DAWN OF A NEW ERA – ACCEPTANCE STATEMENT FROM MOHAMMED BILLOW
To the wonderful team at Discover Africa. With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your invitation to work with you, moving forward. To go fast, they told us, go alone but to go far, join a winning team. I do so with so much pride, gusto, and enthusiasm.
A decade ago, with nothing but hope and a wandering mind, I began a journey. One laden with challenges, disappointments, and even disbelief. I had always read about how great it is to put something invaluable on record not just for posterity but as a constant reminder of how far we have come as a people in the industry.
Armed with just a simple phone camera, my Kodak moments begin. My photography journey kicked off and what a learning curve it has been! We learn, unlearn and relearn some more.
In the words of former Hindu nationalist CJ Rajagopalachari. If the education that we receive does not enter our hearts and minds and changes our lives and worldview for the better, then that education is no different from the shirt that we wear in the morning and remove in the evening.
It is for this reason that I got interested in learning more about photography. Especially in the wide wild world. Africa’s stories have been told before but there are a million ways to tell a story and as we choose photography to tell ours to the world. We do so in the knowledge that our stories are utter, undiluted, distilled, and then some.
From the stories of a ranger who sleeps out in the cold. Pulling all stops to ensure our wild animals are safe from any external danger like illegal hunting and poaching. From bees that pollinate flowers and other plants and make us honey. From the human and wildlife conflict that threatens the very existence of man and animals. From the extremes of dicey matters like nurturing endangered species and even telling the stories of the extinct ones, Discover Africa is like cream. It always rises to the top and as we tell our myriad of stories, we are confident that more and more people, be they rookies or professional guides and other relevant parties shall amplify their voices and give the oxygen of publicity to our stories. The African stories. The discovered African stories through Discover Africa.
As a team, we shall, without doubt, pull out all the stops to ensure that the world stops to read, watch, listen and even see our African stories through this platform.
On my own behalf and on behalf of the whole fraternity of Aquilasafaris Kenya, I thank you Discover Africa for this incredibly fantastic opportunity.
The world, quite literally, shall be our oyster.
