Inside the Luxury Safaris Empowering Women and Protecting Wildlife

Before “transformational travel” became an industry concept, ROAR AFRICA was reimagining what an African safari could be. Founded in 2005 by Zimbabwe-born entrepreneur Deborah Calmeyer, the luxury travel company was built on a deeply personal connection to the continent—one shaped by Calmeyer’s childhood surrounded by Zimbabwe’s vast wilderness, extraordinary wildlife, and complex cultural history.

Rather than offering traditional game drives centered solely on wildlife sightings, ROAR AFRICA designs highly individualized journeys that immerse guests in Africa‘s landscapes, communities, conservation efforts, and creative culture. Each itinerary is tailored to the traveler, encouraging meaningful encounters that prioritize emotional connection, cultural exchange, and conservation alongside exceptional hospitality. At the heart of the company is another defining mission: advancing women throughout Africa’s tourism and conservation industries, championing female leadership with the belief that “If African women rise, wildlife will thrive.”

Over the last two decades, that philosophy has expanded far beyond luxury travel. Through initiatives like ROAR AFRICA’s annual Women’s Empowerment Retreats—which convene female leaders, philanthropists, conservationists, and entrepreneurs from around the world—the company has helped create opportunities for women across the continent while fostering collaborations that continue long after each journey ends. With a team that is overwhelmingly female, ROAR AFRICA has challenged long-held stereotypes within the safari industry, proving that thoughtful leadership, empathy, and human connection can be just as transformative as the destinations themselves.

Whitewall spoke with Calmeyer—who’s based between Africa and the United States—about growing up in Zimbabwe during wartime, the unlikely rescue lioness that first sparked her fascination with wildlife, and the profound contrast between Africa’s expansive stillness and the relentless pace of New York, where she lived for more than two decades. She shares how those experiences shaped ROAR AFRICA’s distinctive approach to luxury travel, why silence and space have become her greatest definitions of luxury, and how immersive journeys into the wild have the power to dissolve ego, restore perspective, and reconnect travelers with both nature and themselves.

Growing Up in Zimbabwe

WHITEWALL: You’re from Zimbabwe, lived in New York for over two decades, and recently took up a house in Florida, as well. How did being immersed in the cultural and geographical landscape influence your understanding of time and space and emotional well-being?

DEBORAH CALMEYER: It’s really interesting because it’s very complex—and one wants to keep the rose-tinted glasses of it on. I grew up there during a war in Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was a British colony, and the war was very prevalent in my minor years. I was five at the time. I was surrounded by an enormous amount of fear in the beginning of my life. When the war ended, my dad was tired of all the security and how we had to hunker down—bulletproof houses, sandbags all around. It was proper war zone stuff. But he wanted the freedom of the outdoors and the beauty of Africa to be available to us.

For our protection, we got a rescue lioness as our third “Labrador.” That is probably where my love for the wild began, because she lived in our house. Her name was Carmel. I was the least likely lion dinner, as a 12-year-old. My three siblings were far more likely. [Laughs]

Carmel had no idea she was a lioness. She thought she was the Labrador, because those were her playmates—the other two Labradors. I was at the right age at the right time, riding horses and out in the bush a lot. And Carmel was around, terrorizing the horses, sure, but also showing us how a wild animal behaved literally right in front of us in our living room. And she was incredibly attached to my dad. 

She was incredibly affectionate. She would jump up with her paws onto his shoulders—and he’s 6’ 3’’. She was neck and neck. You know how cats are so tactile and touchy and sort of always falling on each other and licking each other? She was very much like that with the dogs, but also with my dad. I got to witness this creature that had such similar emotions to us in terms of its need for affection, its response to voice, hunting, stalking, playing. They were all right in front of me as the little girl. I fell in love with her, as much as I was also quite scared of her. She was very powerful unknowingly. But I did get a deep appreciation for our similarities to wildlife, having that right in front of me. That was where it all began. 

After a war, being able to experience the incredibly vast and intensely bushy landscape all around us—baboons, snakes, leopards, water skiing with crocodiles—was not something that you would do with your children, but that was the kind of parenting that I had. Wildlife was all around us. We were taught to be very respectful of it. The risk of being eaten, I don’t know how I got so lucky, but it was there. The fear, the respect, the adoration for it all—I think just being totally sunk into it from a very young age really made it part of kind of my DNA. 

The same with the people, because on the flip side of that, why I say it’s so complex, is that people were looking after me and bringing me up— our nannies and cooks and gardeners. They were all African, and yet it was this white-against-Black war going on. The same caretakers who were so instrumental in making me, caring for me, and looking after me in this war were in our house. The people of Africa will always be a part of me because they were part of my upbringing. I was always on the same side of it because I was just in it. I wasn’t understanding it right. Same with wildlife. You’re just experiencing raw emotion from being in it. 

It’s all part of who you are at the end of the day, how you spend those younger years. How it informs your brain, your chemistry, and your nervous system. I have a deep-seated love for all of it and missed it hugely when I moved to New York, and tried to adjust to a concrete jungle of other incredible stimuli. Merging those worlds, then being able to offer them to other people, became my life’s work.

Connecting America and Africa

WW: Why did you want to move to New York?

DC: Because when you live in Africa, you look up at the rest of the world, and that’s where you want to be. You want American clothes and style and fashion and celebrities and music—whatever it is. It’s so far from anything you can access that it’s everything you want. In doing that, coming to New York, I got so many things. I never could have built this business the way I did without that lens. It also amplified all the things I really valued, which I’d taken for granted.

WW: When you were growing up in Zimbabwe, it seemed like you had the time to explore and grow. What is your relationship with time like today? Did your upbringing in Zimbabwe shape how you think about time? Or did your time in New York? 

DC: Living in New York shaped it, funnily enough, because I also got into that frenetic manic state where you’re competing for every breath in New York. Whether you’re trying to get a subway, trying to get a coffee, or standing at a traffic light. It’s intense competition all the time. I think my appreciation of the value of being able to be still and aware got really heightened by having to compete in New York. 

At five, I was fighting for survival. Of course, one only realizes that now. But I think with New York, I just went and did it again. It was like another fight for survival. Go live in a city where you know not one single person, where you didn’t go to school there, where the culture is very, very different. The landscape is extraordinary. The thing that drove me the craziest about New York was the level of noise. I don’t even think that it’s humanly possible for people to be in that environment. It’s completely nuts. My sense of time, the appreciation for it, the appreciation for stillness, the appreciation for silence—those became luxuries because I was living in New York.

Not because I was missing them, but because they were literally not available in day-to-day life. I found sleeping there impossible. I couldn’t understand if you were having a massage on the 19th floor of a building while you were hearing a truck reversing on 37th Street. It’s just nuts. It’s funny. It was a hard place to live, but a great place to live.

I do love that forward-forcing energy of it. I love the people and the diversity. There’s so much to love. It gave me my voice for my business. It gave me the woman’s empowerment angle. It’s been the guiding force of a lot of the design of how our experiences translate in Africa; they’re not just booking a trip to South Africa. It’s not like that at all. It’s a very considered, deeply designed experience for our guests because I know what they need because I lived in that environment myself.

WW: Tell me a little bit about launching your business and what that was like. What did you really want to offer to these select guests? Who did you want to cater to?

DC: When I launched it, it was really for my dad. My dad had nothing. He was this retired energy bunny with so much appetite and so much knowledge. So many people were asking me about Africa and wanting to go. This was 20 years ago. My dad is a zoologist who absolutely loves Africa—the bush, the wild. I thought, “How lovely. You can guide these people.” I knew I could put them in safe hands with a lot of knowledge. I thought I’d do this as a hobby for him in his retirement. That was really how ROAR AFRICA started—on a shoestring, with this idea that it would be something for him to do and share his love of the wild. As we grew, I started to realize that I had a ridiculous amount of knowledge kind of just baked into my DNA, from the heritage of a family that had been there for 300-plus years. 

Again, you don’t know that because you’re in it, then you move away, and then you’re reflecting and thinking, “Wow, there’s there’s so many connections and resources. We understand this land and we can translate this for people in a very deep, meaningful, immersive way.” You’re not a tourist with your nose pressed up against the window, looking in, getting photos, and then getting out. Bit by bit, it developed, and we started to get some great feedback. 

I didn’t come from the travel industry, so I didn’t have any preconceived ideas. I wasn’t designing a trip and handing it over to a ground handler, and then having them do it. It was never like that.  It was me with the client, then going to my dad, experience it with him, and come back. I started to learn that quality and reliability had to be top-notch. It’s great when it goes right, but when Africa doesn’t go right, it can go horribly, horribly wrong.

Bit by bit, I started to employ other women, and I realized that women have such a great radar at handling so many things at once. They’re literally born for tourism. They’re usually running schedules of entire families, and then sort of built into us to be caretakers—to get it all right, to line everything up and make it work. I started to employ women regardless of where their location was, because we didn’t have an office, so they were working in these really remote areas. We were just using technology to make this work. I realized that I could actually give these great ladies an opportunity in an international company, whereas they may have been a soccer coach or a nurse or something in their small, remote town. Then, the female aspect became even more prevalent in that I wanted to employ as many women as possible in the business and allow them to be breadwinners—to interact at an international level with our guests, knowing their ability to deliver. We used the femininity of the business to differentiate ourselves from the safari cowboys—the Crocodile Dundee kind of stereotype of the time.

It was predominantly a very male industry. I often refer to it as the Wall Streeters of the Bush because it’s not been easy for women. Getting a voice in New York and getting some sort of confidence was helpful. I know some people don’t regard it as progressive, but I think America is very progressive in its women’s empowerment and equality. It’s put on a far bigger fight than anything I’ve seen in Africa. Taking that learning back, we developed our slogan: “If African women rise, wildlife will thrive.” 

We’re helping women become more visible in senior leadership positions—not just delegated to housekeeping, the kitchen, and reservations, but flying planes and helicopters, carrying rifles, leading trips, and running lodges. All of that became part of the work we wanted to do to open these door and break these glass ceilings, from a tribal perspective and from a Western perspective. We wanted to shift this industry that’s literally born for women. 

Empowering Women and Wildlife

WW: How have you been able to do that through your annual Women’s Empowerment Retreats, which you began in 2019?

DC: We do the Women’s Empowerment Retreats in a different country every year. We bring international philanthropic guests, and then we share conversations with women in tourism and conservation who have broken the barriers and done amazing things. It’s not a case of, “We’re looking for money to fund projects.” It’s a case of creating a platform for conversation. This creates enormous support and visibility for women who haven’t had a chance to tell their story. They feel empowered and encouraged, and more than anything, there are communities that are formed. That’s really supportive and great, especially across international talent.

WW: What impact have you seen that these gatherings have? What you’re describing is something I have long supported—circular economy. Some components are economical and educational, which support the local community and the women themselves. 

DC: Our team, for starters, is 95 percent female. All the senior leadership—except our CFO who’s a male, and a couple of our guides—are men. The company is very much about standing behind that principle in terms of hiring. Then, the retreats are interesting because we’ve got such a loyal following of guests. When I announce the trip, I get so scared because in five minutes, it’s sold out. Everyone wants to come again. Everyone’s become friends. Everyone’s involved in different projects. Yesterday, I had one client in Miami, who runs a consulting firm, saying, “I owe you so much. I’ve got two clients from that trip! One is Eco Exist in Botswana with the Elephant Project and the other one is called Ebu and it’s in Charleston.” Those people met on the retreat. It’s funny because it’s not just funding going into Africa. In this case, it’s from the other way around. Now, she’s got a client because she came as a guest on the trip, and they’re using her consulting firm to help them run their whole setup better. It’s amazing.

There’s another instance where we had two artists speaking about the photography they’ve taken of African tribes all over Africa. One of our clients has now funded a museum that’s been created in Arusha, in Tanzania, for all of this photography to live forever. 

There have also been women’s health and menstrual health projects that have been funded. Elephant conservation, the coloring of rhinos. An entire kitchen was built for the training of staff in Botswana by a woman who had written a book called Tastes of Botswana, which is in all the lodges. Now, we’re getting all the flavors and ideas of the cuisine that no on knew anything about. I didn’t know anything about the food from Botswana until she started speaking. 

One of her wishes was to train more people in cooking Botswana food on a larger level so that tourists could enjoy it. One of my guests asked, “What would that take? What would training look like? How does one do that?” For about 10,000 dollars, we set up a kitchen for her, and she got a training school. Now, she’s got women coming and signing up, and now she’s got a whole business.

Another amazing one was that the woman who runs The Helen Goli Brown Foundation in the U.S. came on a trip and ended up funding an entire training program for tourism in South Africa. Those students now come over to Boston every summer and work at the YMCA. They get to fly on a plane and get international exposure. It’s unbelievable stuff that’s come up. Two have been invited to give TED Talks.

It’s so rewarding. The list of impacts that one can write in black and white is significant. I think what’s more amazing is the support of women. We forget so often as women to choose women. That is something that just goes missing. It’s so imprinted in our psyche, in this patriarchal society.

Someone asked me recently, “Do you specifically choose a woman doctor, a woman dentist, a woman lawyer, and a woman yoga teacher? Do you consciously support women, or is it just by chance? And it’s sad because it is just by chance for the majority. We don’t naturally seek a lot to support our sisters. African women do that because they are often the ones left behind in the village to care for the children, to grow the crops, to cook the food. The husbands go off, and many have multiple families. They have a different life. That’s why I say so strongly that if African women rise, wildlife will thrive. They’re often in environments where they can protect the agriculture, the grazing, the movement of the cattle. They can stop killing wildlife that’s eating their cattle; they understand what its role is in tourism. It’s such a big picture. The impact is immeasurable, really.

WW: Can you share with me how a typical safari goes, from start to finish? How do you typically design a safari trip, release information to your network that it’s available, and then begin the excursion?

DC: A lot of our business is word of mouth—referrals, repeats. We will qualify the incoming inquiry very quickly to determine if it’s a client or not. We’re not a travel agent; we really are a specialist. We’re sort of a neurosurgeon of African travel. I try and ask the client, “What is the objective of the trip?” It’s like a psychologist trying to understand what the problem is. What are we solving for you? Is this just a bucket list trip, an instant travel, or a “got to outdo my friends” in the playground kind of trip?

It is considered an expensive investment. It’s probably one of the biggest investments anyone has ever made on a holiday. It’s not the fly-and-flop Caribbean quick fix. It’s a big, big experience. So, we need to make sure that the client is the right fit for us. It’s almost like choosing the designer of your wedding dress. Is this person going to go with your style, or are they totally different tangents? 

Not every client that comes to us is a good fit. We try to decipher that quite quickly through various questioning. If we do get to a place where we think this is a good fit, we really try to understand what the human need is. Why Africa? What made you want to go to Africa? What are you looking to see? How are you looking to feel? What is luxury to you? 

Those are some of the sort of very poignant questions that have never been asked before, and were probably never thought about. It’s interesting when you ask people, “What is luxury to you?” While we operate in the ultra-luxury field, it’s not the glam field; it’s the beauty field. It’s about beauty inside and out—moving in a very peaceful way so that beauty and joy can settle inside of us as humans. We can go back to feeling. We can let the scaffolding go away, we can put down the devices. We can stop worrying about the number of likes and clicks and whatever. We can be fully present. 

With that comes an enormous amount of listening, questioning, and thinking. An enormous product knowledge, of, “Do I put this client in a One&Only hotel? Or would this client be better off in a three-star property because they want authenticity?” Maybe they want the staff to have their own dialogue—not the practiced, corporate one that’s the “right one.” Unfortunately, when you start messing around in the luxury sphere, so much of the emotional intelligence is punched out of the humans who make the experience. It’s really, really important that we understand the client as best as we can to we develop that itinerary. 

We need to know the logistics of the trip, but I’m really more looking at the person and what is going to make them pop. What’s going to make this the most incredible experience of their life? What are they telling me they really need? Coming out of America, I kind of know what you need in terms of calm. A lot of those touches are about wrapping that client in love and making them feel like, “We got you, no problem, anything you need.” In a very genuine way. I think that Africans are very proud of their space and are very excited. They want to serve and want to help you. They’re not fatigued by tourism, aas you may find in many other countries 

Once we get a structure of a general idea of a trip and the client confirms, then we start going deeper, asking about what they’re interested in. Are they interested in the political history of South Africa? Do they want to go into the archives in parliament? Do they want art? Do they want fashion or music? Then, we go down the rabbit holes about different passions, and that may be a real cross-section with a family of boys and girls or a grandfather, depending on where they are in their life stage, honing in and catering to what their passions are and bringing those alive in the African sense.

The Meaning of Luxury

WW: You mentioned asking your clients what luxury was to them. What is luxury to you?

DC: Silence, stillness, space. After 25 years in New York, what could it be? [Laughs] I don’t want to fight travel either. I’m a high-maintenance, fussy, hopefully graciously annoying customer. I go to the airport, seeing how it should be versus how it is. It crushes me because it’s so easy to make a change to a human experience at a very basic level. It starts with manners, a smile, and a “please” and “thank you.” Not screaming about things, going through security and treating everybody as if they’re going into prison. It’s just so rough. Our airports in America arehorrible. They bring the absolute worst out of people when it’s supposed to be a joyous, wonderful, elegant experience. 

If we could all stop wearing our pajamas to the airport, speak with a bit of grace, and actually respect the enormous privilege that we get to move in aircraft versus on horseback, it would just shift things a little bit. It takes so little to change so much. So, luxury for me is also not having to fight travel. To have somebody who’s taking care of you. If something does go wrong, having somebody immediately in that time zone to fix it because your time is precious and the pressure of it being wasted only aggravates the fight. It’s such an intensely human business because I have to have people every hour of every day, everywhere, so that the clients feels like they’ve never traveled like this before because they’ve never been cared for to this degree.

WW: We’re all experiencing the burnout we’re discussing—the digital fatigue, the lack of decency, the bustle. As you yearn for more stillness and space, how do you think immersion in nature helps restore that? What are some things that your guests get to experience to help restore that clarity?

DC: I think the most powerful is insignificance. When you are out there in a Land Rover, and a big bull elephant is walking toward you, what that elephant chooses to do with you and the vehicle, you have no control over. It doesn’t matter if you’re the CEO of Warner Brothers. You’re human. What I love so much is the ego dissolution that happens to people in wild spaces. They’re suddenly dropping into insignificance, and they’re having to be with themselves. The distraction of all the things that are supposedly important disappears. Maybe they’re watching their little boy look at the elephant in terror and then, as the elephant comes past, just soften and just be. It’s often a tear down the cheek or a squeeze of the hand, or an, “I can’t believe we’re sharing this moment.” It’s so beautiful, so quiet, so special, so rare. When you put yourself in beautiful spaces, it’s the bigger version of going to the museum and looking at the Monet, right? [Gasp]

It’s not just, ”Look at this art! Look at these colors! How did they create this? What was on their mind?” You’re living in that picture; you’re there. You’re really in it.