HELP US BRING SIMBA HOME: The legacy of the first Black man to summit Mount Everest

My father, Sibusiso Vilane, wasn't always a world-famous adventurer. Before he became the first Black person to summit Mount Everest, he was a game ranger in the South African bush—a man who believed that if you could take a child into the wild and show them what was out there, something would shift inside them forever.

He used to take me and my sisters on game drives. Not to tourist lodges or luxury reserves—but into the real bush. He'd tell us stories about the animals, about the land, about why it mattered. And he always said the same thing: “One day, I'll get my own game viewer and take kids out every weekend. Every single weekend.”

That dream never left him. And it never left me.

Now, through The Shuri Foundation, we're making that dream real. We're raising funds to buy a secondhand game viewer—a vehicle we're calling Simba—that will take children from rural communities on free game drives into the reserves that surround their homes but have always been out of reach.

Why “Simba”?

Simba means lion in Swahili. But for us, it means more than that. It means courage. It means pride. It means showing up for something bigger than yourself.

Simba is our first project because it represents everything we believe: that access creates love, love creates stewardship, and stewardship creates lasting change.

How You Can Help

We need to raise funds for a secondhand game viewer, insurance, fuel, maintenance, and trained guides. Every contribution—no matter how small—brings Simba closer to home.