“Where are we now?” the art director shouted. “Mto Wa Mbu”, the guide replied. “Ah, Wow!” we all said aloud. “ Mto Wa Mbu — just the place for a cold beer”. I was on a photographic assignment for Tanzanian Breweries. This trip was much more an overland beer safari than an assignment.
The campaign was to advertise the fact that ‘Safari Lager’ will deliver beer to the thirsty Tanzanian population —- anyhow, anywhere and anytime, come what may. Believe me, in Tanzania a lot comes your way. The advertising agency from Dar es Salaam chose to shoot in areas of northern Tanzania, near the volcano of Ol Doinyo Lengai. This, in the Masai language, means ‘Mountain of God’. Inhospitable, lawless and harsh country if ever there was one. It makes the Australian Outback look like wet poefie.
The party consisted of 5 people from the advertising agency, 2 land cruisers and 2 drivers for the refrigerated beer truck and myself. Well, actually, the one driver was also a motor electrician. His job was to keep the beer perfectly chilled in the shearing heat. “Come what may”, became our motto, our slogan and our cause. One photograph — One beer —- One Safari.
I used my camera like a machine gun and fired around in the landscape like a wild mercenary, supported enthusiastically by the art director who had fought in the Rhodesian War. It was a case of more shots, more beer. “Fire at will,” he would scream, as he waved his arms in the direction of some potential scene with the Safari beer truck.
Those were the good times; a bunch of lunatics following a beer truck with ice-cold beer over the wild Masai Plains. Shoot beer truck in Masai village, beer truck with elephants, near goats, amongst Zebras, next to Soda lake, next to a volcano, with Flamingos, without Flamingos, in lava riverbeds, at water holes, with Masai warriors, in the distance, on the horizon. “Come what may — when the beer truck cometh”.