inspiration
“The first time I stood before a buffalo in Chobe National Park, time slowed. There it was: my totem. No longer a story told in childhood, but flesh and breath and presence. In that moment, I felt curiosity and excitement but, more than anything, recognition. It was as though the land was introducing me to myself.” Lesego Selao, of Elela, is a member of the Molete clan from Gabane, a village near Botswana’s capital, Gaborone. Her totem is the buffalo. “I was raised with a deep respect for lineage, the land, and one’s totem,” she says. “On my father’s side, my lineage traces back to Plumtree in Zimbabwe. Its totem is the heart. In this clan, women are revered and affectionately called Mma Moyo (Mother Heart), or Mma Ndlovhu (Mother Elephant). So, I have both the buffalo and elephant totems.” Across African cultures, kinship is established through blood and totem. Blood binds families. Totems unite clans and tribes, denoting lineage
and belonging. “They’re a means for people to identify themselves,” Lesego says. “My journey into the wilderness was never accidental; it has always felt ancestral.” Totems take many forms: animals, plants, celestial bodies, or even parts of the human anatomy. Regardless of nationality, language, or culture, those who share a totem regard one another as relatives. “When I travel, if I meet someone with the same totem, it becomes an immediate bridge between us,” she says. Rooted in the belief that humans share a spiritual connection with the natural world and their ancestors, totems are passed down through generations, shaping how people relate both to one another and to their environment. “I have a responsibility to protect the buffalo,” Lesego says. It is sacred to her and her clan. “I can’t eat it, harm it, or even disturb anything that belongs to it, like the veld. In that way, having a totem prompts us to be conservationists.”
Previous spread In the Delta, every body of water reflects the sky, and everything we see reflects something in us. Left Buffaloes represent strength, unity, and protection.
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