. It’s too small for elephant and lion, but home to most of the other typical woodland species. It’s a brief glimpse of wilderness for travellers to or from Namibia’s north-eastern reaches.

Driving is slow, the days are hot and the woodlands hide their secrets well. The waterholes of the park define most of its wildlife viewing, yet even the waterside vigils require patience to be rewarded. Mangetti is only open for day visits and its sandy 4×4 routes and wary game make it an excursion for the imperturbable. For those who endure, a long day will be a little breath of the wild, before heading back into the bustle of the adjoining communal livelihoods.

Surrounded by people, Mangetti is another example of Namibia’s inclusive conservation approach. The park was initially established through collaboration with local leaders, and today seeks to ensure that benefits generated through tourism and wildlife use are channelled back to the people in its vicinity. As a part of KAZA, Mangetti fulfils this priority of community participation, but being completely fenced can make no contribution to open landscape conservation.

WHEN TO BE THERE:

Mangetti is open all year
The park is open for day visitors from sunrise to sunset
Midday temperatures can be very high in summer
Summer rain showers are usually brief & generally occur in the afternoon

WHAT TO DO:

Spend time at waterholes; game is a little wary so patience is paramount
Enjoy undulating drives through the dune woodland
Birdwatching can be rewarding both in the woodlands & at the waterholes
Stop on a dune ridge & breathe in the ambience of the wild

WHAT TO REMEMBER:

Don’t drive too close to the water to minimise disturbance of game at waterpoints
There are no facilities in the park; day visits only
All routes may require 4x4, which increases fuel use; fuel is only available at Grootfontein & Rundu
The park is in a malaria area; take necessary precautions

African Pygmy-Goose

Fulvous Whistling-Duck

Hottentot Teal

Southern Pochard

African Palm-Swift

History

Colgar Sikopo was the Chief Control Warden for Wildlife Management in Kavango and Caprivi when Hompa Mpasi of the Ukwangali Traditional Authority came to his office in Rundu in early 2003. The King requested that the Mangetti Game Camp be declared a park, that historically occurring game be brought back, and that the communities around the park should benefit from this.

As is the case for most of the country, San communities are believed to have utilised much of northeastern Namibia for millennia. The Kwangali are more recent habitants, although they already settled along the Okavango several centuries ago, after moving here from the upper reaches of the Zambezi via the Kwando River. Like most rural people in northern Namibia, the Kwangali practise cropping and livestock herding, and have a system of monarchy rule. The lack of surface water in the sandveld inhibited people from living away from the river. Even today, over two thirds of the regional population stay along the Okavango.

Karl Johan Andersson is the first European known to have travelled through the area when he reached the Okavango in 1859. Thirty years later, explorers and traders still noted minimal trade and few guns in the area. Limited influence was exerted during the German colonial period, with the first police post installed only in 1910, at Nkurenkuru along the Okavango. After World War I, the Kavango Native Reserve was created as part of South Africa’s homeland policies. The administrative region changed shape several times over the next 60 years, to finally become Kavango West and Kavango East in 2013.

Access to the northeast was difficult until the Mururani–Rundu road was built in the early 1960s. Settlement along the road increased dramatically once boreholes were established. Today, there is a near-continuous ribbon of settlements between Mururani and Rundu. To the east and south of Mangetti, 30 farms of around 8,000 hectares each were allocated to politically connected individuals in 1992, and supplied with boreholes. Meanwhile, a public road is being constructed along Mangetti’s eastern border, with the result that the park is now completely wedged between farms and roads.

What is today Mangetti is said to have been a traditional hunting area for the Kwangali monarchy. The area was set aside for an agricultural project by the South African administration as part of homeland development, yet its limited farming potential later led to it being transferred to the Department of Nature Conservation. The block was fenced in 1973–74 as a game camp, with a plan to generate income for the Kavango Administration through game breeding and trophy hunting.

After independence, the land was transferred to the MET under the aegis of the Mangetti Management Committee. The local community first requested that it be proclaimed as a jointly managed park in 1992. These efforts were taken up again 10 years later by the Kwangali King, and Mangetti National Park was approved by Cabinet in 2008. In keeping with the initial concept, the park is jointly managed by the MET, the traditional authority and the Kavango West Regional Council.

The park is named after the mangetti tree, Schinziophyton rautanenii. Few specimens of this impressive tree grow in the park, but it is a widespread and locally common species in the region. People collect the fruits to make a porridge out of the flesh. The small kernels, though encased in an extremely hard shell, make a fine oil. The fruits are also eaten by elephants and various smaller animals

Activities

Conservations

Mangetti was securely fenced over the past decade and an attractive entrance has been built, yet it is a park still in the making. There are currently no facilities, and a tourism route was only recently mapped, which covers much of the park in a meandering loop. With few visitors, most revenue is currently generated through conservation hunting.

Camera traps have been installed at the water points to monitor wildlife, with a particular focus on wild dog, which have an uncertain future in the small park. While animals such as elephant and lion have disappeared, a variety of other species have been brought back. Common impala, giraffe, plains zebra, kudu and gemsbok have all been translocated here, and there is hope of reintroducing white rhino.

Mangetti National Park