‘You want to work with lions?’: How Africa’s first all-female safari guide team reinvented the wheel

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It’s been 20 years since Lebo became a guide at Chobe, a career she describes as her “passion.” 

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“Joining the safari industry opened my eyes,” says Lebo, looking relaxed in her khaki uniform, a red and white scarf tied neatly at her collar. “At first, I didn’t know much about wildlife. Where I come from, we don’t have beautiful wildlife like here in Chobe. So I went through the training, and becoming a guide at Chobe Game Lodge has changed my life.”

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It changed her family’s world, too. The income has afforded a comfortable house and private education for her children. And while the job keeps her away from home for stretches at a time, Lebo says today’s technology makes the distance manageable as does the lodge’s flexibility with scheduling time off. 

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For 40-year-old Oriah, everything changed after high school when she visited her uncle, a safari guide in Kasane. Seeing a woman driving an open Land Cruiser for what was then known as Chobe Exploration made everything click. Oriah enrolled in a part-time business administration course and found work as a bookkeeper at a tourism company, gradually shifting her focus toward guiding. In 2013, she travelled alone to the Botswana Wildlife Training Institute to sit her professional guide licence exam. There were 11 candidates in the room. She was the only woman.   

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Lions in Botswana’s Chobe National Park. Photo by Desert & Delta Safaris

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After qualifying as an assistant guide, Oriah sent an application to Chobe Exploration and never looked back. Six months of shadowing experienced Angels Lebo and environmentalist Tshepiso “Vivian” Diphupu and rotating through the lodge’s different departments, and Oriah was guiding on her own. 

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Like Lebo, Oriah says she’s passionate about guiding. She never gets tired of her “big, exciting office” on the river or savannah, and loves meeting guests from around the world.

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“I can see this every day,” she says, gesturing toward the riverfront, “but once I go out there with a different guest, it’s something new to me.”

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That sentiment runs through every conversation with the Angels. Some of these women, like Lebo, faced skeptical parents (”You want to work with elephants and lions?!”), but all have helped reshape what is possible for the next generation. Younger women now stop them in the field to ask them how they did it. The local junior high school invites the Angels to speak on its career day.

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Elephants on the banks of Botswana’s Chobe River. Photo by Stuart Parker /Desert & Delta Safaris

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Despite the Angels having been around for some time, they all agree that people are still surprised every day. Male guides from passing safari tours point them out to their guests. 

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“We are part of the wildlife,” Lebo jokes. “They tell them, ‘That’s a Chobe Angel’” and that Chobe Game Lodge only employs female guides.” 

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The team is still growing, says Vivian, and their ambitions are expanding with it. Oriah is pursuing a specialist qualification in birding; Lebo is studying astronomy, adding stargazing to the lodge’s evening offerings. Recently, a young man asked to train alongside them, becoming the first male to come up through the Chobe Angels program. They welcomed him without hesitation.

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“He’s our Charlie Angel,” laughs Vivian. 

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