“Tenthold Tips” of Safari Etiquette

Tips for when on African safari, from 2 experts on the subject. Above, Jock & Betty Leslie-Melville, authors of the book.

6. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT SNAKES - We’ll be willing to bet quite heavily you won't even see one, let alone a scorpion. Indeed, there are very few insects and nasty reptiles about.

7. DO NOT WEAR A PITH HELMET - This is about as chic as spats and high-buttoned shoes.

8. DO NOT SHAVE IN THE TEA - A dreadful custom in East Africa is early morning tea. It is automatically brought to you at 6:30 a.m. every morning in the lodges. When one of our safariers asked on the first day of his trip about shaving facilities in tents, we told him hot water would be brought to him in the morning, but we forgot to mention that morning tea comes first. When he got his tea he shaved in it. It never occurred to him to drink it, but this is really what you are supposed to do.

9. DO NOT REFER TO AFRICANS AS “NATIVES” - Though we may refer to ourselves as natives of America or Sweden or whatever, the word in Africa has somehow fallen into disrepute and has insulting connotations. Other words to avoid are “boy,” “coloured people,” “blacks,” “negroes,” etc… (especially the etc...). The word to use, and the only word when referring to the indigenous people is “African.” This is extremely important. When hailing a servant say, “Waiter” or “Steward” or “Porter.”

10. DO NOT PHOTOGRAPH AFRICANS WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT - Some primitive Africans still believe that their soul goes into the “little black box” (camera), and the fact that you are trying to capture their image to them means you are trying  to capture their soul. Therefore, it is important our repeated warnings, one of our safariers photographed a Masai morani (warrior) who had already refused to have his picture taken, so the Masai threw his spear at the camera. Fortunately the car was in motion and nobody was injured, but our sympathies were certainly with the Masai knowing how strongly he felt. However, the sight of money can often have an extraordinary effect in dissolving the concern they feel about the capture of their souls. It is perfectly in order to bargain with them about money, and if you pay more than two shillings (twenty-eight cents) you are being taken. 

Others, and this includes Asians, have no superstitions about their soul, but just don't like being photographed for the same reason we would not like an unknown African visitor in the United States to photograph us doing our weekly shopping in the Food Fair - even for twenty-eight cents. However, many Africans love pictures of themselves and a Polaroid – From “Tenthold Tips: An amusing and informative introduction to Africa,” by Jock & Betty Leslie-Melville, 1971

 🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Non-Hunting Safari Etiquette

TENTHOLD HINTS: Since Emily Post never wrote a book of etiquette for Africa, we decided we had to, because visitors frequently take appalling risks with animals out of ignorance or unwittingly cause offense to people. Here, then, are a few tips on manners and behaviour.

1. DO NOT FEED THE BEARS - This will not be difficult because there aren't any. However, in no circumstances attempt to offer food to or to touch wild animals, no matter how tame they may appear to be. In the bush there is no such thing as a tame animal-some are tolerant, but they are never tame. Dust Bin Nelly and her two daughters, a famous elephant trio, are daily visitors to the Lodge at Murchison Falls. A tourist once offered one of them a bun and got away with it, but the danger is that the next tourist may be killed for not offering a bun.

2. DO NOT COMPLAIN BECAUSE YOU HAVEN'T SEEN A TIGER - You won't - there are no tigers in Africa, they are all in India.

3. DO NOT ASK WHERE THE WATER BUFFALO ARE - They are all in India with the tigers. We have “Cape Buffalo” referred to as just plain “buffalo,” unless you want to be very “in,” and then you say “buff.” Other popular animal vocabulary concerns collective nouns. There is a ‘pride of Lion,’ a ‘troop of baboon,’ a ‘pack of hyena or wild dog,’ a ‘colony of ants,’ a ‘herd of elephant’ and a ‘herd of buffalo, zebra, antelopes’ and so on. (It is not a herd of birds, but a flight of duck, a gaggle of geese, a flock of starlings.) If you are uncertain, remember you can always get out of it by saying, “Look at all those giraffe,” or by employing the numerical exactitude dodge, “I saw 837 wildebeests.”

Elephants Have The Right Of Way

Betty Bruce and Jock Leslie-Manville, the handsome husband and wife team who virtually pioneered the non- hunting safari in Africa, will present “Elephants Have the Right of Way” on Thursday evening, February 4th at the Luther Burbank High School Auditorium in Sacramento. The wildlife program, illustrated with color film, is a 15 00-mile tour of the wild game country of Kenya, showing such outstanding scenes as a crocodile and hippo escort down the Nile River, the Ngorengoro Crater where, 2000 feet below, herds of zebra, wildebeest, eland and gazelle roam, includes a visit to actor William Holden’s Mt. Kenya Safari Club, as well as a visit to the historic Treetops where Elizabeth of England climbed up a Princess and in the morning climbed down a Queen. 

For Betty Bruce, her present assignment is a far cry from her native Baltimore where she attended Johns Hopkins University and was a high-fashion model. But, except for brief periods when she has to return to the United States for her highly successful-lecture tours and appearances on such TV shows as “What's My Line?”, she has called Africa her home since 1960. Her husband, on the other hand, has lived in Africa all of his life, with the exception of his schooling at Eton. The grandson of a Scottish earl, he served in the Coldstream Guards and was aide to a colonial Governor of the country of Kenya before it gained its independence. 

He was also Executive Officer of the first non-racial political party, in Kenya and speech-writer to Africa nationalist leader Ronald Ngala. Two recent assignments for the couple have been the Jack Paar safaris which they have conducted and the publication of a book, “Tenthold Hints” which is now regarded as the book of etiquette for Africa. It includes such advice as “Do not complain because you haven’t seen a tiger. You won’t - there are no tigers in Africa, they are all in India,” and “Do not wear a pith helmet - This is about as chic as spats and high-buttoned shoes.” – California Aggie, 1971

 🍽Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber of The RSVP Institute of Etiquette, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia