Belinda Kruiper was born in Cape Town and spent most of her formative years in the Little Karoo town of Carnarvon. Her connection with the Kruiper family began in 1997 when she was employed as a receptionist at the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (formerly known as the Gemsbok Park). That developed into a lifelong love affair with the Bushmen people. 

She and Vetkat were brought together by the power of dream, and were married in 1999 in a Bushmen ceremony that was later legalized. Belinda’s deep passion is the Kalahari and her dream is to start a Kalahari venture that will restore dignity to the desert people and make their survival more possible. She strongly believes that it is through respect, love, understanding and the healing of the spirit – team imposed development – that the Kalahari will find its empowerment.

Belinda's poetry

AFRICAN CHILD

They can strip my soul bare
Look at me naked
Take a knife at what is flesh
Draw blood till I die
Amidst all I’ll hold pride
I’m an African Child

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Days ago I saw “it” coming
“It” being nothing but feeling
feeling from the gut
a woman in pain
I danced alone whilst he played the guitar
The old MARIMBA coming alive by far
She knows I know
Let your hand reign, dear God.

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I chose to be Bushman
Yet have not claimed the land
God sent me Klein Regopstaan
Yet he does not want the land
He fears no man
He fears no voice
He walks alone
The ever teasing one
We all love Vetkat
Longlife Together is one.

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Visitors to the farm
The last few days
Kalahari news travels
Faster than the shooting stars
Longlife’s friends
Popping in to see for themselves
Ou Regop’s son
At last At last empowerment.