Spotlight on Botswana and South Africa: These Art-Filled Resorts Elevate the Safari Experience

Updating the estate to bring more attention to its award-winning wine program, the firm introduced a clubby tasting room that doubles as a gallery for Graff’s private collection of African sculptures. In the lobby, guests encounter newly acquired works by Nelson Makamo, Jean Boghossian, and Kendell Geers. Commissions by regional artisans, such as an ethereal swirl of 1,300 swallows by André Stead, elevate both public and private spaces.

“The level of care and attention that goes into the art placement is like what you would find in somebody’s home,” says Rawlings, citing specifically the Cyrus Kabiru photographs, which feature the artist wearing tribal masks he made from found objects and are displayed in the guest suites. “The client-designer relationship here really makes for something unexpected because I don’t think I would have chosen that artist to hang in these rooms, but the presence that they have in the spaces is just like another world.”

Art serves both to establish a sense of place and enliven the interiors at Xigera Safari Lodge in Botswana. Nestled in the Moremi Game Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site where elephants, leopards, and impalas are routinely just steps from the open-air main lodge, the location boasts a dynamic array of works by Zizipho Poswa, Andile Dyalvane, and more, curated in collaboration with Cape Town, South Africa, gallery Southern Guild.

Upon arrival, visitors encounter Porky Hefer’s Behd, a cocoon of woven kooboo cane that nods to the African fish eagle. Nearby, plinths spotlight bronze busts by Otto du Plessis of the safari “big five”—lion, leopard, rhino, elephant, and buffalo. “My father gave me the brief, which was no beige, no khaki, and create something that has never been done before,” says Toni Tollman, director of design and projects at the family-run Red Carnation Hotel Collection, which includes Xigera.

To that end, Tollman filled the reception lodge and 12 suites with exceptional design pieces from more than 80 artists, such as Adam Birch, who spent months on-site carving the swooping wishbone-shaped wood chairs seen throughout the camp. Du Plessis cabinets sport brass doors etched with topographic maps of the Moremi Reserve while Atang Tshikare side tables glow with gestural marks and symbolic forms. “This idea started with one artist and just grew,” says Tollman. “I wanted to break boundaries.”

More than 80 artists contributed to the overall aesthetic, crafting everything from small works on view in the library to a towering metal sculpture by Conrad Hicks that serves as the centerpiece of the boma, an outdoor dining area and fire pit. “I wanted to make it matter from the very tiniest thing to the biggest thing,” says Tollman. “From every teaspoon, cup, or tote to the boats, bars, chairs—it is all art.”

A similarly immersive experience can be found at andBeyond’s Phinda Forest Lodge, set in the sand forest of South Africa’s Phinda Private Game Reserve, which just unveiled a redesign by Fox Browne Creative in December. Looking to capture the intersection of nature and culture, studio founders Debra Fox and Christopher Browne preserved the contemporary glass frames of the accommodations, then layered in texture by way of beadwork mirrors, a custom woven wrap that encircles the deep soaking tubs, and handmade Limesite tiles in subtle shades of gray, taupe, and ecru with raised tribal patterns.

Much of the hotel’s art collection is housed in the library, where a cluster of grass-covered pendants illuminates a vast dining table laden with vitrines of fossils, Zulu baskets, wood carvings, and books. On exhibit is a gallery of limited edition woodcuts by Cecil Skotnes that tell the story of the assassination of Zulu king Shaka alongside a series of poems by Stephen Gray. “This lodge actually gave us the best opportunity to showcase Zulu craft in its simplicity and true raw beauty,” says Browne. “Sometimes, as designers, we can overdecorate a space. We felt we didn’t need to do that at Forest Lodge and let the space and the nature speak for itself.”

While breathtaking vistas are more than enough to enchant travelers, designers celebrating the region’s gifted artisans with installations of culturally significant craft demonstrates southern Africa is glorious inside and out.

A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2024 Summer Issue under the headline “Natural Beauty.” Subscribe to the magazine.