Exploring Africa

Deborah’s maternal great-great grandparents, Hester & Heinrich Hablutzel. Heinrich, grandson of a Swiss doctor, started an Auctioneering business in Cape Town; it is still there today. His wife, Hester, was born in Cape Town and her cousin was J H Hofmeyr, a Rhodes Scholar and Prime Minister of South Africa prior to the Apartheid government.

Deborah Calmeyer’s great-aunt and paternal grandfather, Margaret and Colin Scheppening, who grew up on a farm in the Eastern Cape. Colin Scheppening becomes a lawyer. His wife Hestelle teaches English for 33 years. They live in Johannesburg.

Reg and Molly Calmeyer, Deborah Calmeyer’s grandparents, move from a farm in South Africa to a farm in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe (Glenara Estates, formerly owned by Harry Oppenheimer). The Calmeyers are on Glenara Estates for 48 years.

Deborah Calmeyer’s parents, Tish Keth and Geoff Calmeyer, eating out in Harare, Zimbabwe. A year later, in 1973, Deborah is born. She grows up on a dairy farm with a pet lioness called Carmel (which her father adopted as part of the family), labradors and horses.

Four generations of Calmeyer women, photographed in Johannesburg. From left to right: Deborah Calmeyer; Deborah’s maternal grandmother, Hestelle Scheppening; her great-grandmother, Mimi Hugo; her mother, Tish Keth; and Deborah’s sister, Terry Calmeyer.

The Calmeyers leave Zimbabwe due to mounting pressure under the Mugabe regime. The family’s prospects look better in South Africa.

Deborah Calmeyer’s husband, South African Robert Breen, trekking with mountain gorillas, in the DRC, formerly known as Zaire, on a year-long trip from Cairo to the Cape. In 1999, the couple move to New York, — with every vacation thereafter spent in the Africa they love.

Deborah Calmeyer sets up ROAR AFRICA with the intention of creating a company based around all the ideas, contacts and access she is already giving friends on trips they make to Africa. She starts to build up a permanent team of specialist guides and fixers on the ground.

In July 2016, the company celebrates a decade of success with a milestone ‘Downton Abbey’ party in South Africa — an example of the bespoke parties that ROAR AFRICA specializes in.