Safari As a Way of Life The Journals of Dan Eldon INTRODUCTION BY TREVOR HALL
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HE FIRST TIME I encountered Dan’s journals, they tore open my heart to reveal a part of myself that I had not yet dared to dream I could have. What I quickly learned about his alluring way of being was that while born in London, Dan Eldon was in fact a child of Africa. His mother, Kathy, a proud Iowa writer and his father, Mike, a distinguished British businessman, were brought to Nairobi, Kenya for work when Dan was seven years old. The spirit of the place quickly put a stamp on Dan’s soul that inspired a curious, adventurous, kind and creative kid to live life with a unique flair, pluck and passion that now influences generations of creative activists. It started simply, though. From the jump, when Dan heard of a problem, he instinctively thought in terms of solutions … and fun! As a teenager, Dan heard that a local Masai girl needed heart surgery, so he threw a raucous party and raised the money she needed. When he heard of a famine in Malawi, he set up a charity, which he named Student Transport Aid (STA) so he and a ragtag collection of friends could bring aid to the region. STA attracted the interest of local television stations and newspapers, and together with 15 friends, they raised $25,000 for their venture. The friends, representing six countries, met in Nairobi and traveled thousands of miles together in three vehicles (including his beloved Deziree — a cranky old 1970s Land Rover often featured in his journals) to a refugee camp in Malawi. There, they donated one of their vehicles to the Save the Children Fund, as well as
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money for three wells and blankets for a children’s hospital. As would become a pattern for so many people touched by Dan, those brave “kids” from STA were forever changed by his energy in a way that shaped all their lives. Each of them went on to chart big, bold lives: Christopher Nolan winning Academy Awards; Elinor Tatum becoming Publisher of the New York Amsterdam News, which is the largest and perhaps most influential Black-owned and operated newspaper in the country; Roko and Adrian Belic winning Emmys for documentaries that moved the hearts of millions; Hayden Bixby becoming a beloved teacher and founding an orphanage back in Kenya — and on it goes. But at the time, they were all just scrappy young adults moved into action by Dan. As you will soon learn, Dan did all of this with his eyes wide open and his creative energy pouring onto the pages of his journals. In Dan’s final act of compassionate storytelling, in the summer of 1992 while the famine in Somalia was raging, Dan flew from Kenya to the southern Somali town of Baidoa, where he shot some of the first pictures to touch the conscience of millions. The international news agency Reuters spotted his work, and by Christmas Dan was working for the company, shooting the increasingly desperate situation. He became the youngest Reuters photojournalist and his images, featured on the cover of Newsweek and other publications, played a key role in bringing international aid to the region.