Our Team

Close-up of Werner Pfeifer, wearing a plaid shirt, outdoors with blurred green trees in the background.

|Ui Kxunta

|Ui Kxunta of Djamta!’ae village, has been the leading the community since it was founded on their n!ore in 2019. A skilled hunter and tracker, who learned these skills from his father, grandfather and brothers, |Ui is also now a certified Kalahari San Master Tracker and a Tracker Trainer. Djamta!’ae is home to around 60 villagers now, both adults and children.

Djamta!’ae, Nyae Nyae, Namibia

Close-up of Monica 'Mo' Wilde with shoulder-length gray hair, wearing necklaces, outdoors with a blurred background of trees and sunlight.

!Amace N!aici

!Amace N!aici leads the Di//xao#oha village community. He is a craftsman, a very talented blacksmith and a mine of information about his people’s ancestral traditions. Di//xao#oha village is in the early stage of development on assigned land awaiting a water well. 35 people have joined in this new village and are relocating from the Tsumkwe township.

Di//xao#oha, Nyae Nyae, Namibia

Albersdorf, Germany

Werner Pfeifer

Werner Pfeifer was born and brought up in Namibia and is also German. He has worked with the Ju|’hoansi for 40 years and helped establish the successful Living Museum villages and co-founding the Living Culture Foundation Namibia. Werner splits his year between Germany, where he teaches Stone Age skills, and Namibia where he acts as a tour guide. Werner liaises with the Ju|’hoansi people to ensure that they determine their own future, with the support and advice offered by the foundation being led by Ju/’hoan aspirations.

Scotland, United Kingdom

Monica ‘Mo’ Wilde

Monica ‘Mo’ Wilde FLS acts as an adviser and Company Secretary for the foundation. Based in Scotland, Mo grew up in East Africa. Previously the managing director of Napiers Group, she had a career in business management and currently runs the Wildbiome Project. She also teaches and lectures in various aspects of ethnobotany and is the author of two books on wild food. Mo lived in Djamta!’ae for a while and is passionate about the continued support of these incredible people. She returns each year to help execute projects.

Our Trustees

Michael Wachter

Michael is an experienced outdoorsman and primitive skills practitioner, delivering courses through ‘Human Keystone’ based in Hastings, England. Having visited the Nyae Nyae, Michael believes that the Ju|’hoansi bushmen give us a window into our shared humanity, our own roots, and by learning from them we learn more about ourselves. Michael’s German heritage has made him very aware of the impact that colonisation had on the Ju|’hoansi and he shares our vision of supporting them in determining their own future.

Trustee, England, UK

Charlotte Flower

Charlotte is currently retired. She worked in forestry in Namibia for 5 years earlier in her life and her daughter was born there. Charlotte brings a wealth of experience as a trustee to the Foundation, having previously been a trustee of The Scottish Crannog Centre Trust, a registered Scottish charity, for over a decade. Her involvement reflects her interest in ancestral skills and foraging, as well as in forestry and the environment.

Trustee, Scotland, UK

Trustee, England, United Kingdom

Jay Opie

Born and raised in Cornwall, Jay grew up outdoors on his grandparents’ farm and surrounding moorland, complete with neolithic hilltop settlement, where early experiences of foraging, bushcraft, and seasonal living sparked a lifelong fascination with the relationship between people and the land. This path was shaped by work in search and rescue, alongside formal studies in conservation and ecology. Today, Jay leads TrackCraft courses including expeditions to the Kalahari, working closely with Ju|’hoansi communities, and remains deeply committed to ensuring that the wisdom, skills, language and culture of these amazing people are valued and preserved. Jay also has previous operations experience with a registered UK charity.