Namibia looking for a few Texas hunters

African envoy visits state to promote nation's biggest industry
By DAVID HENDRICKS
San Antonio Express-News
Jan. 7, 2011, 11:08PM

SAN ANTONIO — Hunting in Namibia has a few similarities to hunting in Texas Hill Country. It's hugely popular and happens mostly in the winter on large ranches with cattle.

But instead of a 200-pound whitetail deer, Namibia's prized trophy is a 500-pound kudu, a kind of antelope. And instead of sitting in a blind, hunters take aim from trucks or track their game through mountains and desert that are also home to leopards, crocodiles and hippopotamuses.

Namibian Ambassador Martin Andjaba was in San Antonio on Friday as part of a tour of Texas to promote his country's main industry, hunting, and its upcoming tourism expo in the nation's capital city of Windhoek in late May and early June.

The large nation on Africa's southwestern coast has an economy is based on energy, agriculture and mining, but tourism/hunting may be the biggest sector, said San Antonio lawyer Robert Braubach.

"It's a big part of their economy and an important link between America and Africa," he said. Braubach organized Andjaba's San Antonio visit and himself has hunted in Namibia four or five times since the mid-1990s.

"The import of rifles (for hunting) is easier in Namibia than in other African nations. The prices in Namibia are considerably less than in other African nations," said Braubach.

Andjaba came to San Antonio after speaking Thursday at the Dallas Safari Club convention. His Washington embassy office is coordinating a U.S. trade mission to Namibia's tourism expo. The expo's exact dates still are being finalized.

The ambassador's itinerary in San Antonio won't be all work. Over the weekend he will hunt deer in South Texas with Braubach, and he will attend a San Antonio Spurs game Sunday, visit with Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade next week and possibly attend safari club meetings in San Antonio and Austin. He is planning on attending the awards dinner of the Alamo chapter of the Safari Club International on Tuesday. The chapter has 320 members, said club secretary Janice Magninat.

"We are marketing ourselves as a country. We have a lot to offer," Andjaba said.

Mining, especially diamonds, uranium, copper and gold, are opportunities for foreign investors, he said. "We are the only country that mines diamonds from the sea. We have the technology and know-how to do that," Andjaba said.

Namibia's game includes various types of antelope, including the kudu, eland and oryx. Leopard, cape buffalo, crocodile and hippopotamus also are hunted. Of those, the kudu is the most prized.

"The kudu has the large, spiraling horns. There's no greater trophy in Africa than a majestic, mature kudu," Braubach said.

The peak hunting season is Nambia's winter, June through August, when temperatures range between 40 and 70 degrees during the day, with little rain. The foliage is gone in winter, making it easier to spot the game, Braubach said. Animals are more active then because it is their mating season.

dhendricks@express-news.net