The Stonemen. Flint and his friends in Kaokoland, by Ron Swilling.

The Stonemen. Flint and his friends in Kaokoland, by Ron Swilling. Venture Publications. Windhoek, Namibia 2024. ISBN 9789991695471 / ISBN 978-99916-954-7-1

The publication of The Stonemen. Flint and his friends in Kaokoland, by Ron Swilling, seeks to honour what the Stonemen symbolise: resilience, unity, and the timeless relationship between people and the natural world.

There is a place called Kaokoland. It is tucked into the Namib Desert in the far reaches of north-western Namibia, like a well-kept secret. I heard tales about it from long-time travellers I met along the dusty roads of southern Africa. They told me how it is a magnificent expanse of arid land where few people live, where desert elephant follow dry riverbeds like highways, where lions roam and where sparkling constellations span the sky with a crystal-clear clarity like nowhere else on Earth. Eventually, I could resist no longer. Some of my travelling friends who had shared food and stories on the road had decided to settle there and I wondered what pot of gold they had found in the desert. My curiosity, keen sense of adventure and longing for open space away from the busy towns won me over, and I decided to pay them a visit. With a spring in my step, I happily turned my compass to the north-west and followed its bearing. It took me many months to get there. The more I travelled, the more I enjoyed feeling the warmth of the sun on my back, the wind playing in my hair, watching the sunsets paint the evening sky and rolling out my sleeping bag at night to watch the stars. When I grew weary during the heat of the day, I rested in the shade of gnarled camelthorn trees and when I was thirsty, I searched for water in the mountain springs; the flashes of green rosy-faced lovebirds and the 'kelkiewyn' calls of Namaqua sandgrouse alerting me to its life-giving presence. As I travelled further into the desert, following my course, the land became drier and hotter and I saw fewer people. Occasionally a gemsbok would watch me, standing statue-still until it galloped off into the distance. Or a herd of springbok, on seeing me, began to pronk in unison, leaping straight up into the air as if there were springs under their hooves. At night the scorpions emerged from their crescent holes, owls hooted 'wooo hooo' to their mates and black-backed jackals chatted among themselves. As I drew closer and began to cross the dry riverbeds that meander through the northern areas searching for the ocean, I began to see the tracks of desert elephant embossed in the sand and one night I listened to the rumbling call of a lion. Whenever I happened to meet other travellers, I asked if they had heard of this place called Kaokoland. At first, their answers were vague and their directions hazy. Sometimes many days passed before I would meet anyone. I carried on walking, my excitement mounting as the directions became clearer and I realised that I was drawing near. Then, on a windy day, when dust devils lifted up sand and leaves in swirling loops and swept across the land, I arrived in the small settlement of Sesfontein, the place of many springs. And that is where my story begins. I blew into Sesfontein in a cloud of dust. It was the first time that I had been in a settlement for a while. Goats crossed the dusty streets and dogs came to greet me wagging their tails, hoping for a treat. [..]

This is an excerpt from The Stonemen. Flint and his friends in Kaokoland, by Ron Swilling.

Title: The Stonemen
Subtitle: Flint and his friends in Kaokoland
Text: Ron Swilling
Photography: Jason Nott
Illustrations: Jacquie Tarra
Publisher: Venture Publications
Windhoek, Namibia 2024
ISBN 9789991695471 / ISBN 978-99916-954-7-1 
Softcover, 21 x 21 cm, 120 pages, throughout colour photos, Text: English