Into Africa: One Family’s Journey to the Cradle of Mankind
“One thing the pandemic has done,” says Sho Kassam, Oklahoma City-based entrepreneur and prolific traveler, “is to remind us of what truly matters. It’s family.” After more than a year spent at home, Kassam and his family longed for an adventure, and he and his wife Selma Alami wanted to begin teaching their two children about their roots…who they are as a family and where their ancestry lies. “They are old enough now to start to connect the pieces,” Kassam says.
With that in mind, Kassam, Alami and their kids Sonia, 11, and Sami, 8, embarked on the kind of trip most will only dream of: a monthlong excursion into the cradle of mankind, Africa. Kassam, who grew up in Kenya, and Alami, from Morocco, wanted to anchor their children in the family’s heritage and immerse them in the “beauty of untouched wilderness,” as he says.
Kassam, a pilot, owns SoulBird Air Charter, its operating company Oklahoma Aviation and AvionAero, which offers maintenance and mechanical services to the private aviation industry. Alami, a pharmacist, is a partner in a company which owns a group of five pharmacies in Oklahoma and Washington state, recently also expanding into Iowa.
This year’s odyssey focused on the family’s patrilinear heritage, with stops to visit Kassam’s parents and some of his favorite places. Next year the Kassam-Alami family will travel to Morocco to experience Alami’s northern region of coastal Africa and the beauty and sophistication of another ancient country whose culture brings together Berber, Arabian and European cultural influences.
The trip began in Nairobi, Kenya, where the family visited the Karen Blixen Museum located in a century-old farmhouse on 6,000 acres of land at the foot of Kenya’s Ngong Hills. The farm was once owned by the Swedish Baron Bror von Blixen Fincke and his wife, Baroness Karen Blixen, whose 1937 memoir, “Out of Africa,” and the 1985 novel by the same name transfixed millions. Blixen died of syphilis, contracted from the Baron, and famously said upon learning the news of her fate, “There are two things you can do in such a situation: shoot the man or accept it.”
From there, the family checked an item off of Sonia’s must-do list, a visit to an elephant orphanage within the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. The orphanage, founded by Dame Daphne Marjorie Sheldrick and her husband David, has successfully rescued, raised and rehabilitated nearly 300 orphaned elephants and rhinos. The Trust also protects wild habitats and ecosystems, provides wildlife education and experiences, funds projects such as building beehive arrays that serve as elephant fences, and undertakes many other innovative projects.
The next stop was Kichwa Tembo Lodge at the popular Maasai Mara National Reserve. Here, the accommodations heighten the magic of their surroundings. The family spent two nights in the most luxe tents we have ever seen. The grasslands of southwestern Kenya are adjacent to the Serengeti and are in the path of the world’s largest animal migration. Two million wildebeest and 300,000 zebras migrate up from the Serengeti across the Mara grasslands. The family saw the last few herds of the annual migration, but an even greater thrill was seeing lions, African elephants, Cape buffalo and black rhinoceros. The children, especially Sami, may have been even more fascinated by their small plane’s takeoffs and landings on short grass or dirt runways. Like father, like son.
The family then journeyed to the island of Lamu, just off Kenya’s northern coast, to stay at the charming, family-owned boutique-style Peponi Hotel in Shela village. The hotel was founded in the 1960s when the Korschen family, displaced from their farm by Kenya’s independence, discovered an abandoned home on the beach. They bought, restored it, and the rest is history. Lamu Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the oldest and best-preserved Swahili settlement in East Africa, retaining its traditional functions. The island is a hotspot for royals, rock stars and aristocrats, whose holidays on Lamu lend an understated glitz. Among celebs who love Lamu are Mick Jagger, Madonna, Sting, Kate Moss and a slate of European royals including England’s Princess Beatrice.
A stay in Lamu’s Shela village is like going back in time, glorious, pristine beaches, local fishing on tiny boats, undisturbed medieval stone buildings, and the only transportation is on foot or via traditional boats called dhows. Automobiles are banned, and even bicycles are not allowed, so dhows carry passengers and goods through the Lamu archipelago. A dhow cruise rounded out the family’s time on Lamu.
The safari part of the Kassam’s trip concluded at an iconic tropical paradise on the shore of the Indian Ocean. The Hemingways Watamu, a 5-star beachfront boutique hotel is within the Watamu Marine National Park and Reserve and a short drive to Arabuko Sokoke National Park and Forest Reserve. The area is a well-known sport fishing Mecca and offers spectacular snorkeling along the white sand beaches. The Park is the largest surviving area of coastal forest in Kenya and is home to many exotic mammals, reptiles and birds.
Two weeks into their journey, the family had enjoyed safaris, hikes, cruises and lots of active fun. The remaining weeks would adopt a more leisurely, beachy pace. Alami headed back to the States, as her company’s expansion plans required her expertise. Kassam and the kids spent time reconnecting with family, specially Kassam’s parents, visiting childhood friends and doing things that Kassam remembered from his childhood. They visited Fort Jesus, the old Portuguese port on the coast, explored Old Town Mombasa, and took day trips in the area.
Mombasa, on the eastern coast of Kenya near Tanzania, was an ancient trading center and an important gateway to India. Mombasa’s Fort Jesus at the entry to Old Town Mombasa was built by the Portuguese in the late 1500s. By the 18th century, Omami Arabs controlled Mombasa, but the British had conquered it by the 19th century and used it as a prison and a base for the East African slave trade. It is now a museum that details the fort’s history and the stories of the many slaves that died or were enslaved in other countries during the East Kenyan Slave trade.
One noteworthy trip was to beautiful Diani Beach, Kassam’s favorite place when he was growing up. His father was the manager of a local tour company, and he had an office and manager’s cottage at Diani Beach. Most weekends, Kassam’s family would pile into the car to go enjoy the pristine white sand beach and turquoise water there. The beach is on the coast of the Diani Chale Marine National Preserve and is one of the world’s most beautiful beaches.
As Kassam reflects on this trip, the happiness in his voice is apparent. “We love to travel as a family, and I never take for granted the opportunities we’ve been given. Our family is the ultimate American success story: Selma and I are two immigrants who came to the United States to make our dreams come true, and we want our children to know where they come from.”