Tanzania: South Africa to Promote Olduvai's 'Paleo Tourism' Worldwide

Since much of the 7 billion global population seems to be cultivating great interest in seeing how the world used to be in the past, a new type of tourism is set to channel millions of people into Tanzania in the near future.

"We call it Paleo tourism and so far the Olduvai Gorge and Laetoli archaeological sites of Northern Tanzania are where the entire world will be flocking to retrace the human history," said Mr Zweli Vincent Mntambo, the Deputy Chairperson of South African Tourism.

"It is a well-known fact that all people in the world originated from Africa and traces indicate that the first human being walked earth in the Ngorongoro site of Northern Tanzania," said the South African Tourism boss adding that the continent's new type of tourism will be focused on this and that Arusha should be prepared for millions of global visitors and scientists alike.

Mr Mntambo was speaking at the Olduvai Gorge where the 'Walking Tall' physical theatre troupe from South Africa was introducing the educational silent acrobatic shows depicting global history through human evolution targeting to impact such knowledge to schools and colleges in Tanzania as well as the rest of East Africa.

"At the moment the combined figure of tourists visits at both Olduvai and Laetoli peaks at between 300 and 500 people per day with number increasing during high season," stated Mr Godfrey Ole Moita, the head of Laetoli

archaeological explaining that Laetoli is the only spot on earth with human footprints left by 'Australopithecus Afarensis,' on volcanic ash at Laetoli, providing strong evidence of full-time bi-pedalism.

Paleontological Scientific Trust actors from South Africa

on a show dedicated to secondary school students at the

The human ancestors, Australopithecus Afarensis, according to Ole Moita, lived between 3.9 and 2.9 million years ago.

Mr Moita was on view that since the historical sites tally in over 190,000 visitors per year, they are the second most popular destination after the crater (which gets 600,000 visitors in a year). The historical sites are currently also beating even the Zanzibar Island in tourists flow and once South Africa starts promoting them, the number may increase tenfold.

The 'silent theatre' which is set to promote those sites as well as other cradles of mankind in East Africa, was brought to Olduvai, in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority by the Johannesburg-based, Palaeontological Scientific Trust (PAST), whose Chief Executive, Ms Andrea Leenen explained that the best way to teach human evolution to people of different races, colour and language was through symbolic acrobatic performances that can be understood by practically everybody.

"In South Africa for instance we have 11 official languages in additional to other dialects and the 'Walking Tall' theatres have been able to express the message easily across these people speaking different tongues," she explained.

PAST which is an organization which promotes and protects rich African fossils, is also sponsoring ten University Students from Tanzania on postgraduate studies in archaeological and human evolution studies at the University of Dar-es-Salaam as well as at other institutions of higher learning in Johannesburg, Cape-Town and abroad.