British adventurer Ash Dykes has just completed his kayak journey down the Congo Basin. While the internet has been buzzing about his latest expedition, we are taking a look at the Black man who traveled alongside him: Obed Temba Tuyumvire, without whom Dykes would not have been able to complete the journey.
If you have not been keeping up with the mission, Dykes embarked on an 800-kilometer (roughly 500-mile) journey along the Sangha River—a major tributary area in the Central African Republic—to the start of the Congo River in the Republic of Congo over the span of 18 days.
According to World Wildlife Fund, the Congo Basin spans six countries—the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Central African Republic, and Cameroon—making it home to a rich variety of wildlife, including gorillas, elephants, hippos, venomous snakes, and disease-carrying insects.
Because of these conditions, Ash Dykes needed a partner with a deep knowledge of the area, its local communities, and its potential dangers. That is where Obed Temba Tuyumvire came in.
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A native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, he is also a sustainable tourism advocate, and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Congo Rainforest Fund. Temba Tuyumvire brought expert-level knowledge of the Congo Basin to the expedition and has been documenting the journey alongside Dykes in his own video series on TikTok.
Temba Tuyumvire frequently provides educational facts about the region, sharing videos that explain how forest elephants, the Sangha culture, and the Baka people across Cameroon and Central African Republic live in harmony. Both communities deeply respect the surrounding wildlife and abstain from hunting elephants, creating an environment where the animals remain calm rather than fearful of humans.
“The idea of hunting elephants was brought with slavery,” he said. “Basically, when they [colonialists] were taking slaves,the ivory [from elephants] was one of the most trafficked products in the world and of course the population [of elephants] decreased drastically. They were in the millions and now we are counting in the hundred thousands.”
Because of Temba Tuyumvire’s wealth of knowledge regarding the region, he helped reframe the expedition. Instead of the savage mission through unexplored and uninhabited wilderness that some folks on TikTok imagined, the journey became an eye-opening look at how people and animals live and sustain themselves peacefully in the Congo Basin.
If you are curious about what a journey through the Congo Basin looks like up close, Obed Temba Tuyumvire offers expedition packages through his tour company, KUMBUKUMBU, for an adventure through Central and East Africa that will blow your mind.
