My name is Sicelo Cabangani Mbatha. My wilderness name is Black Lion. I am the black lion who helps people discover the wild animal within. I am the black lion who roars for peace and harmony on Great Mother Earth. I am the black lion, alive in the wilderness.

Wilderness guide Sicelo Mbatha shares the wisdom he has gained from a lifetime's intimate association with Africa's wildest nature. The story begins with a traumatic childhood experience that should have turned Sicelo against the surrounding wilderness. Instead, he was irresistibly drawn to it. As a volunteer at Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, close encounters with buffalo, lion, elephant and other animals taught him to see with his heart and set him on a lifelong journey of spiritual awakening.

Drawing from his Zulu culture and his own yearning to better understand humanity's relationship with itself and with nature, Sicelo has forged a new path, disrupting the conventional approach to nature with an immersive, respectful and transformative way of being in the wilderness. Both memoir and philosophical reflection, Black Lion – co-written with author and environmentalist Bridget Pitt – is a reminder of how much we need the wilderness for our emotional and spiritual survival.

'A remarkable story … poetic and beautifully written. It goes to the heart of the meaning of ecological literacy.' – DR IAN McCALLUM, SPECIALIST WILDERNESS GUIDE