The main aim of the media engagement was for the partners to share their project on the human origins in Botswana (also Hominids in Karst project), a scientific research collaboration between the Botswana through the National Museum and French (CNRS) governments launched in 2020.
The project also intends to conduct extensive cave researches at the Gcwihaba/Koanaka landscape for scientific knowledge and also to guide management in the implementation of sustainable tourism developments. The caves are more than 1000 kilometres from Gaborone.
The Gcwihaba caves give the underground experience. The floor of the caves are a bit spongy when one steps on because of the mixture of the sand and bats droppings. The dark caves have a strong smell of bats droppings and are said to be one of the biggest and picturesque heritage sites in Africa or even across the world. The cave is a home to many bats and cave cockroaches.
According to the caves guide from the museum, Jobe Marenga, the San people lived near the caves because they survived on porcupines that inhabited in the caves. He added that there was also a leopard that lived in caves. He said the cave had three different kinds of bats. He added that the formations should be white as they were formed by the calcium bi carbonate but most of them were covered by the bats droppings and therefore causing corrosion. He explained that some bats stayed in the caves for millions of years where more of their droppings piled up and released some acidic gas.
However, Marenga advised the crew not to touch the rock formations in the caves because they were sensitive. He said their original colours could be changed by body lotions and therefore disturb their formation. He added that it took many years for the formations to look the way they do currently. He also said after discovering the caves they realised that there were many formations they did not understand hence their decision to engage the geo-archaeologist Professor Laurent Bruxelles from France, as they needed his expertise that came at the right time. He added that in 2021 they made an integrated management plan after realizing the need of research before any development.
“After we discovered the cave, we realised that there are so many formations that we did not understand but his expertise really came at the right time. These formations you see here were formed by trapped water that comes from the rain and this water would get into the cave through some rock cracks to get some calcium magnesium carbonate. It takes millions of years to form. Now that it stopped raining does not mean it stopped from forming,” he said.
The crew also had an opportunity to experience the darkness of the caves for a minute they were told to switch off the darkness of the caves and the darkness was extreme, as one could not even see their fingers. People were advised not to walk in the caves if it happens that their lights switches off and wait till the get help otherwise they could injure themselves in the process. The cave posses’ different compartments where each is unique in its own way. There are some huge rooms in it while some are a bit smaller.
According to Bruxelles, the Gcwihaba caves were the only one in Africa that still have the bats droppings also known as the guano. He explained that they made it possible for scientists to determine the years the caves were formed, the kind of climate and how people lived during those years as the bats go to feed outside then leaves their droppings in the caves. He added that Gcwihaba had about 10 meters or more of the guano that could tell the history of the country over the years. He advised the Botswana government through the museum leadership present not to sell it to people who want to make manure of, as it was very important.
