Story Of Na-Koi-Ja-Ma Island…
This is the story that started a nature conservation chain reaction. Read it now, you are going to love it!
The story of Na-Koi-Ja-Ma Island is a children story that teaches all of us – big and small – about the importance of nature and conservation.
The Na-Koi-Ja-Ma Island story is based on an actual open parcel of land area – 44½ acres in size – in the center of a tiny town called Koingnaas. It is north from the town “Kleinzee”, in the Namaqualand Sandveld desert, on the Atlantic ocean.
Koingnaas was, many years ago, the private “pride and joy town” of the De Beers Diamond Mining company in Southern Africa.
Today the island is in private hands and the company that owns Na-Koi-Ja-Ma Island express their wish to turn the island, or at least most of it, into a Wild Flower Garden & Reserve.
To make a project like this a reality, it needs to generate its own funds, be independent and be able to build the Wild Flower Garden & Reserve on it’s own steam.
This is where “opportunity” met nature conservation – and the FRIENDS OF NAMAQUALAND[FoN], a non-profit organization was born.
FoN’s mission (aim) is simple.
To raise awareness about the need for nature conservation in the Namaqualand. Specifically in the Namaqualand Sandveld region (also called the coastal plains). The reason for this focus is mostly because these coastal plains was basically cut off (closed) from the rest of the world for many years due to diamond mining in the region. Also because today most of the illegal harvesting of the Namaqualand succulent plants happens in this and the surrounding areas.
To raise funds to achieve our own nature conservation goals AND to build the Wild Flower Garden & Reserve on Na-Koi-Ja-Ma Island, the company approved a exiting proposal that can achieve both our goals simultaneously.
A join venture was born called NamaGifts.co.za to sell different GIFT PACKAGES around the world, and each of these gift packages includes a tiny Nature Conservation Plot (“TCP’s – tiny conservation plots”) and a TITLE on the Island.
To truly understand these gift packages you need to know a little more about this area’s history – especially The Story of Na-Koi-Ja-Ma Island.
You can listen to the story [mp3 file link]- or read it below:
She is not the typical, green palm-tree island, surrounded by blue oceans, that you see in the movies everyday…
No, she’s not that.
She is an island in the middle of a beautiful desert – not surrounded by water but surrounded by something else – DIAMONDS!
To be precise: By one million two hundred and sixty-four thousand acres of diamonds.
And yet, in the last 96 years, not a single diamond – not even one – has ever been found on her.
Here’s her story:
Her name is Na-Koi-Ja-Ma.
Nobody is 100% sure but they think that, in ancient West Coast language, “Na-Koi-Ja-Ma” roughly means, “something valuable or something worth protecting”. She is a very small island, only 44½ acres in size.
During the last century the De Beers Mining Company in South Africa extracted hundreds of thousands of carets of diamonds from the desert floor that surrounded her. In all this time, she produced nothing; not a single sliver of a diamond – nothing – and yet, her name means “something valuable or something to protect”.
Why?
Over time a small town was build right around this island, trees were planted on her corners, roads were constructed on her edges, but not one brick was laid upon her soil – until 1976.
The town expanded quickly; soon paths, pipes and cables were laid down on the bedrock underneath her red desert sand.
One evening as the dust settled and as the sun set in the west, the last streaks of sunlight highlighted her broken and ripped apart soil. Instinctively the people in the town knew they crossed the line; they made a mistake…
Overnight things started to change and it changed rapidly. The diamonds of yesterday disappeared, – as if it vanished in thin air.
By 1978 – less than 24 months after invading her inner beauty and crisscrossing her landscape for self-greed – the mine activities around the town had to close down – shocked but to save face, the mine managers said: it’s only temporarily.
As sad as the closing of the mine was for the miners, the local tribes smiled: “It is the spirits of Na-Koi-Ja-Ma that finally had the last words, they said: “NO, NO-MORE”.
Hundreds of miles away – deep into the Atlantic Ocean and on the coastline the mining activities continued for a few more years but then, – as quickly as the diamond rush started nearly a century earlier, – it all collapsed.
The desert once again become quiet, reclaiming some of its land and some of its sand, – but mostly lying bare for years.
Scarred and wounded with a broken landscape, – one night a miracle happened.
It was a bitter winter. The days were cold, the nights were freezing, but then, totally unexpected, it started to rain, it rained for weeks, – a sight not seen in this desert for many- many years.
When the sun at last showed itself again in the early spring, – the wounded diamond fields in the Namaqualand desert, all around our tiny island, turned itself into a natural wonder like never seen before.
Carpets of flowers stretched as far as the eyes could see.
The word spread quickly, – those that could travel to experience this natural transformation first hand looked at the miles and miles of flowers, and at this incredible miracle until their eyes hurt.
They took pictures – they shared it with others – and those people shared it with friends and family and more. People kept on taking pictures and kept on sharing year after year, so much so that this pattern of taking pictures and sharing has now been going on for more than 50 years.
At last, – the Namaqualand desert gave all of us a brand-new treasure – a treasure far greater than all the diamonds in the world.
It is a treasure worth sharing, – it’s a valuable treasure worth protecting, – and now for the very first time, – after so many decades, – we know exactly what the words Na-Koi-Ja-Ma means.
She is an island so vulnerable and valuable that, – when the sun sets tonight in the desert, you can hear her crying for help, – begging to be protected.
It is said that those who help her will be blessed “by the gods in the starts” in ways that cannot be described in modern human language.
The proof they say can be felt at night – when you look up at the stars.
The legend goes that if you stand on Na-Koi-Ja-Ma island, in the middle of this desert, in the middle of the night, the stars in our Milky Way is só bright – you can feel the warmth of those stars on your fingertips as you try to touch them.
And that is the story of Na-Koi-Ja-Ma Island, but there is more…
*******The Follow-Up*******
With a little research you will find that the flowers of Namaqualand have already inspired thousands of scientists and biologists from every corner on earth.
Hundreds of books have already been written about Namaqualand – movies have been cast about her, – fans still talk about her and millions still celebrate her incredible flower-show every year.
But unfortunately, global warming has also left its mark here in the Namaqualand, and I’m sad to report – all is not well…
Today, the island of Na-Koi-Ja-Ma and the succulent plants that produces the landscape of flowers in Namaqualand every year needs your help.
It is for this reason that we sell these incredible gift packages [TCP’s] around the world.
We are busy creating a wild flower garden and reserve on Na-Koi-Ja-Ma Island and your contribution, when you buy one of these gift packages, will go towards this nature conservation project.
Please visit our e-store for more information and join us in saving this beautiful desert.
Thank You